https://www.demartek.com/index.html Demartek.com - Real-world, Hands-on Research and Analysis Research Reports Copyright 2004-2018 Demartek.com en-us 240 https://www.demartek.com/Images/Demartek_Logo_Table_Title.png https://www.demartek.com/index.html 144 38 Principled Technologies (PT), a world-class marketing, learning, and testing firm, has acquired Demartek, a hands-on technology research and analysis company. PT believes the combined team will offer more benefit to its clients. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Acquired_by_Principled_Technologies_2018-09.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Acquired_by_Principled_Technologies_2018-09.html Mon, 17 Sep 2018 14:15:00 GMT Principled Technologies PrincipledTech The Demartek Storage Interface Comparison reference page provides information on a variety of interfaces used in computer storage devices. It also includes technical details such as history and roadmaps, comments on data transfer rates, cabling and connectors and more. This set of updates includes updated information for NVMe and SD Express. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Interface_Comparison.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Interface_Comparison.html Wed, 12 Sep 2018 17:00:00 GMT Storage Interface Comparison NVMe SDExpress Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) is an alternative to deploying dozens or even hundreds of individual desktop computers. While VDI environments vary widely from a user and workload perspective, many of which require GPUs in the underlying infrastructure, many are often used for typical office worker tasks that do not require a separate graphics processing unit (GPU). In order to test the suitability and robustness of a new server architecture for VDI environments, Dell commissioned Demartek to evaluate the performance of the Dell PowerEdge R7425 with two AMD EPYC 7551 32-core processors for non-GPU environments running the Login VSI Knowledge Worker workload. The Knowledge Worker workload used Microsoft Windows 10 Pro with Microsoft Office 2016 in each desktop virtual machine. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Dell_EMC_PowerEdge_R7425_VDI_Knowledge_Worker_Evaluation_2018-08.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Dell_EMC_PowerEdge_R7425_VDI_Knowledge_Worker_Evaluation_2018-08.html Mon, 27 Aug 2018 20:00:00 GMT Dell R7425 VDI Performance As the adoption of flash storage in data centers increases so does the pressure to address the common issue of Write Amplification (WA) which can limit I/O performance. WA, or the ratio of physical media writes to writes requested by the host, increases as free flash memory pages decrease and garbage collection becomes necessary in order to free up additional flash memory pages to perform new writes. To further increase free flash memory pages, decrease WA, and ultimately increase performance, Seagate has introduced DuraWrite technology. Seagate Enterprise SATA SSDs with DuraWrite Technology take advantage of low data entropy, compressing the data before writing to the SSD. This conserves free flash memory pages and ultimately leads to improved performance. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Seagate_DuraWrite_Evaluation_2018-08.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Seagate_DuraWrite_Evaluation_2018-08.html Mon, 20 Aug 2018 12:00:00 GMT Seagate DuraWrite SSD Flash Performance SAS, or Serial Attached SCSI, has been in use for more than 10 years, starting with 3.0 Gb/s SAS in 2004 and then doubling in effective bandwidth with the release of each new generation. The newest speed bump is the 24G SAS; end-user products using 24G SAS are anticipated in late 2020. In addition to effectively doubling the effective bandwidth from the current 12Gb/s SAS, the 24G SAS has optimizations for both SSD and HDD. The technology will be backwards compatible, adding to the preexisting tried-and-true SAS ecosystems. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_SAS_Applications_24G_2018-07.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_SAS_Applications_24G_2018-07.html Mon, 16 Jul 2018 14:00:00 GMT SAS News The 2018 Edition of the Demartek RoCE Deployment Guide guide is an updated and expanded version of our previous RoCE Deployment Guide. This version shows more interoperability between different vendor products and includes RoCEv2 Congestion Management topics. RoCE-enabled products in this guide include 25GbE and 100GbE network adapters and 25GbE/100GbE and 10GbE/40GbE network switches. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_RoCE_Deployment_Guide.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_RoCE_Deployment_Guide.html Tue, 10 Jul 2018 13:00:00 GMT RoCE RDMA 25GbE 100GbE Performance News Often, the only performance statistics one has for a storage device come from tests run by a vendor using standard benchmarks. Demartek, an independent test lab, offers performance tests run on database and virtualization workloads typical of today’s data centers. You will learn how your products (and your competitors’ products) stack up in the real world, so you will know what to advertise and what to improve. Tests also cover recent advances such as NVDIMM, NVMe over Fabrics (NVMe-oF), and high speed interfaces such as 100 Gb Ethernet and 32 Gb Fibre Channel. Dennis will discuss his rules-of-thumb for NVMe over Fabrics (NVMe-oF) devices in a storage target. The Flash Memory Summit 2018 will be held in Santa Clara, California, August 7-9, 2018. