As convergence and SDE (software-defined-everything) make their way into the mainstream and add real value, organizations both large and small battle with the question of, “What should we do about our storage networks?” Stick with Fibre-Channel based approach or, as depreciation cycles end and/or new data-center locations come online, refresh to an Ethernet only solution?
In May 2010 DCIG released its first-ever Midrange Array Buyer’s Guide in which we covered 70+ models from over 20 vendors. Fast forward just three (3) short years later and DCIG is on track to release not one, not two, not three no, not even four Buyer’s Guides on enterprise midrange arrays but five distinct Buyer’s Guides on this topic! So what has changed in just three (3) short years that DCIG feels the need to produce so many? To understand this requires a closer look at the forces that are driving the evolution and revolution in enterprise midrange arrays.
DCIG is pleased to announce the availability of its inaugural DCIG 2013 Midrange Unified Storage Array Buyer’s Guide that weights, scores and ranks over 100 features on 30 different storage arrays from eight (8) different storage providers. This Buyer’s Guide provides the critical information that small and midsize enterprises particularly need in regards to storage arrays that will need to serve a variety of purposes within their organization. These purposes may include storing large amounts of unstructured data such as files and emails, hosting virtualized and high performance applications and even serving as a target for archival and backup data stores.
As DCIG makes its final preparations for the release of its inaugural Purpose-Built Flash Memory Appliance Buyer’s Guide, we have had a number of conversations internally about what the criteria for product inclusion and exclusion in this Buyer’s Guide will be. As we do so, our conversation almost always turns to ways in which these purpose-built flash memory appliances will impact organizations and their decision making and buying habits.
Today is part 2 of an interview I recently did with WhipTail Technologies Chief Technology Officer, James Candelaria, an emerging provider of SSD storage solutions. In my last entry, he and I discussed one major roadblock to widespread enterprise SSD adoption: the performance penalty incurred by garbage collection. This time, we’ll look at how WhipTail optimizes SSD performance while minimizing the deficiencies of MLC flash.
Today DCIG is very excited to announce the availability of its updated DCIG 2012 Midrange Array Buyer’s Guide that weights, scores and ranks over 90 features on more than 50 midrange arrays from 18 different storage providers. However the reason that DCIG believes users will find this guide even more helpful and insightful than the prior DCIG 2010 Midrange Array Buyer’s Guide is that it takes an in-depth look into how well each midrange array integrates with VMware and supports its vStorage APIs.
If you are a regular follower of the DCIG blog site you may have noticed that there has been a noticeable lack of blogging activity on DCIG’s site this week. Unfortunately it is not because I have been taking a vacation, fishing or merely lounging by the lake. Rather I have been locked away in my office completing the background research associated with the upcoming release of the DCIG 2012 Midrange Array Buyer’s Guide due out in the 4th quarter of 2011. Out of that some interesting early observations have emerged.
Today DCIG, LLC, and Foskett Services, LLC, are pleased to jointly announce the availability of an Expanded Edition of the DCIG 2011 Small Enterprise Storage Array Buyer’s Guide that weights, scores and ranks over 35 small enterprise storage array models priced from $5,000 – 30,000 from 19 different vendors.
About a year ago DCIG decided to do something completely different in the analyst space: a side-by-side independent comparison of products in a particular market segment in the form of a Buyer’s Guide. The end result of that was the DCIG 2010 Midrange Array Buyer’s Guide. But believe it or not, a year has already passed since that was produced and it is now time to update and refresh that Buyer’s Guide for a number of reasons.
The overwhelming success of the 2010 Midrange Array Buyer’s Guide that DCIG released in May 2010 did not come without some caveats. One of the specific areas in the Buyer’s Guide that merited closer attention was in the area of replication software. It is not that midrange array replication software was ignored in the Buyer’s Guide. But it quickly became evident that in order to do this topic justice replication software required its own dedicated Buyer’s Guide which is what DCIG will be releasing in the first half of 2011.
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