Zadara Blog

Choose Your Cloud Storage Protocol

We all love choice in our lives; in many ways it allows us to express our uniqueness, whether that’s in the clothes we wear, the cars we drive or the style of music we like to listen to. Too much choice, however makes decision-making difficult and sometimes it seems easier to do nothing and follow the previous path. In the storage world, block and file protocols have been dominant for many years and are probably the most well known formats for storing and retrieving data. In recent years there has been a new kid on the block (no pun intended) – object storage. So, how do these three protocols differ and how should we use them in the context of cloud and software defined storage solutions? Read on to find out more about choosing your cloud storage protocol.

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How to Evaluate Cloud Storage Vendors and Find Your Perfect Match

When evaluating cloud storage vendors, it’s easier than you might think to compare apples to oranges, or even apples to orangutans. Some services are geared toward small businesses, and simply aren’t adequate for enterprise use. Others offer only cloud-based solutions, when you need onsite solutions or a hybrid solution incorporating both onsite and offsite options. Still more might not offer practical solutions for your projects, such as Big Data or collaboration. Here are some questions to keep you on track when you evaluate cloud storage vendors.

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SAN Versus NAS: What’s the Difference and What Do You Need?

SAN Versus NAS: What’s the difference? First, let’s define what they are. SAN (Storage Area Networks) and NAS (Network Attached Storage) are both network storage solutions, and may seem very similar at first glance. In many cases, either will work about as well as the other. Both usually utilize RAID, and both typically offer a variety of storage management and data protection features. In a cloud-based solution like Zadara’s, SAN and NAS are both supported, so that users can choose the architecture that makes the most sense for them.

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Making the Case: Cloud NAS Benefits

More and more companies are recognizing the value of moving their IT infrastructure to the cloud. The benefits of this are well documented, so there is no need to cover this topic here. As companies move their compute infrastructure to cloud environments such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and others, the next logical step is to determine the best cloud-based storage infrastructure.

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HDD, Hybrid, All-flash Array or Everything Array

There was a time when the only media you could get in a shared storage array was the humble hard disk drive. Although early systems used DRAM (system memory) as a cache, overall performance was always limited by the capability of the drives themselves, whether that was from the perspective of latency or throughput. Over time, arrays became more diversified with the implementation of tiered storage. Tiering was done to save cost, and it placed drives (and eventually flash) of different performance characteristics into the same array, moving data around using intelligent placement algorithms to determine the optimum location for each piece of data. The aim was to place data on the most appropriate tier to match the I/O requirements of the application, without spending money on expensive storage when it wasn’t needed.

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8 Ironclad Arguments for Hybrid Enterprise Cloud Storage

The hybrid cloud is the industry’s response to the control and security of onsite storage and the convenience and flexibility of the cloud. Enterprises can develop a sound, reliable, affordable IT infrastructure, without giving up the ownership, control, and visibility that comes with on-premises storage and applications. What are the most compelling arguments for migrating to a hybrid enterprise cloud storage infrastructure?

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From Traditional Storage to Today: The Evolution of Zadara and Enterprise Cloud Storage

Five years ago, we started Zadara Storage with the idea that storage should be enabled by software rather than hardware. We saw the challenges IT managers were experiencing with traditional storage – it was rigid, it was costly, it was delivered in a way that made organizations slow to react and locked organizations into expensive, inflexible proprietary solutions.

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Moving to the Cloud: How to Make the Transition a Success

“The cloud” has been a buzzword for years now, and for good reason. Global data center traffic is projected to triple in the five years from 2013 to 2018, reaching nearly 9 zettabytes annually by that time. What’s more, a fast-growing segment of data center traffic is made up of cloud traffic, which is expected to account for more than 75% of data center traffic by 2018. So, why is everyone moving to the cloud, and how can you ensure success when you do?

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