Latest News from Nicos Vekiarides

Is OpenStack a New Door to Cloud Adoption?

Wed, 16 May 2012 06:30:00 EDT

All the buzz surrounding OpenStack over the past few months may beg the question of whether Openstack can repeat for Cloud what Linux has done for server operating systems over the past several years. With an enthusiastic following and a compelling, if not industry-leading set of functionality, the possibilities may be boundless. This week’s announcement of the HP Cloud public beta, an OpenStack-based cloud that includes compute, object storage and a content delivery network, provides even further momentum to this open source effort. With well-known vendors such as HP, Rackspace and hundreds of others backing them, we can expect OpenStack adoption to increase.

How Cloud Solves the IT Maintenance Dilemma – Part 1

Sun, 13 May 2012 22:00:05 EDT

It is striking how substantial the average IT maintenance budget is

Five Advantages of Virtual Storage Appliances (VSAs)

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 01:30:00 EDT

With hypervisors a ubiquitous component of nearly every IT deployment, virtual appliances present a compelling alternative to traditional physical appliances by offering a simpler and faster software deployment model. In recent years, many data storage vendors have jumped on the “virtual bandwagon,” offering virtual storage appliances, often referred to as VSAs, and bucking the trend of an industry largely dominated by traditional hardware boxes.

Using Multiple Clouds to Improve IT Resilience

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 06:00:00 EDT

A recent GigaOm article proclaimed “There’s no need to be a one-cloud company.” The article proceeded to highlight reasons why organizations ought to consider distributing their cloud-based applications and risk across multiple cloud providers. While such a tactic may seem unnecessary given the redundancy and SLAs that many cloud providers offer, historical events suggest there is indeed wisdom in relying on more than one cloud.

Further Signs that Cloud Storage is Moving to the Mainstream: Survey Results

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 04:30:00 EDT

It’s no secret that many organizations have begun to look at public and private clouds as alternatives to traditional IT infrastructure. In January 2012, Enterprise Strategy Group published their 2012 IT Spending Intentions Survey revealing that 28% of organizations surveyed were using cloud computing services as a way to control IT costs, up substantially from 13% in 2009.

What Cloud Storage Standards Could Mean For You

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 06:00:00 EDT

The notion of standardizing access to object-based cloud storage across vendors and cloud providers is not new but promises to have a positive impact on cloud storage users and overall adoption. In his recent article, A Call for More Cloud Storage Standards Support, Mike Vizard calls for IT organizations to help hasten vendors toward compliance with the CDMI standards currently in draft.

Measuring Cloud Storage Performance

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 06:45:00 EDT

There are many excellent reasons to use cloud storage, but fast and efficient transfer of large amounts of data isn’t usually listed as a benefit. That’s one of the reasons why people use cloud storage gateways: to speed up cloud storage access. Recently, I realized we’ve never published any details on the performance gains that one should expect when using the CloudArray storage gateway, so I decided to create a simple illustrative test. In this article, I describe the results and explain some cloud storage implementation details that contribute to performance differences. I came up with a quick test: copy one gigabyte of fully random data to the cloud, broken up into 32768 32k files. The questions are, how long would it take for a user to copy that much data to a CloudArray volume, and how soon before all of that data is safely stored in the cloud?

Has Cloud Put a Dent in the Data Storage Market?

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 08:00:00 EST

While many would say it’s not a matter of “if” but “when,” this week has sparked some storage industry experts to ponder whether the high-margin data storage market is beginning to feel the impact of cloud adoption. To elaborate, let me direct your attention to two of this week’s announcements. First, results from the IDC Worldwide Quarterly Disk Storage Systems Tracker for Q4 2011 indicate a slowdown in the growth of storage spending toward the end of last year. According to IDC, Q4 2011 saw a 3.5% increase in disk storage revenues as compared to Q4 2010. While this is far from a decline, it does represent a decrease in the 7.7% year-over-year growth seen for all of 2011.

Is BYOC the Next Cloud Initiative?

