Chuck's Blog

KMIP -- An Important Standard

Sorry to be late on this post, but I thought it worth some commentary as to why this particular standard should be tracked by IT infrastructure professionals everywhere.

Now, I always tell people to put aside their "standard skepticism" when discussing industry standards, and I always have to make a case as to why the topic of discussion isn't JAS -- Just Another Standard.

Video -- Private Clouds

I was caught on camera last week, giving a short explanation of "private clouds" -- in under 10 minutes.

Hope you enjoy it!

The History Of The Storage Flashdance

No other single storage technology has been subject to more misunderstanding -- or more intentional FUD -- than EFDs (enterprise flash drives).

If you're interested in the authoritative recounting of how the storage industry generally got caught flat-footed on this important advance, I'd encourage you to go read Barry (aka The Storage Anarchist) on the topic.

It's a must-read for any storage industry insider.

My Funny Valentines

For those of us in the United States, Valentine's Day (Feb 14th) is one of those holidays that you ignore at your own peril, especially if you're in some sort of committed relationship.

It's funny -- the storage blogosphere has grown into a sort of strange committed relationshp. 

We all read each other, we all know where everyone is coming from, and we can predict pretty much how each of us will react to different circumstances.

So, without further delay, allow me to offer my best Valentine's Day Wishes to the following storage bloggers!

Planning For (Infrastructure) Change

Another day, another great customer conversation.

This one was interesting, simply because it wasn't all about products and technology, it was more about people and process.

I found it an interesting exercise in IT organizational evolution -- see if this all sounds familiar to you?

Storage In The Private Cloud

By now, more than a few people have been exposed to -- or commented -- on the growing discussion around private clouds in large enterprises.

I can't claim there's widespread agreement -- yet -- but I see people starting to orbit the core ideas in a very celestial manner.

With a private cloud as a reference model, now can have an extended discussion around what might need to change to support this evolving model: servers, networks, virtualization, management, security, etc.

But this time, I'd like to share some thoughts about storage in this new world.

Storage Architecture At Enterprise Scale

Another day, another great customer conversation.

This week's extremely cool meeting was all about sketching out a storage architecture at considerable enterprise scale. 

And we came up with a simple way of thinking about the problem that turned out to be very useful.

Whither Frankenstorage?

Mary Shelly's classic gothic horror novel was about a monster, assembled from human parts, brought to life by the magic of a lighting bolt.

 Frankenstorage appears to be a new twist on this idea -- storage arrays, assembled from various parts from multiple vendors, brought to life by the magic of powerpoints and press releases.

We've seen a fair amount of frankenstorage in the market already, but will we see more? 

And, more importantly, how does it stack up to more - ummm -- traditional approaches?