Drew Robb

Data centers already account for over half of corporate IT budgets, and META Group projects a 70% increase in data center budgets over the next decade. But where that money specifically goes has changed drastically in the last few years. While servers and storage together comprised 20% of 2002 expenditures, those figures will drop in […]

According to most analysts, the amount of stored information is growing at a rate anywhere between 50 percent and 125 percent annually. This places an enormous burden on the storage infrastructure. Servers are typically thrown at the problem, new storage arrays added, and additional SAN islands implemented. Yet performance suffers, disk space remains a problem, […]

Recent Harris Interactive surveys reveal that most customers still do not trust companies to handle their personal information responsibly. Reflecting consumer mistrust, several governmental regulations have emerged to legislate security and build consumer trust. The laws are complex, demanding stiff fines and jail time for offending executives. This article, therefore, gives an overview of the […]

When the Association of Storage Networking Professionals (ASNP) announced its existence at the end of September, few gave the organization much attention. Yet another storage organization among a dozens of others, said the headlines, if they said anything at all. Four months on, however, a different picture is emerging. The ASNP now has about 1200 […]

At the theaters on Broadway, they say that “the show must go on.” But if you drive a few miles further south on Broadway, you hit a part of Manhattan where that statement is even more applicable — the Financial District, home to Wall Street and the New York Stock Exchange. The organizations there take […]

It’s a quagmire. No, not Iraq. The Internet. The war against hackers has been going on for decades and we are no closer to pulling out than we were when Kevin Mitnick was breaking into Ma Bell’s mainframes in the early ’80s. So, how are we really doing in terms of computer security? Scanning the […]

While Fibre Channel (FC) Storage Area Networks (SAN) have enabled the industry to move towards a more centralized and simplified architecture, they are sometimes criticized due to being expensive to implement and requiring specialized technicians. Enter IP (Internet Protocol) SAN’s, touted as more affordable and much easier to operate. This proved to be the case […]

Over time computing does get easier. For example, it took Earthlink founder Sky Dayton eighty hours to connect to the Internet the first time he tried. Nowadays I’m not sure you could buy a computer without access built in. Take it out of the box, plug in the cables, turn it on, and it will […]

It’s always fun, as a kid, being the first in the family to open a new box of cereal and dig a hand in searching for the hidden prize. You never knew whether it would be that wonderful Grand Prize they advertised on TV, or a lousy two-cent plastic trinket. Now as an adult, you […]

“Most SANs are like M&Ms” hard and crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. This observation on Storage Area Network (SAN) design is from Clement Kent, the Chief Technical Officer of security firm Kasten Chase, Inc. He makes a vital point. Companies spend precious resources hardening the outer network shell with firewalls, passwords, […]