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_FlashMemorySummit_2018-08.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_FlashMemorySummit_2018-08.html Fri, 11 May 2018 11:00:00 GMT FlashMem flashstorage NVMe FlashMemorySummit Flash Memory Summit Performance Speaking Engagements NetApp’s ONTAP 9.4 is the first generally available enterprise storage offering enabling a complete NVMe™ over Fibre Channel (NVMe/FC) solution. NVMe/FC solutions are based on the recent T11/INCITS committee FC-NVMe block storage standard, which specifies how to extend the NVMe command set over Fibre Channel in accordance with the NVMe over Fabrics™ (NVMe-oF™) guidelines produced by the NVM Express™ organization. For this test report, Demartek worked with NetApp and Broadcom (Brocade and Emulex divisions) to demonstrate the benefits of NVMe over Fibre Channel on the NetApp A700s, Emulex Gen 6 Fibre Channel Adapters, and Brocade Gen 6 Fibre Channel SAN switches. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_NetApp_Broadcom_NVMe_over_Fibre_Channel_Evaluation_2018-05.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_NetApp_Broadcom_NVMe_over_Fibre_Channel_Evaluation_2018-05.html Tue, 8 May 2018 12:00:00 GMT NVMe-oF NVMe over Fibre Channel 32GFC NetApp Broadcom SSD Performance News The HPE MSA 2050 Storage is positioned in the market as a high-performance hybrid storage system. Upgradeable with a customer configurable number of solid state drives (SSD), a base-model all hard disk drive (HDD) array can be enhanced to provide SSD read caching or an SSD performance tier to accelerate array performance. HPE commissioned Demartek to evaluate the MSA 2050 Storage array as backend storage for Microsoft Exchange Server, configured as it might be deployed by a typical small or medium sized business. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_HPE_MSA_2050_Exchange_Server_Environment_2018-05.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_HPE_MSA_2050_Exchange_Server_Environment_2018-05.html Mon, 7 May 2018 19:00:00 GMT HPEStorage HPStorage 16GFC SSD Performance News The HPE MSA 2050 Storage array delivers enterprise-class storage at a cost that may be attractive to small and medium businesses. These arrays can offer improved performance by combining hard disk drives (HDD) with solid state drives (SSD) for read caching or performance tiering. HPE commissioned Demartek to evaluate the performance of a Microsoft SQL Server database workload on the MSA 2050 Storage Fibre Channel array in an all-HDD configuration and then repeat the workload with the SSD read caching and SSD performance tiering options installed and configured. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_HPE_MSA_2050_SQL_Server_Environment_2018-05.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_HPE_MSA_2050_SQL_Server_Environment_2018-05.html Mon, 7 May 2018 19:00:00 GMT HPEStorage HPStorage 16GFC SSD Performance News Dell EMC provides VMware vSAN Ready Nodes that combine a wide range of Dell hardware and VMware vSAN software into a ready-to-order package. These include the new single-socket Dell EMC PowerEdge R7415 servers powered by the AMD EPYC 7000-series processors. These Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes are validated and configured to meet hyper-converged workload needs while taking advantage of lower single-socket licensing costs from VMware. Demartek evaluated the performance of these Dell servers in a three-node VMware vSAN cluster running mixed enterprise workloads. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Dell_EMC_PowerEdge_R7415_vSAN_Mixed_Workloads_Evaluation_2018-04.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Dell_EMC_PowerEdge_R7415_vSAN_Mixed_Workloads_Evaluation_2018-04.html Wed, 25 Apr 2018 12:00:00 GMT DellEMC DellEMCServers AMD EPYC vSAN News Serial attached SCSI, or SAS provides a reliable enterprise-grade interface designed specifically for computer storage. While well-established, SAS technology continues to adapt to the address the demanding requirements of new technologies in today’s data centers. For this testing, we configured a multi-vendor collection of 12Gb/s SAS SSDs, a 12Gb/s SAS RAID controller, and a 12GB/s SAS JBOD enclosure in a VMware environment running two different real-world application workloads simultaneously. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_SAS_Performance_2018-04.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_SAS_Performance_2018-04.html Tue, 03 Apr 2018 12:00:00 GMT SAS News Upgrading your computer networking infrastructure to 25GbE technology will certainly provide additional room for bandwidth and connectivity growth, but there are some practical considerations that must be addressed in your deployment and installation planning. Whether you are designing a new data center or simply want to upgrade a few components in rack, there are things about 25GbE technology that you need to know that may not be obvious. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_25GbE_Deployment_Tips_2018-03.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_25GbE_Deployment_Tips_2018-03.html Mon, 26 Mar 2018 12:00:00 GMT 25GbE Commentary HPE commissioned Demartek to explore the benefits of upgrading from 10GbE to 25GbE technology and utilizing RDMA in virtualized environments. First, we explore where 10GbE is today and what 25GbE with RDMA has to offer. Then we show an example of how 25GbE with RDMA, using both iWARP and RoCE, improves performance resulting in dramatic time-savings during live VM migrations in a Microsoft Windows Hyper-V environment using SMB protocol. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_HPE_25GbE_RDMA_Evaluation_2018-03.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_HPE_25GbE_RDMA_Evaluation_2018-03.html Thu, 15 Mar 2018 12:00:00 GMT HPE 25GbE RDMA iWARP RoCE Hyper-V Performance News The HPE Cloudline CL3150 Gen10 server is a 1U open standards-based ultra-dense storage server, ideal for performance demanding cloud applications. This server supports up to 24 NVMe solid state drives (SSDs) providing very high-performance and plenty of capacity, to meet ever-growing needs. This server is also designed for the AMD EPYC™ 7000 series processor, offering strong performance at a competitive price. These servers are powered by AMD EPYC processors that provide up to 32 cores, 64 threads and 8 memory channels per socket. These processors also provide 128 PCIe 3.0 lanes, providing cloud environments with direct support for many high performance NVMe storage devices, eliminating performance bottlenecks found in other architectures. To test this cloud deployment solution, we chose the Yahoo Cloud Serving Benchmark (YCSB) running across three nodes, connected via Mellanox 100GbE infrastructure. We deployed Excelero NVMesh to configure the cluster so that all the compute was performed on one node, and all the NVMe storage was accessed over the 100GbE network from the other nodes. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_HPE_CL3150_Gen10_Evaluation_2018-02.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_HPE_CL3150_Gen10_Evaluation_2018-02.html Wed, 21 Feb 2018 21:30:00 GMT HPE Cloudline AMD EPYC 100GbE Excelero Performance News As customers of all sizes begin to adopt 25Gb Ethernet (25GbE) technology, enterprises and cloud data centers need to consider the scalability and consistency of performance of the Ethernet adapters, also known as network interface cards (NICs). In particular, cloud-scale data centers, where hundreds to thousands of NICs are deployed, need to consider the range of latencies produced by NICs. Tail latency matters more than minimum or average latency at large scale, because the tail latency experienced by several NICs at any given moment can cause unexpected and disruptive application delays, slowing down the overall network performance. Predictable and low-tail latency is critical to high-performance cloud-scale data centers. Broadcom commissioned Demartek to analyze the performance of the Broadcom® NetXtreme® 25GbE NIC in terms of performance consistency. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Broadcom_NetXtreme_25G_Adapters_2018-01.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Broadcom_NetXtreme_25G_Adapters_2018-01.html Wed, 24 Jan 2018 13:00:00 GMT Broadcom NetXtreme 25GbE Performance News The Storage Networking Industry Assocation (SNIA), the SCSI Trade Association (STA) and Demartek collaborated on a 24G SAS webcast on December 5, 2017. In this webcast, we discussed the roadmap and some of the technical details of the upcoming 24G SAS specification and products. Dennis Martin, Demartek President, explained some of the technical features of SAS in general and 24G SAS in particular, including the bandwidth of 24G SAS, dual-port, MultiLink SAS, multi-path I/O (MPIO) and more. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_STA_24G-SAS_Webcast_2017-12-05.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_STA_24G-SAS_Webcast_2017-12-05.html Wed, 6 Dec 2017 17:00:00 GMT SCSI Trade Association 24G SAS SNIA Events Chelsio commissioned Demartek to evaluate the Chelsio T6225-LL-CR 25GbE iSCSI Offload adapter and Chelsio T62100-CR 100GbE iSCSI Offload adapter with synthetic and real-world workloads, comparing the performance and host processor utilization with and without the iSCSI offload functions enabled on the client with hardware offload enabled on the target. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Chelsio_T6_25GbE_100GbE_iSCSI_Offload_Evaluation_2017-11.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Chelsio_T6_25GbE_100GbE_iSCSI_Offload_Evaluation_2017-11.html Tue, 14 Nov 2017 21:00:00 GMT Chelsio Terminator 6 iSCSI offload Performance News Seagate commissioned Demartek to independently evaluate its new enterprise TurboBoost Enhanced Cache Exos 15K RPM and 10K RPM enterprise RPM hard disk drives (HDDs) in a variety of use cases to help IT experts make informed technology choices. Many workloads, such as OLTP, Webserver, Virtual Desktop, or other random read/write tasks, as shown in the report, can benefit from the performance boost provided by these HDDs with an on-board flash cache. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Seagate_TurboBoost_Cache_15K_HDD_Evaluation_2017-04.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Seagate_TurboBoost_Cache_15K_HDD_Evaluation_2017-04.html Tue, 17 Oct 2017 12:00:00 GMT Seagate TurboBoost HDD Flash Performance In July 2017, Viking Technology released their new UHC (Ultra High Capacity)-Silo 3.5-inch Solid State Drive (SSD). The Viking Technology UHC-Silo SSD is designed for balanced workloads needing large capacity and good performance for datacenter applications, supporting one drive write per day (DWPD) with a 5-year warranty. Viking Technology commissioned Demartek to evaluate the performance and power consumption of their UHC-Silo 3.5-inch SSD. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Viking_UHC-Silo_50TB_SSD_2017-09.