NAS Archives - Page 6 of 9

Misplacing Digital Transformation Priorities

By cfheoh | January 20, 2020 - 2:29 pm |January 20, 2020 Backup, Big Data, Business Continuity, BYOD, CIFS, Citrix, Cloud, Data, Data Archiving, Data Availability, Data Corruption, Data Management, Data Privacy, Data Protection, Data Security, Digital Transformation, Disaster Recovery, Dropbox, Filesystems, FreeNAS, Katana Logic, Microsoft, NAS, NetApp, NFS, Object Storage, QNAP, Reliability, SMB

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[ Note: This article was published on LinkedIn on Jan 20th 2020. Here is the link to the original article ]

Digital Transformation is again a big word for 2020. As more and more organizations becoming digitalized, the opportunity to communicate, interact and collaborate has become easier, faster, more convenient than ever.

File Sharing forever

Working in projects, file sharing is a fundamental activity that underpins communication and collaboration. Network drives via NAS (network attached storage) for file sharing are common within the confines of the company network. The perimeter of the company’s network is further extended via VPN (virtual private network) access, allowing branch offices and remote individuals to access the files from the central NAS server. It is a workable solution albeit poor network performance in delivery, challenges of siloed data management and difficult scalability.

The phenomenon of Dropbox

When Dropbox arrived circa 2008-2009, it took the industry by storm. They practically invented the term BYOD (bring your own device) and capture the imagination of the file sharing market. Gartner recognized this and coined EFSS (enterprise file sync and share) to consolidate the burgeoning file sharing market. Pretenders and challengers flooded the market, and after the shakedown, Box.net, Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive and of course, Dropbox, are some of the market leaders today.

A recent report by Markets & Markets listed these companies as players in the EFSS market.

EFSS Players by Markets & Markets October 2019

As the wheels of Digital Transformation turn, EFSS is changing as well. Gartner EFSS is now the CCP (content collaboration platform), releasing their Gartner Content Collaboration Platforms MarketPeer Insights report in April 2019. Continue reading →

NAS is the next Ransomware goldmine

By cfheoh | January 7, 2020 - 5:58 am |January 7, 2020 Algorithm, Analytics, API, Artificial Intelligence, Backup, Business Continuity, CIFS, ClamAV, Cloud, compression, Containers, Data, Data Archiving, Data Availability, Data Corruption, Data Management, Data Privacy, Data Protection, Data Security, Deep Learning, Disaster Recovery, Filesystems, FreeNAS, iXsystems, Machine Learning, NAS, Object Storage, QNAP, Reliability, Security, SMB, TrueNAS

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I get an email like this almost every day:

It is from one of my FreeNAS customers daily security run logs, emailed to our support@katanalogic.com alias. It is attempting a brute force attack trying to crack the authentication barrier via the exposed SSH port.

Just days after the installation was completed months ago, a bot has been doing IP port scans on our system, and found the SSH port open. (We used it for remote support). It has been trying every since, and we have been observing the source IP addresses.

The new Ransomware attack vector

This is not surprising to me. Ransomware has become more sophisticated and more damaging than ever because the monetary returns from the ransomware are far more effective and lucrative than other cybersecurity threats so far. And the easiest preys are the weakest link in the People, Process and Technology chain. Phishing breaches through social engineering, emails are the most common attack vectors, but there are vhishing (via voicemail) and smshing (via SMS) out there too. Of course, we do not discount other attack vectors such as mal-advertising sites, or exploits and so on. Anything to deliver the ransomware payload.

The new attack vector via NAS (Network Attached Storage) and it is easy to understand why.

Continue reading →

ZFS Replication and Recovery with FreeNAS

By cfheoh | November 2, 2019 - 9:51 am |November 2, 2019 Appliance, Backup, Business Continuity, CIFS, Data Availability, Data Corruption, Data Management, Data Protection, Data Security, Disaster Recovery, Disks, Filesystems, FreeNAS, Linux, Microsoft, NAS, NetApp, NFS, Reliability, Snapshots, Virtualization

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We get requests to recover data from a secondary platform all the time. RPO (recovery point objective) of 30 minutes can be challenging to small to medium sized companies, especially if there is an SLA (service level agreement) to meet.

This week, my team and I took some time to create a FreeNAS replication demo for a potential client. I thought I document the whole thing about ZFS replication, the key steps to set it up and show how recovery is done.

ZFS Snapshots

ZFS replication relies on periodic ZFS snapshots. ZFS snapshot is an inherent feature from the ZFS file system, and often used as a point-in-time copy of the existing ZFS file system tree in memory. Once a snapshot has been triggered, either manually or on schedule (periodic), the file system tree and its metadata in the memory are committed to disk to ensure an updated and consistent state of the file system at all times.

To start, a running snapshot policy on a schedule must be in place. This snapshot policy can be on a specific dataset or zvol, or even the entire zpool. Yeah, I am using quite a few ZFS terminology here – zpool, zvol, dataset. You can read more about each of the structures and more here.