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 09:30:00 EST

While the notion of Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC) may seem a bit far-fetched, Shadow IT, where users essentially bring unauthorized cloud services into business environments, has become an increasing corporate concern as highlighted in a recent CFO.com article. The risk of Shadow IT is that it compromises IT’s ability to maintain a standardized infrastructure across employees and business units, opening the door to potential security and reliability issues. In spite of this, there is a benefit in analyzing Shadow IT to understand why users adopt non-standard processes and what benefits existing IT could not deliver. It often pays to examine how employees creatively accomplish their goals in constrained environments and figure out how to accommodate those employees in a supportable fashion. Shadow IT is not just limited to cloud. In a close parallel, many IT organizations that once outlawed all but one “approved” mobile device to access corporate accounts and email have loosened restrictions on accommodating multiple devices, moving closer to a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) model. While pundits argue BYOD might transform IT into the “Wild West,” many organizations are finding a middle ground that offers users a selection of approved mobile devices for corporate access. With a standard set of security and reliability policies, users and business units gain the flexibility to meet their needs and optimize costs without having to consider Shadow IT.

Measuring Cloud Storage Performance: Blocks vs. Files

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 10:00:00 EST

What are some good reasons to adopt cloud storage? Cost, durability and flexibility. So let me talk about performance, instead. As part of our daily testing, we do routine performance measurements across a broad swath of cloud storage providers. It gives us a check to ensure that the various CloudArray subsystems are performing as they should, and gives us the data to make optimization decisions. In this particular test, we measure transfer rates at various buffer sizes. We “fill the pipe” by queueing up multiple streams of data simultaneously, initiating one transfer as soon as the previous one finishes, so that latency doesn’t skew the data.

Has Cloud Finally "Crossed the Chasm" in IT?

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 06:15:00 EST

Every year, our friends at ESG post results of their annual Spending Intentions Survey, indicating where many businesses are likely to spend their IT dollars over the coming year. Recently Steve Duplessie posted an article on his blog entitled Cloud – The Cost Containment Strategy that concludes cloud has finally “crossed the chasm” in IT. According to preliminary data, cloud represents the largest % projected spending increase for 2012 IT initiatives– a very exciting turn. Truth is, cloud storage addresses long-standing IT priorities, with three of these priorities topping the list nearly every year.

Cloud Storage Gateway Market Starting to Catch Fire

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 04:30:00 EST

You may have seen Amazon’s announcement of the AWS Storage Gateway beta. Truth be told, the cloud storage gateway market is starting to catch fire. Amazon’s move validates the need for an iSCSI cloud storage gateway to easily deliver cloud storage into business environments and acknowledges that integration through APIs is not a process businesses will easily embrace. The deeper implication is that gateways facilitate the adoption of cloud storage as an alternative to on-premise or off-premise traditional storage, helping Amazon tap into a large multi-billion dollar data storage market. Does this mean more cloud providers may want to offer a gateway in the future? You bet.

User at 35,000 Feet Gives New Meaning to “Cloud Storage”

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 09:15:00 EST

This week, a CloudArray user sent us this email, and he gave me permission to share it. CloudArray has been installed in lots of countries, but I think this is the first airborne installation! We love getting product feedback (good and bad) to help us improve the CloudArray user experience. Thanks to Phil Flores and Magnus IT Solutions for sharing. Good morning Ann and Phil, How are you doing? I am groovy. I thought I would send over a couple of data points you can share with your team and/or prospective customers that might be useful. On Friday night, I boarded a 5 hour flight that had WiFi access on board. As you know, I have had absolutely no formal training or experience with TwinStrata or the CloudArray portal at all. However, I wanted to see if I could get your software up and running since I had plenty of time on my hands. From start to finish, and using your VM instance on my laptop, I had 400 GB provisioned in the Amazon S3 cloud (using the license information your team provided) within 35 minutes…and that was with no previous experience or knowledge about setting up your virtual appliance!

Five Cloudy Resolutions for Your Data Storage

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 07:30:00 EST

With 2012 already upon us, the time has come to make resolutions for the New Year. In the world of IT, this means resolving to abandon bad habits, unreliable processes and cumbersome tasks that often get in the way of business priorities. With the emergence of cloud storage as a viable means to address growing data storage needs, IT administrators can abandon storage headaches of years past in favor of better, faster and easier processes for managing data. Cloud storage, in combination with enterprise-class gateways like CloudArray, offers security, availability, and performance that rivals local storage with no fear of vendor lock-in. Moreover, it makes it possible to fulfill New Year’s IT resolutions that were once considered unattainable. With this in mind, here are 5 resolutions that you can live up to by augmenting existing storage infrastructure with the cloud.

