In this week's episode, Martin and Chris talk to Fred Monsone, founder of A3 Communications, a boutique storage PR and communications company. It's clear that modern day PR isn't the right term any more and communications describes the work much more accurately. Fred describes the reasons why start-ups and seasoned companies want to find the right way to engage with the press … [Read more...]
#41 – Does Open Source Have a Place in Storage?
This week, Martin, Chris and Gavin reflect on the decision by EMC to disband the {code} team and discuss whether open source has a place in storage. {code} was a project started by EMC before the Dell acquisition. The team focused on open source advocacy and developing tools such as storage plugins for Docker. Looking wider, companies like Red Hat have built their business on … [Read more...]
#40 – Garbage Collection: Death of the Storage Admin
This week's podcast was recorded a few months ago, so apologies for the sound quality. The team discuss the role of the storage administrator and whether we will see the eventual demise of storage admins or simply a transition to another role. The conversation tracks the responsibilities of storage administrators over the last 30 years, from the era of the mainframe to … [Read more...]
#39 – Garbage Collection: Storage Mythbusters Part I
In this week's podcast, the guys talk about some of the myths in the storage industry. The focus is mainly on traditional storage arrays and some of the features that end users might not need. The conversation takes a marketing turn, with questions on how five 9's availability is marketed and the use of dedupe/compression as a tool to reduce costs. What do you think? Are … [Read more...]
#38 – Talking Dedicated Backup Appliances with Don Foster from Commvault
In this week's podcast, the team talk to Don Foster, Senior Director for WW Solutions Marketing at Commvault. Initially this podcast was intended to be recorded at Commvault Go last November (2017) in Washington DC, but schedules didn't align so we did it remotely. The audio quality is not as good as we'd like, so apologies for that. However, there are some good discussions … [Read more...]
#37 – State of the Storage Union with Chris Mellor
This week Chris and Gavin catch up with Chris Mellor, Storage Editor for The Register. With so much happening in storage, it's difficult to know where to start, so the guys focus on the rumour of Dell EMC reversing into VMware. Could this really happen and why is Dell EMC even thinking about this? The conversation flows on to IBM and their super-mega-hyper-uber announcement … [Read more...]
#36 – The Persistence of Memory with Rob Peglar
In this week's episode, the team talk to Rob Peglar, Senior VP and CTO at SymbolicIO. The conversation covers persistent memory and in particular the NVDIMM format of devices that provide persistent storage in a standard server DIMM slot. Rob explains how the standards are set through JEDEC, with a description of the three types - NVDIMM-N, F and P. The discussion … [Read more...]
#35 – The Spectre of Meltdown with Alex Chircop
In this week's podcast, the team talk to Alex Chircop, CTO at StorageOS about the implications on storage of the recent Spectre/Meltdown vulnerabilities. Much has been made of the potential impact to I/O performance and by definition storage platforms and products. The guys talk about what the vulnerabilities actually mean for end users and what to expect from storage … [Read more...]
#34 – NAND Shortage? What NAND Shortage! with Jim Handy
In this week's podcast, the team chat again with Jim Handy from Objective Analysis. Jim is an analyst covering the semiconductor industry and provides some great insight into where pricing is headed in the NAND flash market. The conversation covers some of the technical challenges the industry faces, as well as the impact from China entering the market. Finally, the guys … [Read more...]
Introduction to GDPR with Nigel Tozer from Commvault
In this podcast, recorded in December 2017, Chris talks to Nigel Tozer, Solutions Marketing Director, EMEA at Commvault. Today the subject is GDPR, otherwise known as the General Data Protection Regulation. GDPR is an update to existing data protection legislation that is meant to reflect the needs of EU citizens in protecting their personal data in a digital age. Chris … [Read more...]