More Networked Storage In Depth

Best NAS boxes for less than $1,000

Buffalo shattered the $1,000 barrier for a terabyte of shared storage back in 2005. With storage prices continuing to drop, that same $1,000 today can buy a four or even five terabyte network attached storage (NAS) device with RAID 5 disk redundancy, plus additional features, like backup storage licenses and indexing capabilities.

EMC to buy Isilon for $2.25B

EMC said it is buying network-attached storage vendor Isilon Systems for roughly $2.25 billion. Both companies' boards have approved the deal, which is expected to be finalized later this year.

Western Digital My Book Live

Western Digital's My Book series of consumer network-attached storage boxes has a new variant, the My Book Live. With new sharing features--including a file-sharing portal--and great performance, it brings the My Book line up-to-date. Offering 2TB of storage, the My Book Live costs $229 (as of October 28, 2010), about half what you'd pay for similarly performing NAS competitors. (A 1TB version sells for just $169, also a deal.)

Stars, e-books, and a mighty fine NAS

Gibbs gets all environmental, continues e-bookishly, and concludes with a great NAS

InfoWorld review: Dell iSCSI SAN sizzles with SSD, dynamic storage tiering

The Dell EqualLogic PS6010XVS with automated storage tiering leverages fast SAS or faster SSD storage depending on workload

Cutting Your Storage Footprint

Storage may be cheap, but managing it isn't. Here's a closer look at five techniques that companies are using to reduce the volume of their stored data.

NASs for the masses

Either because server disks are full or because virtualization is a natural growth path, organizations large and small are moving toward shared storage. For large enterprises, high-capacity storage-area networks make sense, but what about small or mid-sized enterprises new to shared storage?

How we tested Netgear's ReadyNAS

We assessed the Netgear ReadyNAS 3100 RNRP4420 in terms of usability, features, and NFS and iSCSI I/O performance.

InfoWorld review: Data deduplication appliances

Data deduplication appliances from FalconStor, NetApp, and Spectra Logic provide excellent data reduction for production storage, disk-based backups, and virtual tape

The InfoWorld SAN and NAS virtualization primer

How storage virtualization technologies allow you to keep pace with ever-increasing storage requirements while maintaining high availability and service levels

Exchange 2010 and the end of third-party archiving

With the push for larger mailbox sizes by users and increasing compliance requirements by legal departments, e-mail archiving is no longer optional for most organizations. But thanks to new technologies available in Exchange 2010 and Exchange 2010 SP1, including a bottomless mailbox capability and support for low-cost storage options, the need to deploy third-party archiving solutions is fading fast.

InfoWorld review: QNAP Turbo NAS serves storage with the works

With a multitude of software options and strong support for VMware and Hyper-V, the QNAP NAS appliance can play many roles in a growing small business

Ctera brings the cloud down scale

The Ctera C200 provides SAN, NAS, and cloud storage that's simple and cost-effective.

Google Voice turned loose and finding duplicated files

Google Voice goes public and three tools for finding duplicated files

Virtualization and shared storage pave the way for affordable business continuity and disaster recovery

As recently as five years ago, business continuity and disaster-recovery topics would make IT executives in small to midsize enterprises grumble that neither was affordable. Now companies of all sizes are realizing they can have both using virtualization technology.

Review: Apricorn's PCIe Drive Arrays

Apricorn's PCIe Drive Arrays: Easy installation, 'write cliff' performance hit

Storage smackdown: Hard drives vs. SSDs

Solid state drives offer substantial benefits over traditional hard drives – they are faster, more reliable, use less energy and are quieter.

Review: Adaptec's ASR5805/512 SSD controller and MaxIQ kit, with one SSD

Adaptec's ASR5805/512 SSD controller and MaxIQ kit, with one SSD has outstanding price/performance

Review: Dot Hill's AssuredSAN 3730 Array

Dot Hill's AssuredSAN 3730 Array: Easy to use, cost effective

Review: Compellent's Storage Center 030

Compellent's Storage Center 030: High performance, high price