Ten Hot Trends in Cloud Data for 2012

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 05:30:00 EST

It’s time to make a few predictions for 2012 in the cloud data space. 2011 was a year of adoption, during which many companies started to leverage the cloud, enjoying the economies of scale, security and ease in managing their growing data needs. Those successes promise even greater cloud adoption in 2012. With that in mind, here are 10 predictions for hot trends to watch for in the cloud data space. Hybrid data storage environments combining cloud storage with existing storage. For most companies, the notion of moving all of their data to the cloud is not fathomable. However, continuously expanding data storage needs are fueling a need for more capacity. What better way to address this need than with cloud storage? The benefits include access to a secure, limitless pool of storage capacity, no future need for upgrade or replacement and reduced capital expenses. Look for auto-tiering technologies to seamlessly combine hybrid cloud and on-premise environments in a way that operates with existing applications.

Is Cloud the Answer? The Remote Office Data Storage Quandary

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 04:30:00 EST

Maximizing performance and minimizing footprint are competing priorities and optimizing both can be a challenge. If you ask IT administrators about their goals for storage infrastructure at remote and/or branch office (ROBO) locations, you’ll likely hear that they want to improve application performance and, at the same time, minimize the footprint of remote office storage infrastructure. However, maximizing performance and minimizing footprint are competing priorities and optimizing both can be a challenge. Having a goal to remove or minimize remote office storage infrastructure makes a lot of sense. Given most remote locations no longer have dedicated IT staffing onsite, an increased and significant burden can be avoided for the administrators working at main locations.

HP Partner, TwinStrata, Offers Their View on HP Cloud Services

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 09:30:00 EST

Through TwinStrata’s CloudArray appliance, enterprise customers will soon have access to a business grade cloud provided by HP for their storage needs. TwinStrata’s CloudArray 3.0 appliance provides access to cloud storage so that it performs seamlessly with customers’ existing IT infrastructure. The appliance makes cloud storage an attractive option for those enterprise customers, who lack the time to use online storage on their own through APIs. Customers use CloudArray for backup and archiving, offsite storage capacity, and disaster recovery.

Is It Time to Look Beyond the Cloud?

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 09:00:00 EST

For many businesses that haven’t yet formulated their cloud adoption plans, the notion of looking beyond the cloud may sound a bit peculiar. After all, isn’t cloud the final frontier that promises to transform traditional IT infrastructure into a control panel offering limitless resources on-demand? That is certainly the outcome that many businesses aspire to. The truth is, regardless of the outcome, much can be gleaned from examining how cloud infrastructure influences business IT efficiencies. Let’s take a look at public cloud storage and how it has inspired new ways of thinking when it comes to storage infrastructure management. For some, it may be difficult to look beyond the logistics of public cloud storage which often dictate moving data into a distant data center and relinquishing a certain amount of control. However, the benefits of adopting the cloud bring IT efficiencies that could not be otherwise realized, eliminating one of the more burdensome aspects of data storage management.

Will 2012 Be the Year of the Private Cloud?

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 05:00:00 EST

As business adoption of cloud computing and cloud storage takes hold, new benefits of cloud IT versus traditional IT continue to emerge on a regular basis. One recent example is the Carbon Disclosure Project Study 2011: Cloud Computing – The IT Solution for the 21st Century produced by analyst firm Verdantix. In the report, not only are the cost advantages of cloud computing discussed but also the resulting reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Specifically, the study looks at a food and beverage company that is moving an HR application from local IT to the cloud. The model predicts a savings of $12 million over a 5 year period and a reduction of 30,000 tons in CO2 emissions, simply by moving to the public cloud.

Cloud SANs: What the Data Storage Vendors Forgot

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 10:00:00 EST

Storage area networks (SANs) have become the ubiquitous deployment model for block data storage systems, interconnecting formerly siloed storage arrays with a common high-speed network running standardized protocols such as Fibre Channel or iSCSI. It was over a decade ago that the ability to connect multi-vendor storage arrays into a common network proved revolutionary and [...]