Once the ZFS replication task has been setup, every snapshot occurred in the snapshot policy is automatically duplicated and copied to the target ZFS dataset. Usually, the target ZFS dataset is on a secondary FreeNAS storage server, serving as a disaster recovery platform. Sending and receiving data in the snapshots rely on SSH service.

This is the network diagram explaining the FreeNAS ZFS replication setup.

Continue reading →

Veaam to boost Cloud Data Management

By cfheoh | October 24, 2019 - 8:04 pm |October 24, 2019 Analytics, Backup, Business Continuity, Cloud, Cohesity, Commvault, Containers, Data, Data Archiving, Data Availability, Data Corruption, Data Management, Data Privacy, Data Protection, Data Security, Disaster Recovery, Forrester, Gartner, Kubernetes, LTFS, LTO, LTO-8, NAS, Reliability, Snapshots, Veeam, Veritas, Virtualization, VMware

Commvault coming all together

By cfheoh | October 15, 2019 - 2:58 pm |October 15, 2019 Acquisition, Analytics, Appliance, Artificial Intelligence, Backup, Big Data, Business Continuity, Cloud, Clusters, Commvault, Data Archiving, Data Availability, Data Corruption, Data Fabric, Data Management, Data Privacy, Data Protection, Data Security, Deduplication, Digital Transformation, Disaster Recovery, Edge Computing, eDiscovery, Filesystems, Forrester, Gartner, Hyperconvergence, Industry 4.0, Machine Learning, NAS, Object Storage, SAP, Scale-out architecture, Software Defined Storage, Software-defined Datacenter, Storage Optimization, Storage Tiering, Tech Field Day, Unified Storage, Virtualization

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[Disclosure: I was invited by Commvault as a Media person and Social Ambassador to their Commvault GO 2019 Conference and also a Tech Field Day eXtra delegate from Oct 13-17, 2019 in the Denver CO, USA. My expenses, travel, accommodation and conference fees were covered by Commvault, the organizer and I was not obligated to blog or promote their technologies presented at this event. The content of this blog is of my own opinions and views]

This trip to the Commvault GO conference was pretty much a mission to find answers to their Hedvig acquisition just a month ago. It was an unprecedented move for Commvault and I, as an industry observer and pundit, took the news positively. I wrote in my blog about Commvault’s big bet and I liked their boldness in their approach.

But the news did not bode well back here in Malaysia. The local technology news portal, Data Storage Asean picked up the news in a rather unconvinced way. 2 long time Commvault partners I spoke to were obviously unhappy because the acquisition made little sense to them on the back of closing of the Commvault Malaysia office just weeks before this with more unsettling rumours of the Commvault team in Asia Pacific. The broken trust and the fear of what the future held for the Commvault customers in Malaysia and in the region were riding along with me on this trip.

But I have seen the beginning of the Commvault transformation from the Commvault GO conferences I have attended since 2017. This is my 3rd Commvault GO and I ended Day 1 with good vibes.

Here were some of my highlights in the first day. Continue reading →

Commvault big bet

By cfheoh | September 12, 2019 - 9:03 pm |September 12, 2019 Acquisition, Analytics, API, Appliance, Big Data, Business Continuity, Cisco, Cloud, Cohesity, Commvault, Data Archiving, Data Availability, Data Corruption, Data Fabric, Data Management, Data Privacy, Data Protection, Data Security, Deep Learning, Digital Transformation, Filesystems, Hadoop, Hadoop Clusters, Hedvig, Hitachi Vantara, Hyperconvergence, ILM, Infrascale, Machine Learning, MapReduce, Minio, NAS, NetApp, Object Storage, Scale-out architecture, Software Defined Storage, Software-defined Datacenter, Storage Field Day, Storage Tiering, Tape storage, Tech Field Day, Unified Storage, Veeam, Veritas, Zerto

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I woke up at 2.59am in the morning of Sept 5th morning, a bit discombobulated and quickly jumped into the Commvault call. The damn alarm rang and I slept through it, but I got up just in time for the 3am call.

As I was going through the motion of getting onto UberConference, organized by GestaltIT, I was already sensing something big. In the call, Commvault was acquiring Hedvig and it hit me. My drowsy self centered to the big news. And I saw a few guys from Veritas and Cohesity on my social media group making gestures about the acquisition.

I spent the rest of the week thinking about the acquisition. What is good? What is bad? How is Commvault going to move forward? This is at pressing against the stark background from the rumour mill here in South Asia, just a week before this acquisition news, where I heard that the entire Commvault teams in Malaysia and Asia Pacific were released. I couldn’t confirm the news in Asia Pacific, but the source of the news coming from Malaysia was strong and a reliable one.

What is good?

It is a big win for Hedvig. Nestled among several scale-out primary storage vendors and little competitive differentiation, this Commvault acquisition is Hedvig’s pay day.

Continue reading →

The waning light of OpenStack Swift

By cfheoh | August 17, 2019 - 4:11 pm |August 17, 2019 API, Ceph, Cloud, Clusters, Containers, Data Management, Edge Computing, Filesystems, iSCSI, Kubernetes, Linux, NAS, NFS, Object Storage, Openstack, Redhat, Software Defined Storage, swiftstack, Unified Storage

The writing is on the wall

Through the storage lens, I already griped about the conundrum of OpenStack storage in Malaysia in last year’s 8th anniversary. And at the thick of this conundrum is OpenStack Swift. The granddaddy of OpenStack storage has not gotten much attention from technology vendors and service providers alike. For one, storage vendors have their own object storage offering, and has little incentive to place OpenStack Swift into their technology development. Continue reading →

Whither HPC, HPE?

