Evaluate

Evaluate

Weigh the pros and cons of technologies, products and projects you are considering.

• Stratoscale Symphony hyper-converged software offers cloud build

  Symphony has a hypervisor-agnostic build and navigable nature that makes it a good match for any large company in search of hyper-converged software. Continue Reading

• Software-defined technology sizzles; where's the beef?

  Hyper-converged and software-defined storage are alternatives to traditional array-based storage systems. Before you junk your legacy systems, learn how these new systems are different from each other and from the storage you've grown accustomed to ... Continue Reading

• How to use hyper-converged products in an enterprise environment

  In a hyper-converged system, you get everything a vendor thinks you need in a single connected system package. But what if your enterprise doesn't need all those component parts? Continue Reading

• How to find the right HCI appliance

  Choosing a hyper-converged appliance can be a difficult road to travel. Expert Ed Tittel provides the road map for selecting the right hyper-converged tool for your business. Continue Reading

• Software-defined architecture gets complex in a hyper-converged world

  Although vendors often invoke software-defined technology in their marketing lingo, enterprises often have a steep learning curve during practical implementation. Continue Reading

• Hyper-converged storage vendors offer backup software replacement tools

  If you're going to rely on a hyper-converged infrastructure for your traditional backup needs, there are three vital capabilities you must consider first.Continue Reading

• How hyper-converged software provides DRaaS

  When a hyper-converged platform is packaged on an appliance, disaster recovery can be difficult. However, hyper-converged users still have several options for DRaaS-like features.Continue Reading

• Use a software-defined storage vendor to avoid lock-in

  Vendor lock-in is one downside to buying a prepackaged hyper-converged infrastructure product. But selecting a software option could avoid the problem.Continue Reading

• How will the hyper-converged data center affect storage admin roles?

  Despite easier provisioning and policy-based management, the unique knowledge held by storage administrators remains essential in the age of hyper-convergence.Continue Reading

• Assess hyper-converged infrastructures based on feature capabilities

  Hyper-converged systems offer a wide array of configurations, features and compatibility. Evaluate these technology areas to help narrow your product options.Continue Reading

• Buyer's checklist to the hyper-converged market

  As the hype around the hyper-converged market persists, more storage administrators are evaluating the systems to determine whether they truly provide cost savings, simplified management and easy scalability. But to make that determination, there's ...Continue Reading

• Hyper-converged architectures receive value from deduplication process

  As capacity becomes cheaper, some storage administrators might assume deduplication is less relevant. But in hyper-converged data centers, the technology is as important as ever.Continue Reading

• How to choose hyper-converged storage vendors: Eight questions to ask

  Buying into hyper-converged technology? Storage expert Ed Tittel delves into the important questions to consider so you can make the best selection for your environment.Continue Reading

• How hyper-converged storage vendors tackle larger workloads

  Organizations need to approach hyper-converged storage options with performance requirements and workload sizes in mind. Otherwise they could end up facing latency and bottlenecks.Continue Reading

• Common hyper-converged network concerns and how to solve them

  Hyper-convergence combines compute, storage and networking into one bundle, but the heavy I/O demands involved can cause network latency in organizations.Continue Reading

• Hyper-converged platforms: Making the business case

  Learn the benefits of hyper-converged technology, including scalability, ease of management and cost savings that can be greater than those from cloud deployments.Continue Reading

• Defining the hyper-converged infrastructure appliance

  Expert contributor Ed Tittel explores hyper-converged appliances and explains why they're being adopted so enthusiastically in businesses of all sizes.Continue Reading

• Are you ready for a hyper-converged data center?

  The promise of self-contained compute systems from one vendor may seem to be the answer to tight budgets, but problems still exist with hyper-convergence in the data center.Continue Reading

• Going all in with a fully hyper-converged data center

  More organizations are incorporating hyper-convergence into their data center, but is 100% hyper-convergence realistic? George Crump explains where it might work.Continue Reading

• Hyper-converged data center changes infrastructure upgrades

  Hyper-converged platforms allow customers to purchase more resources as their environments grow, eliminating the costly hardware refreshes of traditional environments.Continue Reading

• Hyper-converged software requires special attention

  Software-only, hyper-convergence models provide more flexibility than an appliance approach -- but they also require more testing and validation on the part of the user.Continue Reading

