Mario Apicella

Many companies -- either by design or because of a merger -- end up managing multiple SANs. But merging two SANs can be a disruptive, risky process.

Sharing files with users at remote offices over a WAN often creates enormous headaches, due to limited bandwidth and the high latency of the...

Following the storage market is like watching a three-ring circus: It's never boring, but there's so much happening, it's easy to miss part of the action.

2003 will probably be remembered as the year of IP storage. Many storage vendors, including Cisco Systems Inc., EMC Corp., Microsoft Corp., and Network Appliance Inc., have adopted the iSCSI protocol in their solutions, often as a complement to the established FC (Fibre Channel) transport.

Data-protection methods that rely solely on tape devices will someday appear as inadequate as using two tin cans and a string for telephony. That day could be sooner than you think, as companies seek more flexibility in backups and demand more speed in data recovery than tape-only solutions can deliver.

Judging by advances in Windows Server 2003, Microsoft Corp. is dedicating more resources toward bolstering storage capabilities. The impressive list of new or improved features covers a wide spectrum, including better performance (Microsoft suggests that the NT File System is faster than in previous releases), better file and volume management, and much-needed extended support for networked storage.

Despite its dull exterior and lacklustre reputation, storage is actually more exciting than any other area of IT.

Taking adequate measures to recover storage equipment from a disaster has become part of a CTO's daily life and is no longer an afterthought or a placebo to pacify questioning auditors, according to the 2003 InfoWorld Storage Survey.