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Viking_UHC-Silo_50TB_SSD_2017-09.html Wed, 27 Sep 2017 15:30:00 GMT Viking Technology UHC-Silo SSD Performance News The Dell EMC PowerEdge FX2 enclosure is a 2U hybrid rack mount computing platform that combines the flexibility, density, and efficiencies of blade server technology with the simplicity and cost benefits of rack-based systems. The enclosure uses Toshiba’s PX05S Series high-performance 12Gb/s SAS SSDs to provide performance and density to the solution. We ran an enterprise database workload in this dense compute and storage solution. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Dell_EMC_FX2_Toshiba_SSDs_2017-08.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Dell_EMC_FX2_Toshiba_SSDs_2017-08.html Thu, 7 Sep 2017 16:45:00 GMT Toshiba SSD Dell FX2 Performance Hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) is a newer technology where a cluster of hypervisor server nodes are deployed in a single chassis containing tightly-integrated server, networking, and storage technology. VMware Virtual SAN (vSAN) manages HCI distributed storage and is part of the VMWare vSphere Hypervisor. Dell EMC provides VMware Virtual SAN (vSAN) Ready Nodes that combine a wide range of Dell hardware and VMware vSAN software into a ready-to-order package, with Toshiba PX05S Series 12Gb/s SAS SSDs. Demartek deployed a three-node all-flash Dell EMC vSAN cluster using Toshiba PX05S high-performance SAS SSDs and ran a set of mixed enterprise workloads. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Dell_EMC_vSAN_Toshiba_SSDs_2017-08.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Dell_EMC_vSAN_Toshiba_SSDs_2017-08.html Thu, 7 Sep 2017 16:45:00 GMT Toshiba SSD Dell vSAN Performance Hyper-converged Infrastructure (HCI) is becoming a significant services platform in the datacenter, and with good reason. Abstracting processing, storage and network resources to create a fully software-defined datacenter is the logical progression of the decade-long virtualization trend. Demartek deployed a four-node cluster of Dell EMC PowerEdge XC730xd servers with Toshiba PX05S Series high-performance 12Gb/s SAS SSDs to test the performance and scalability of Microsoft SQL Server workloads in a Nutanix Hyper-V environment. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Dell_EMC_XC_Series_Toshiba_SSDs_2017-08.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Dell_EMC_XC_Series_Toshiba_SSDs_2017-08.html Thu, 7 Sep 2017 16:45:00 GMT Toshiba SSD Dell XC Nutanix Performance During two of my presentations at the Flash Memory Summit earlier this month, I discussed the Demartek NVMe over Fabrics (NVMe-oF) rules of thumb. Although I summarized these on one slide, here is a bit more explanation. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_NVMe_over_Fabrics_Rules_of_Thumb_2017-08.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_NVMe_over_Fabrics_Rules_of_Thumb_2017-08.html Wed, 23 Aug 2017 15:00:00 GMT Commentary NVMe over Fabrics NVMe-oF Hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) is a software architecture that manages multiple clustered nodes of tightly-integrated server, networking and storage technology together as a whole unit. HCI has matured to offer standard enterprise features, however implementation differences between vendors can affect performance, limit efficacy of enterprise features, and complicate cluster management. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Nutanix_Hyperconverged_Infrastructure_2017-08.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Nutanix_Hyperconverged_Infrastructure_2017-08.html Thu, 17 Aug 2017 13:30:00 GMT Nutanix Hyper-converged Infrastructure HCI News While reviewing our web logs and because of the many automated Internet bots accessing our site, it no longer makes sense to continue to publish some data about our website usage. Here is why... https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Comments_on_Internet_Bots_2017-08-16.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Comments_on_Internet_Bots_2017-08-16.html Wed, 16 Aug 2017 12:45:00 GMT Commentary Internet Bots Today I was called from a blocked telephone number by a woman claiming to be from the “United States Federal Grants Department.” She said that because I pay my taxes on time and do not have a criminal record, the federal government is awarding me a grant of $9200.00. My immediate thought was that this was a scam call, but I decided to play along briefly. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Comments_on_Federal_Government_Grants_scam_call_2017-08-03.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Comments_on_Federal_Government_Grants_scam_call_2017-08-03.html Thu, 3 Aug 2017 19:00:00 GMT Commentary Phone Scam Serial attached SCSI, or SAS, has been an industry standard for more than ten years, and the underlying technology, SCSI, has been an industry standard for more than thirty years. This report discusses SAS and its ecosystem including long-supported features such as SAS expanders, JBODs, dual-ported drives, multi-path I/O (MPIO) and hot swap (surprise add/removal). In addition, there are a few comments regarding SAS power consumption and SAS cabling and connectors. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_SAS_Benefits_2017-07.