• Converged vs. hyper-converged options: Starting the search

  Analyst George Crump outlines the benefits and drawbacks of converged and hyper-converged architectures to help first-time buyers select the most effective system.Continue Reading

• Master the hyper-converged market

  It wasn't that long ago when the hyper-converged market was dominated by a small number of startups and, when it came to options, IT pros didn't have a lot to choose from. The hyper-converged market featured mostly single nodes which included ...Continue Reading

• Virtualization requirements met by hyper-convergence

  Changing virtualization needs make data center upgrades a necessity. Discover how hyper-convergence can help to solve storage needs in virtual environments.Continue Reading

• Network infrastructure components critical to hyper-convergence

  Proper attention to networking components associated with hyper-converged architectures can not only ease deployment, but improve performance and flexibility.Continue Reading

• Is customizing a hyper-converged platform a good idea?

  How much flexibility do you have with hyper-converged systems when it comes to data storage? Discover how to deal with changing hyper-converged resource requirements.Continue Reading

• Do hyper-converged platforms have scalability limitations?

  Hyper-converged architectures let users scale easily by adding nodes as needed, but it's important to be aware of vendor- and hypervisor-specific limitations.Continue Reading

• Can a VDI strategy be streamlined with hyper-convergence?

  Virtual desktop infrastructure environments are complex and have to work with many variables. A hyper-converged infrastructure can reduce costs and complexity in a VDI project.Continue Reading

• Can a hyper-converged appliance be multi-hypervisor?

  It's possible to design hyper-converged hardware to run several hypervisors at the same time, but various factors make this a scenario we're unlikely to see for some time.Continue Reading

• Hyper-converged architecture use cases expanding

  Hyper-converged infrastructure is living up to its potential as organizations of varying sizes realize new ways the technology can be used to increase efficiency.Continue Reading

• Reasons to hyper-converge your architecture

  If you plan to kick off 2016 by hyper-converging your infrastructure, storage expert George Crump outlines the benefits of such a project, as well as some areas of concern.Continue Reading

• Evaluate hyper-converged platform flash storage in four steps

  Many hyper-converged platforms today include a mix of flash and HDD, and flash might be a more cost-effective way to add performance to your environment than you think.Continue Reading

• Hyper-converged software benefits include cost, flexibility

  Software-only hyper-converged architectures are popular for organizations looking to save money, but an adequate IT staff is necessary for installation and troubleshooting.Continue Reading

• Hyper-converged architecture: Aggregation vs. replication

  Learn the benefits of aggregation in a hyper-converged environment, how to choose between aggregation and replication, and the compromise to each approach.Continue Reading

• Disaster recovery policies for hyper-converged infrastructures

  Disaster recovery plans for hyper-converged infrastructures have very different considerations than the approaches used in traditional environments. Discover areas to examine.Continue Reading

• Hyper-converged platform integration challenges

  Integrating a hyper-converged platform into your computing environment is an issue for many data centers. Explore possible roadblocks and tools to aid the process.Continue Reading

• Converged vs. hyper-converged storage: Which method is best?

  Ease of management, scalability and cost are all factors when an organization has to decide on converged vs. hyper-converged storage. We list the benefits for each approach.Continue Reading

• Hyper-converged market grows, but is still young

  As vendors address perceived hyper-convergence market flaws such as capacity, performance and vendor lock-in, enterprise users have more choices than ever.Continue Reading

• Hyper-converged architecture replication impacts performance

  Replication in a hyper-converged architecture allows for more flexible data mobility, but the technology can take a toll on performance and available capacity.Continue Reading

• Hyper-converged market offers all-in-one infrastructure

  Hyper-converged storage systems have made their mark as a cost-effective, simple-to-deploy storage option for use cases such as virtual desktop infrastructure and remote offices. However, hyper-convergence hasn't yet taken larger enterprises by ...Continue Reading

• Navigate today's hyper-converged market

  The hyper-converged market is rife with products from competing vendors, making choosing a hyper-converged system a difficult proposition.Continue Reading

• Increase storage capacity in hyper-converged systems

  Hyper-converged systems make it easy to increase storage capacity, but that also means you could be paying for unneeded compute resources.Continue Reading

• Hyper-converged architecture configuration issues

  No hyper-converged architecture setup is alike, but there are some universal steps that can be followed with most vendor products. Brien Posey explains in this tip.Continue Reading

• Hyper-converged architecture deployment: Areas of concern

  A hyper-converged architecture is meant to be simple to install, but a smooth deployment depends on proper planning.Continue Reading

• What hyper-converged architecture features are most important?