Thailand Hard Drive Shortage: Can Cloud Storage Help?

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 10:00:00 EDT

You may have read that Thailand recently experienced its worst flooding on record and, as the producer for about 70% of global demand for hard disk drives (HDDs), there is now a severe shortage of disk drives for data storage and server-related products. With analysts predicting a halt in Thailand’s disk drive production over the next 50+ days, the expected impact to the supply of IT infrastructure products with a dependency on HDDs will surely be significant. Translation? IT administrators can expect a substantial increase in lead times for new data storage and server equipment. While cloud storage does not solve the supply shortage of HDDs, it can help IT administrators better cope with the impact. By leveraging excess storage capacity already owned and deployed by cloud providers, it is very simple for organizations to address gaps in demand for storage capacity, without purchasing new storage hardware. Enterprise cloud storage gateways, such as CloudArray, provide access to Terabytes or Petabytes of storage in minutes and can help with both short term capacity demand and longer term peaks and valleys in demand. Those who have not yet adopted enterprise cloud storage shouldn’t lament that they are too late to the party, as software solutions such as CloudArray can be downloaded and deployed immediately, with no need for additional hardware infrastructure.

Public Cloud, Private Cloud, Hybrid Cloud or Community Cloud

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 09:00:00 EDT

Perhaps planning a cloud strategy has led you to consider public clouds, private clouds, hybrid clouds and/or community clouds – not to mention a few “cloud-washed” derivatives that suspiciously resemble traditional IT. With so many varieties of cloud deployments to choose from, you may be a bit confused about which is right for you. A recent article in Technology Review, Cloud Computing Defined by Simson L. Garfinkel may help shed some light on the topic. Offering a clear definition of each type of cloud deployment, this article sorts through some of the confusion. As a starting point, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) defines Cloud Computing as “a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.”

Dispelling Five Myths About Cloud Storage

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 11:15:00 EDT

If you are considering cloud storage for storing business data, you may have questions regarding control and security. The truth is that not all cloud storage solutions are created equal, but when you choose an enterprise-class gateway solution to enable on-premise access to cloud storage, you not only stay in control of your data — you benefit from a level of security that rivals local storage. With today’s cloud storage solutions ranging from consumer-grade to enterprise-class, offering huge variations in security, availability and performance, it’s really no wonder why confusion persists. In the interest of clearing the confusion, I think it’s time to debunk a number of common myths and misconceptions about cloud storage deployments for businesses. To do that, I’ve listed five familiar objections and myths about cloud storage that are addressed by enterprise-class cloud storage gateways.

Combining Storage Virtualization with Unprecedented Cloud Storage Flexibility

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 06:00:00 EDT

The business case for storage virtualization software isn’t new. System administrators have always sought best of breed data storage from a choice of storage vendors and a centralized management framework. With a variety of data storage devices available today, ranging from high-performance SSD and Flash cards to low-cost SATA arrays, a seamless way to automatically tier data across the diversity of storage devices and purpose-built arrays can maximize utilization and cost-efficiency. Hardware interchangeability and auto-tiering empower consumers with greater cost controls and buying power. In addition, there are numerous benefits to an enterprise-class software stack that includes data replication and disaster recovery in a footprint that persists across storage system upgrades, with no need to ever change data management interfaces and policies. DataCore SANsymphony-V is offered by the pioneer and established leader in the storage virtualization segment and is the industry’s first storage hypervisor that provides all of the above benefits and much more. This week, DataCore’s storage virtualization software added the flexibility of Cloud Storage to its list of features with the announcement that every copy of SANsymphony-V now bundles a TwinStrata Cloudarray virtual appliance. The combination enables companies to achieve true ‘open market’ buying power across their portfolio of storage investments; TwinStrata extends the cost-saving value propostion to a broad and impressive selection of public and private cloud storage providers.

Breaking the Storage Array Lifecycle

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 11:45:00 EDT

Anyone who purchases storage arrays is familiar with the many advantages of modular storage systems and storage area networks. However, they may also be familiar with one of the less desirable attributes of storage arrays: the typical three- to five-year lifecycle that forces decommissions and mandates upgrades on a regular basis. With many organizations expanding their need for storage by 20-60% on an annual basis [1], outgrowing capacity of existing storage arrays is a regular occurrence, effectively rendering upgrade cycles to be a fact of life. Although decommissioning and upgrading a storage array may not appear all that daunting, the process includes a number of cumbersome aspects.