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_SAS_Benefits_2017-07.html Wed, 12 Jul 2017 16:00:00 GMT SAS News The new Dell EMC XC430 Xpress appliance combines the enterprise-class features of the larger XC Series appliances with unique, price-saving innovations to make an affordable, feature-rich all-in-one infrastructure solution for small and medium-sized businesses. The Dell EMC XC430 Xpress platform is powered by Nutanix software and managed through the Nutanix Prism interface. Customers have their choice of hypervisors, and the virtualization licenses are included in the price of the system. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Dell_EMC_XC430_Xpress_2017-06.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Dell_EMC_XC430_Xpress_2017-06.html Mon, 19 Jun 2017 13:00:00 GMT Dell XC430 Hyper-converged Hyperconverged Performance Dell and Seagate are introducing a new type of Enhanced Cache 15K RPM hard disk drive with a significant amount of flash memory. This newest addition to the HDD market promises performance improvement in throughput and response time for new storage deployments or as drop-in replacements at traditional hard disk prices. Demartek evaluated these new Enhanced Cache 15K HDDs using a Dell EMC PowerEdge R830 server for scalable and balanced performance in a variety of use cases to help IT experts make informed technology choices. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Dell_Seagate_Enhanced_Cache_15K_HDD_Evaluation_2017-04.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Dell_Seagate_Enhanced_Cache_15K_HDD_Evaluation_2017-04.html Thu, 27 Apr 2017 12:00:00 GMT TurboBoost HDD Flash Performance Seagate Dell Everyone (designers, marketers, salespeople, executives and customers) wants to know how flash storage really performs. And they want to know it from an independent source using real-world applications, providing them reasonable examples of what to expect. Dennis Martin, President of Demartek, will participate at the Flash Memory Summit 2017 discussing various aspects of real-world performance involving flash technology and other data center technologies. He will present "The Performance Story: An Independent Evaluation of Flash Storage" and will participate in various panel sessions during the conference. The Flash Memory Summit 2017 will be held in Santa Clara, California, August 8-10, 2017. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_FlashMemorySummit_2017-08.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_FlashMemorySummit_2017-08.html Wed, 26 Apr 2017 17:30:00 GMT FlashMem flashstorage SSD FlashMemorySummit Flash Memory Summit Performance Speaking Engagements HPE commissioned Demartek to evaluate its DL380 Gen9 Server connected to an HPE 3PAR StoreServ 8450 All-Flash Storage with 48 SSDs using two different generations of HPE StoreFabric SN1200E/SN1600E Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapters (16Gb FC and 32Gb FC) from Broadcom/Emulex and HPE StoreFabric B-series SN6600B Fibre Channel Switch (32Gb FC) from Brocade. These were run in a native O.S. SQL Server 2016 database data warehousing environment and in a VMware environment with two different SQL Server 2016 workloads running simultaneously. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek-Validates-HPE_StoreFabric_Gen6_32Gb_FC_Flash-Ready_Results/ https://www.demartek.com/Demartek-Validates-HPE_StoreFabric_Gen6_32Gb_FC_Flash-Ready_Results/ Mon, 6 Feb 2017 19:00:00 GMT HPE HPEStorage HPStorage FibreChannel 32GFC News HPE 3PAR All-Flash storage systems support a number of features that enable customers to fully exploit performance capabilities by enhancing management and user experience. This paper focuses on four critical features: snapshots, storage domains, user roles, and priority optimization. HPE commissioned Demartek to evaluate the business advantages of authorizing users to create virtual copy snapshots to create test and development data from a live production system. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_HPE_3PAR_Snapshots_2017-01.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_HPE_3PAR_Snapshots_2017-01.html Thu, 26 Jan 2017 17:20:00 GMT HPE 3PAR HPEStorage HPStorage News As usual, I attend CES to discover technologies that might find their way into the datacenter and to stay current with new technologies in general. I looked for some different technologies than I did last year, spending time at the main convention center (“Tech East”) and at the Sands convention center (“Tech West”). https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_CES_2017.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_CES_2017.html Wed, 18 Jan 2017 23:00:00 GMT CES2017 Commentary IP storage demands grow as business needs continue to call for more file, application, and data lake storage services. Options now exist for automated networks to accelerate deployments of scalable IP storage solutions. The results presented in this report highlight the differences between Brocade’s implementation of Brocade VCS fabric and a legacy IP storage network in a standard leaf-spine topology. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Simplifying_NAS_Deployment_with_Brocade_VCS.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Simplifying_NAS_Deployment_with_Brocade_VCS.html Tue, 6 Dec 2016 16:00:00 GMT Brocade IPStorage VCS News HPE commissioned Demartek to evaluate its DL380 Gen9 Server connected to an HPE 3PAR StoreServ 8450 All-Flash Storage with 48 SSDs using two different generations of HPE StoreFabric Fibre Channel technology. These include the HPE StoreFabric SN1600E (32GFC) and SN1200E (16GFC) HBAs from Broadcom/Emulex and the HPE StoreFabric B-series SN6600B (32GFC) and SN6000B (16GFC) Fibre Channel Switches from Brocade in a SQL Server 2016 database data warehousing environment running on Windows Server 2016. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_HPE_StoreFabric_Gen6_32GFC_Server_Storage_Solution_Evaluation_2016-11.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_HPE_StoreFabric_Gen6_32GFC_Server_Storage_Solution_Evaluation_2016-11.html Tue, 29 Nov 2016 23:00:00 GMT HPE HPEStorage HPStorage FibreChannel 32GFC News Data integrity is the term applied to the reliability of data written to storage and later retrieved for processing. The IT industry at large has several mechanisms to help make sure that data integrity is maintained in the software and hardware layers of application environments. HPE commissioned Demartek to evaluation its built-in, end-to-end data integrity checking known as 3PAR Persistent Checksum. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_HPE_3PAR_Persistent_Checksums_2016-11.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_HPE_3PAR_Persistent_Checksums_2016-11.html Wed, 9 Nov 2016 16:00:00 GMT HPE 3PAR HPEStorage HPStorage News For application servers using iSCSI storage systems, deploying an iSCSI offload adapter can reduce host CPU utilization while maintaining excellent performance. Chelsio commissioned Demartek to evaluate its T580-CR 40GbE iSCSI Offload adapter with synthetic and real-world workloads, comparing the performance and host CPU utilization with and without the iSCSI offload functions. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Chelsio_T580-CR_iSCSI_Offload_Evaluation_2016-10.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Chelsio_T580-CR_iSCSI_Offload_Evaluation_2016-10.html Mon, 31 Oct 2016 21:00:00 GMT Chelsio iSCSI offload 40GbE Performance News The results presented in this report highlight the differences between Brocade’s implementation of Brocade VCS fabric and a Cisco Nexus IP storage network in a standard leaf-spine topology. We demonstrate the significantly reduced complexity of the Brocade technology and the advantages that it brings to the network and the datacenter. Deploying Brocade switches in a Brocade VCS fabric takes just a handful of easy to understand commands. Similar Cisco Nexus configurations are four times more complex to implement. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Simplifying_EMC_Isilon_Deployment_with_Brocade_VCS.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Simplifying_EMC_Isilon_Deployment_with_Brocade_VCS.html Tue, 06 Sep 2016 14:00:00 GMT Brocade Performance News Dell commissioned Demartek to evaluate the benefits of moving to a data warehousing solution powered by the latest generation of hardware and software. We compared the Dell PowerEdge R830 server running Microsoft SQL Server 2016 connected to an all-flash storage array using 16 Gb Fibre Channel (FC) adapters from QLogic and the older solution consisting of a Dell PowerEdge R820 server running Microsoft SQL Server 2005 SP4 using legacy 8 Gb Fibre Channel technology. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Dell_R830_QLogic_16GFC_SQL_Server_2016_Evaluation_2016-06.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Dell_R830_QLogic_16GFC_SQL_Server_2016_Evaluation_2016-06.html Thu, 25 Aug 2016 18:00:00 GMT Dell QLogic SQLServer Performance News Flash storage has revolutionized the IT industry and is now deployed in everything from small mobile devices to data center equipment found in large enterprises. In the past, flash-based media was prohibitive for most businesses due to cost. However, as pricing for flash technology has continued to drop, it has reached the point where deploying flash capacity is surprisingly affordable — especially in small amounts. This is the concept behind entry hybrid flash storage systems where flash is deployed alongside HDD technology. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Commentary_Value_of_Flash_for_SMB_Application_Acceleration_2016-08.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Commentary_Value_of_Flash_for_SMB_Application_Acceleration_2016-08.html Tue, 23 Aug 2016 14:30:00 GMT flashstorage SMB Commentary With the price of flash continuing to drop, hybrid storage is becoming more compelling to the small and medium business for critical computing applications such as databases and day-to-day operational computing. In August 2016, HPE introduced the HPE MSA 2042 Storage system that includes built-in flash, read caching, automated performance tiering (read and write) functions, and data resiliency features for a $10K starting price, based on US street pricing. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_HPE_MSA_2042_SQL_Server_Environment_2016-08.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_HPE_MSA_2042_SQL_Server_Environment_2016-08.html Mon, 15 Aug 2016 16:00:00 GMT HPEStorage HPStorage Performance News Emulex commissioned Demartek to evaluate three generations of Emulex Fibre Channel adapters in an Oracle database data warehousing environment. We found that the new Emulex Gen 6 LPe32002 and LPe32000 (32GFC) HBAs provided the performance needed to alleviate network bottlenecks that can be caused by all-flash arrays and dramatically improve data warehousing application performance. New features in these 32Gb adapters boost reliability and deliver a suite of diagnostic, troubleshooting and deployment features. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Emulex_32GFC_Accelerating_Oracle_performance_on_RedHat_Evaluation_2016-07.