  When evaluating your options for a hyper-converged architecture, simplicity, resilience and scalability are some factors that should top your shopping list.Continue Reading

• Why should I choose a converged vs. hyper-converged system?

  Converged and hyper-converged systems both include storage, networking and compute in one package, but converged systems can offer users some additional advantages.Continue Reading

• The rise of hyper-converged architecture for storage

  Can hyper-converged storage deliver on its promise? With this guide, gain a better understanding of hyper-converged architecture and what it means for storage.Continue Reading

• What are the benefits of hyper-converged cloud storage integration?

  Hyper-converged products are increasingly adding support for public cloud access – a move that can make it easier to use the cloud as a storage tier.Continue Reading

• How does the cost of a hyper-converged system compare to SAN or NAS?

  When evaluating the cost of a hyper-converged storage system, it's important to keep the functionality of the system in mind in addition to cost per gigabyte.Continue Reading

• Hyper-converged system checklist evaluates required features

  With multiple hyper-converged systems to choose from, this checklist can help you determine which system is right for you.Continue Reading

• Converged, hyper-converged storage and the cloud aid VM storage deployment

  When virtual servers became popular, they also introduced a number of storage configuration problems. In many cases, virtualization required that servers for specific applications needed dedicated storage systems with different performance ...Continue Reading

• Debating the distributed vs. centralized storage system

  Hyper-converged and software-defined storage are great technologies, but they must embrace centralized and distributed ops in a single environment.Continue Reading

• Seven criteria for hyper-converged system selection

  Expert Jon Toigo outlines seven factors to consider when evaluating a hyper-converged storage system.Continue Reading

• Are vSphere Virtual Volumes necessary with an EVO:RAIL appliance?

  Taneja Group's Tom Fenton explains how VVOLs work, and the storage differences between VVOLs and VSAN.Continue Reading

• Hyper-converged infrastructure systems deliver storage in a bundle

  A hyper-converged infrastructure product includes storage, servers and networking all in neat little nodes -- but some assembly may be required.Continue Reading

• The hyper-converged infrastructure bandwagon picks up speed

  Hyper-converged systems are quickly gaining attention -- and sales -- because they offer many advantages over traditional storage products.Continue Reading

• Gridstore Inc. HyperConverged Appliance

  Gridstore HyperConverged Appliance evolved from a Windows-only storage system to a hyper-converged box with servers included.Continue Reading

• Scale Computing Inc. HC4000

  Scale Computing's hyper-converged storage is built on the KVM hypervisor; new features include non-disruptive upgrades and thin cloning of VMs.Continue Reading

• VMware Virtual SAN 5.5

  VMware's Virtual SAN shares the bronze medal with Scality's Ring 5.0 in the 2014 Products of the Year storage system software category.Continue Reading

• Is hyper-converged storage for VDI a good option?

  Hyper-converged storage can be a great fit for VDI because it eliminates complicated configuration that comes with virtualizing desktops.Continue Reading

• How do HP's EVO: RAIL and StoreVirtual appliances compare?

  HP signed on as a VMware EVO: RAIL partner even with its similar StoreVirtual product. What's the difference between the two HP offerings?Continue Reading

• Can I use NAS storage with my hyper-converged infrastructure?

  Hyper-converged options aren't always compatible with shared storage, but some products have added capabilities to better leverage existing architecture.Continue Reading

• VMware VSAN features and realities

  This essential guide delves into VMware virtual SAN features and issues, and what users are saying about the product.Continue Reading

• Comparing VMware Virtual SAN with Microsoft Clustered Storage Spaces

  VMware and Microsoft have owned the software-defined storage market, with very different methods. Jon Toigo compares the two in this tip.Continue Reading

• Hyper-converged infrastructure options, vendors and installation tips

  Thanks to an ever-changing market, companies interested in replacing old hardware with something next-gen have many hyper-converged storage infrastructure options to choose from.Continue Reading

• FlexPod vs. Vblock: How the integrated IT stacks stack up

  EMC and NetApp partner with Cisco and VMware for their integrated storage stacks, but the management, support and sales strategies are different.Continue Reading