Cloud Storage SLAs versus Architectural Visibility

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 06:30:00 EDT

If you are using or thinking about using cloud storage, you are likely familiar with service level agreements (SLAs) from cloud providers that offer guarantees around the availability of your data and sometimes the durability of your data. The numbers associated with the guarantees are often expressed in 9’s. The table below illustrates how these availability numbers translate into expected yearly downtime. Note the considerable difference in downtime between 2, 3 and 4 9’s. Beyond just the numbers, an important aspect of the cloud SLA is understanding how your business is compensated if the terms are not met. Typically, a provider who does not meet the SLA will reimburse a user for the unplanned downtime. This is often in the form of a refund of the service fee for the period of the outage. Some providers may offer to reimburse a multiple of that service fee (i.e. 2X, 3X, etc). That may appear confidence-inspiring, but how does it all add up for your business?

Cloud Storage: Where’s the ROI?

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 09:30:00 EDT

Return on investment (ROI) of using the cloud has recently become a popular topic of discussion, though not in a way you might expect. An interesting article by JP Morgenthal entitled There is no ROI in cloud computing presents the opinion that cloud services simply have no ROI. A second article by Joe Onisick entitled Private Cloud: It’s Not About ROI effectively repeats a similar message in the context of private clouds. While both pieces appear controversial on the surface, they accurately portray that cloud infrastructure is not an investment – rather, cloud offers a way to displace or mitigate traditional large investments in favor of smaller recurring expenses over time. As JP Morgenthal suggests, calculating ROI in the cloud is similar to calculating ROI on a decision to eat out. Since eating out is an alternative to investing in a refrigerator full of food, you are averting an investment rather than making one.

How to Simplify Off-Site Backup for Virtual Environments

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 08:45:00 EDT

If you happen to be managing a virtual server environment, such as VMware or Hyper-V, you are probably aware of the importance of backup software to protect your valuable applications and data in case of disaster. You may also be keenly conscious of the unique needs that virtual server environments pose, such as virtual machine [...]

Is There a Need for a Cloud Storage Broker?

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 08:45:00 EDT

A recent topic of discussion in cloud computing has been the notion of the cloud broker as an emerging business in the evolving cloud ecosystem, a “middleman” of sorts in the same sense as a real estate broker or a mortgage broker. A Gigaom article by Stacey Higginbotham entitled “Future of cloud computing … more clouds. Seriously” cites a Forrester report on the topic and delves into what such such a service might look like. The article suggests capabilities that include Cloudbursting, or instantly moving applications and data from one cloud to another, and in an interesting twist, it even suggests brokering human IT resources on a seasonal basis.

Breaking the Storage Array Life Cycle with Cloud Storage: Part III

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 09:30:00 EDT

With hundreds of thousands of Petabytes to store in the next few years, the benefits of offloading archives or even seldom accessed data from traditional storage are numerous and may even allow companies to extend the life of their existing data storage. While Part I and Part II of this series spelled out some of the economic benefits and deployment models of cloud storage, today’s installment will take a more pragmatic look at how to deploy cloud storage in environments that already have traditional storage infrastructure. While replacing traditional storage with cloud storage will break the traditional storage array life cycle, a complete “forklift” replacement may seem a bit of a stretch. A more conservative approach might be to identify data suitable for cloud storage such as secondary copies, backups, off-site data and/or archives. Interestingly, archives are often stored on traditional onsite storage to make them easily accessible to meet compliance requirements. However, looking at the chart below, you can see that ESG’s research estimates a very rapid growth rate for archive data, approximately 56% per year.

Breaking the Storage Array Life Cycle with Cloud Storage: Part II

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 09:30:00 EDT

This second installment elaborates on how cloud storage can break the storage array life cycle from an economic and deployment perspective, freeing organizations from the cumbersome administration and high costs of traditional storage.