By cfheoh | May 26, 2019 - 8:07 pm |May 26, 2019 Acquisition, Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Business Continuity, Cloud, Cloudian, Cohesity, Commvault, Cray Inc, Data Archiving, Data Direct Networks, Data Management, Data Protection, Datera, Deep Learning, Filesystems, High Performance Computing, HPE, HPE Simplivity, Hyperconvergence, Machine Learning, NAS, Nexenta, Object Storage, Qumulo, Scale-out architecture, Server SAN, Simplivity, Tintri, WekaIO, Zerto

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HPE is acquiring Cray Inc. Almost 3 years ago, HPE acquired SGI. Back in 2017, HPE partnered WekaIO, and invested big in the latest Series C funding of WekaIO just weeks ago.

Cray, SGI and WekaIO are all strong HPC technology companies. Given the strong uptick in the HPC market, especially commercial HPC, we cannot deny HPE’s ambition to become the top SuperComputing and HPC vendor in the industry. Continue reading →

Did Cloud Kill LTFS?

By cfheoh | May 21, 2019 - 10:39 am |May 21, 2019 Acquisition, Backup, Business Continuity, Cloud, Data, Data Archiving, Data Availability, Data Domain, Data Management, Data Protection, Deduplication, DellEMC, Disks, EMC, ExaGrid, Falconstor, Filesystems, HDS, HPE, IBM, LTO, NAS, NetApp, Object Storage, Quantum Corporation, Strongbox, Veritas

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I like LTFS (Linear Tape File System). I was hoping it would take off but it has not. And looking at its future, its significance is becoming less and less relevant. I look if Cloud has been a factor in the possible demise of LTFS in the next few years.

What is LTFS?

In a nutshell, Linear Tape File System makes LTO tapes look like a disk with a file system. It takes a tape and divides it into 2 partitions:

Index Partition (XML Index Schema with file names, metadata and attributes details)
Data Partition (where the data resides)

Diagram from https://www.snia.org/sites/default/orig/SDC2011/presentations/tuesday/DavidPease_LinearTape_File_System.pdf

It has a File System module which is implemented in supported OS of Unix/Linux, MacOS and Windows. And the mounted file system “tape partition” shows up as a drive or device.

Assassination attempts

There were many attempts to kill off tapes and so far, none has been successful.

Among the “tape-killer” technologies, I think the most prominent one is the VTL (Virtual Tape Library). There were many VTLs I encountered during my days in mid-2000s. NetApp had Alacritus and EMC had Clariion Disk Libraries. There were also IBM ProtecTIER, FalconStor VTL (which is still selling today) among others and Sepaton (read in reverse is “No Tapes’). Sepaton was acquired by Hitachi Data Systems several years back. Continue reading →

The full force of Western Digital

By cfheoh | March 21, 2019 - 11:39 am |March 21, 2019 Acquisition, Analytics, API, Appliance, Artificial Intelligence, Backup, Big Data, Business Continuity, Cloud, Clusters, Composable Infrastructure, Data, Data Archiving, Data Availability, Data Management, Data Protection, Deep Learning, Disaster Recovery, Disks, Drivescale, Edge Computing, Flash, Fog Computing, Hyperconvergence, IoT, Kaminario, Machine Learning, NAS, Object Storage, Reliability, SCSI, Seagate, Solid State Devices, Storage Field Day, Storage Tiering, Tech Field Day, Tegile, Unified Storage, Western Digital

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[Preamble: I have been invited by GestaltIT as a delegate to their Tech Field Day for Storage Field Day 18 from Feb 27-Mar 1, 2019 in the Silicon Valley USA. My expenses, travel and accommodation were covered by GestaltIT, the organizer and I was not obligated to blog or promote their technologies presented at this event. The content of this blog is of my own opinions and views]

3 weeks after Storage Field Day 18, I was still trying to wrap my head around the 3-hour session we had with Western Digital. I was like a kid in a candy store for a while, because there were too much to chew and I couldn’t munch them all.

From “Silicon to System”

Not many storage companies in the world can claim that mantra – “From Silicon to Systems“. Western Digital is probably one of 3 companies (the other 2 being Intel and nVidia) I know of at present, which develops vertical innovation and integration, end to end, from components, to platforms and to systems.

For a long time, we have always known Western Digital to be a hard disk company. It owns HGST, SanDisk, providing the drives, the Flash and the Compact Flash for both the consumer and the enterprise markets. However, in recent years, through 2 eyebrow raising acquisitions, Western Digital was moving itself up the infrastructure stack. In 2015, it acquired Amplidata. 2 years later, it acquired Tegile Systems. At that time, I was wondering why a hard disk manufacturer was buying storage technology companies that were not its usual bread and butter business.

Continue reading →

Category Archives: NAS