Breaking the Storage Array Life Cycle with Cloud Storage: Part I

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 11:29:00 EDT

Anyone who purchases storage arrays is familiar with the many advantages modular storage systems and storage area networks offer. However, they may also be familiar with one of the less desirable attributes of storage arrays: the typical 3-yr to 5-yr life cycle that forces decommissions and mandates upgrades on a regular basis. With many organizations expanding their need for storage by 20-60% on an annual basis, outgrowing capacity of existing storage arrays is a regular occurrence, effectively rendering upgrade cycles to be a fact of life. Although decommissioning and upgrading a storage array may not appear all that daunting, the process includes a number of cumbersome aspects.

Download a Free Copy of the Info-Tech Cloud Backup Vendor Landscape Report

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 11:30:21 EDT

Info-Tech Research Group recently published a very thorough 30+ page cloud storage vendor landscape report, the first of its kind that compares cloud storage gateways and appliances head-to-head. The report compares product offerings from a number of vendors including CoreVault, CTERA, Nasuni, Panzura, Storsimple, TwinStrata and Zmanda, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of each respective [...]

TwinStrata Talks to SYS-CON.TV at Cloud Expo New York

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 09:00:00 EDT

Cloud Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan recently interviewed our CEO, Nicos Vekiarides, at CloudExpo to discuss TwinStrata cloud storage solutions and the company’s progress since last year’s Cloud Expo show, where TwinStrata first launched in 2010. Watch the entire interview below.

TwinStrata Releases CloudArray 2.6 with Nirvanix Cloud Storage Support

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 12:00:04 EDT

We are pleased to announce the release of CloudArray 2.6, featuring internal improvements and new cloud provider support for the Nirvanix Cloud Storage Network™. Nirvanix offers cloud storage solutions designed specifically for customers with expectations of extreme security, reliability and redundancy levels. In combination with CloudArray, Nirvanix users can now enjoy Zero Friction [...]

Cloud Storage for Multi-Site Consolidation, Part III

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 11:40:00 EDT

Part I of this series covered the benefits of Multi-site Storage Consolidation using the cloud, while Part II focused specifically on disaster recovery benefits. This installment explores the ability to access your data virtually anywhere, one of the unique benefits enabled by cloud storage. Let’s say you run a database on server and storage hardware at your main datacenter and you want to run analytics on that data to better understand your business trends. Let’s also say the results of those analytics were only needed once or twice a month and you felt purchasing additional dedicated hardware was a bit wasteful. How would you proceed with the deployment?

Cloud Storage for Multi-Site Consolidation, Part II

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 09:00:00 EDT

Part I of this series examined how multi-site consolidation of data storage using the cloud can benefit your business, emphasizing consolidated disaster recovery (DR) as one of the key benefits. In this installment, we dig a bit deeper into the benefits of DR with cloud storage. If your business already spans multiple sites, you may think about using one of your existing sites for DR. However, you may want to think again if you have to double your fixed storage capacity. Enter cloud storage and instead your secondary data copies can reside in the cloud on a pay-as-you-go basis. Using a cloud storage hybrid appliance, like CloudArray, you can instantly access data from any site if a primary site experiences a disaster. With Cloudarray’s automatic and secure configuration backup, a quick download is all it takes to restore access to data from any site — and you are up and running in minutes.

Cloud Storage for Multi-Site Consolidation – Part I

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 10:00:00 EDT

Imagine running a business where data storage is distributed across 20 geographically separated sites. How do you efficiently manage those sites? What happens when one site runs out of storage capacity? What if one site were hit with a disaster or flood? Surely there ought to be a centralized disaster site to protect against site outage or data loss, right? And who manages each site? Would there be an administrator at each site or traveling from site to site? If these questions give you the impression that multi-site storage management across sites can be a headache, you are right. What can you do to ease this management burden? For starters, you can use cloud storage in place of a traditional siloed storage infrastructure. Here are some of the key benefits cloud storage can deliver to simplify your multi-site infrastructure.

TMCnet Interview with TwinStrata CEO at Cloud Expo

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 09:00:00 EDT

Rich Tehrani from TMCnet recently interviewed our CEO, Nicos Vekiarides, at Cloud Expo to discuss TwinStrata solutions and industry trends in cloud storage. Watch the entire interview.