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Emulex_32GFC_Accelerating_Oracle_performance_on_RedHat_Evaluation_2016-07.html Tue, 12 Jul 2016 13:00:00 GMT Emulex 32GFC All-flash Performance News How does flash-based storage perform in the real world? Demartek will report on vendor-neutral performance tests run on database and virtualization workloads typical of today’s data centers. The tests cover both hybrid and all-flash storage systems from several manufacturers, using a variety of form factors and interfaces and including both block and file protocols. Technologies to be discussed include server-side flash, flash in the storage network, flash in the storage array, hybrid storage arrays, all-flash arrays, interfaces including NVMe, NVDIMM, 32Gb Fibre Channel, 25Gb and 100Gb Ethernet, and RoCE. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_FlashMemorySummit_2016-08.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_FlashMemorySummit_2016-08.html Thu, 30 Jun 2016 18:00:00 GMT FlashMem flashstorage SSD FlashMemorySummit Flash Memory Summit Performance Speaking Engagements Dell commissioned Demartek to evaluate its PowerEdge R930 server connected to a Dell Storage SC9000 all-flash storage array using three different generations of Emulex Fibre Channel (FC) adapters in a SQL Server 2016 database data warehousing environment. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Dell_R930_Emulex_32GFC_SQL_Server_2016_Evaluation_2016-06.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Dell_R930_Emulex_32GFC_SQL_Server_2016_Evaluation_2016-06.html Tue, 28 Jun 2016 21:15:00 GMT Dell Emulex 32GFC All-flash Performance News Demartek was commissioned by Brocade, Emulex, QLogic and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) to evaluate the benefits of moving online transaction processing (OLTP) workloads to 16GFC technology from 8GFC technology. At Demartek, we’ve been declaring for years that flash storage—specifically all-flash arrays—and high-speed storage networks are made for each other. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Brocade_Emulex_QLogic_HPE_16GFC_All-flash_Benefits_Evaluation_2016-06.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Brocade_Emulex_QLogic_HPE_16GFC_All-flash_Benefits_Evaluation_2016-06.html Fri, 3 Jun 2016 20:00:00 GMT Brocade Emulex QLogic HPE 16GFC Performance News Microsemi commissioned Demartek to evaluate the Flashtec NV1616 NVRAM PCIe card as a log device for an Oracle database executing a write-heavy OLTP workload. Demartek deployed Oracle 12c on Oracle Enterprise Linux to support a transactional workload with a relatively high read-to-write ratio. Performance, measured by the average number of database transactions per minute, with redo logs deployed on SATA SSDs was compared with logging to Flashtec NVRAM. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Microsemi_Flashtec_NV1616_NVRAM_Database_Performance_2016-06.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Microsemi_Flashtec_NV1616_NVRAM_Database_Performance_2016-06.html Fri, 3 Jun 2016 19:30:00 GMT Microsemi NVRAM Performance News Emulex commissioned Demartek to evaluate their 16GFC and 8GFC Fibre Channel adapters in an Oracle database data warehousing environment running on Cisco UCS C-Series servers and Cisco MDS Fibre Channel switches. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Emulex_16GFC_Cisco_Accelerating_Workload_Performance_Evaluation_2016-06.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Emulex_16GFC_Cisco_Accelerating_Workload_Performance_Evaluation_2016-06.html Fri, 3 Jun 2016 16:00:00 GMT Emulex Cisco 16GFC FibreChannel Performance News QLogic commissioned Demartek to evaluate the advantages that Gen 6 FC, in the server and at the switch, would bring to common database workloads. We deployed the QLogic QLE2742 Gen 6 FC HBA and a Brocade G620 Gen 6 FC switch with existing high-speed storage devices to compare performance metrics of transactional and data mining applications, plus a database maintenance activity, against older Gen 5 FC technology. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_QLogic_QLE2742_Gen6_FC_Adapter_Evaluation_2016-05.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_QLogic_QLE2742_Gen6_FC_Adapter_Evaluation_2016-05.html Tue, 3 May 2016 14:00:00 GMT QLogic Gen6FC 32GFC FibreChannel Gen6 Performance News Last week I was called from the telephone number 202-899-9037 by an automated system. The computer-generated voice claimed that I should call them before the matter goes to the federal claims courthouse. This is yet another scam attempt. I did not return their call, but I did save the voice mail message. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Comments_on_Tax_Fraud_scam_call_2016-04-18.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Comments_on_Tax_Fraud_scam_call_2016-04-18.html Mon, 18 Apr 2016 15:00:00 GMT Commentary Phone Scam RDMA technology can help speed up I/O in storage environments by bypassing copy processes in the software stack when data is called up from a system's memory. https://www.demartek.com/demartek_StorageMagazine_2016-04.html https://www.demartek.com/demartek_StorageMagazine_2016-04.html Tue, 12 Apr 2016 18:00:00 GMT SearchSSD RDMA SSD Article Demartek gained early access to the newest Gen 6 (32GFC) products from Emulex and Brocade, and subjected them to a series of SQL Server data warehousing application tests. We found that the new Emulex Gen 6 HBAs and Brocade Gen 6 switches provide the performance needed to alleviate network bottlenecks that can be caused by all-flash arrays and dramatically improve data warehousing application performance. New features boost reliability and deliver a suite of diagnostic, troubleshooting and deployment features. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Emulex_LPe32000_Gen6_FC_Evaluation_2016-03.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Emulex_LPe32000_Gen6_FC_Evaluation_2016-03.html Tue, 1 Mar 2016 13:00:00 GMT Emulex Brocade Gen6FC 32GFC FibreChannel Gen6 Performance News Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) commissioned Demartek to evaluate the suitability of the HPE MSA 2040 to support a mixed application workload in a VMware vSphere environment, configured in a 16Gb Fibre Channel (16GFC) environment. Running common applications like Microsoft Exchange Server, SQL Server, SharePoint, a web server and an SMB fileserver simultaneously we compared the performance of an array with all HDD storage to that with an SSD read cache and an SSD Performance Tier configuration. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_HPE_MSA_2040_Mixed_Workload_Environment_2016-02.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_HPE_MSA_2040_Mixed_Workload_Environment_2016-02.html Tue, 9 Feb 2016 12:45:00 GMT HPEStorage HPStorage 16GFC SSD Performance News Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) commissioned Demartek to evaluate the performance of a Microsoft SQL Server database workload on the HPE MSA 2040 Fibre Channel array in an all-HDD configuration and then repeat the workload with the SSD read caching and SSD performance tiering options installed and configured. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_HPE_MSA_2040_SQL_Server_Environment_2016-02.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_HPE_MSA_2040_SQL_Server_Environment_2016-02.html Tue, 9 Feb 2016 12:45:00 GMT HPEStorage HPStorage 16GFC SSD Performance News Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) commissioned Demartek to commissioned Demartek to evaluate the HPE MSA 2040 storage array as backend storage for Microsoft Exchange Server, configured as might be deployed by a typical small or medium sized business. The tests were run with the all-HDD configuration and then repeated with the SSD read caching and SSD performance tiering options installed and configured. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_HPE_MSA_2040_Exchange_Server_Environment_2016-02.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_HPE_MSA_2040_Exchange_Server_Environment_2016-02.html Tue, 9 Feb 2016 12:45:00 GMT HPEStorage HPStorage 16GFC SSD Performance News As has been my custom recently, I spent a day last week at the 2016 CES. My purpose in attending was divided into looking for technologies that may find their way into the datacenter and, honestly, staying current with at least a few of the non-datacenter categories of products on display. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_CES_2016.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_CES_2016.html Wed, 13 Jan 2016 23:00:00 GMT CES2016 Commentary For storage systems, a test lab will typically concern itself with three basic metrics of performance: IOPS, throughput and latency. In testing all-flash arrays, some interesting results become apparent right away. Compared to hard disk drive (HDD)-based arrays, there is a significant difference in the three basic metrics and performance consistency. Although it is workload dependent, all-flash arrays generally have more consistent overall performance than HDD-based arrays. This is especially apparent in the latency measurements. https://www.demartek.com/demartek_StorageMagazine_2016-01.html https://www.demartek.com/demartek_StorageMagazine_2016-01.html Fri, 08 Jan 2016 21:00:00 GMT SearchServerVirtualization FlashStorage SSD Article Small and medium-sized businesses frequently look for cost-effective storage solutions for their important applications. Lenovo offers the Lenovo Storage S3200 mid-range storage area network (SAN) storage system that can be used for a variety of application environments. It supports multiple host interfaces including 16 Gbps Fibre Channel, 10 Gbps iSCSI and 12 Gbps SAS. Lenovo commissioned Demartek to evaluate the Lenovo Storage S3200 storage array as the storage system used for a variety of workloads. Three separate reports provide our evaluation for three workloads including Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft SQL Server and a mixed workload of multiple applications. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Lenovo_S3200_Evaluation_2016-01.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Lenovo_S3200_Evaluation_2016-01.html Fri, 08 Jan 2016 18:30:00 GMT LenovoStorage 16GFC SSD Performance News Dell, a leading vendor of enterprise servers, commissioned Demartek to validate the performance of a complex fraud prevention analysis workload powered by the Aerospike NoSQL database running on a cluster of Dell PowerEdge R730xd servers with Samsung SM1715 NVMe SSDs. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Dell_Samsung_Aerospike_Fraud_Prevention_Evaluation_2015-12.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Dell_Samsung_Aerospike_Fraud_Prevention_Evaluation_2015-12.html Wed, 23 Dec 2015 17:00:00 GMT NVMe FlashStorage SSD Dell Samsung Aerospike Performance News Dot Hill commissioned Demartek to evaluate the suitability of the AssuredSAN 4824 to support a mixed application workload in a VMware vSphere environment, configured in a 16Gb Fibre Channel (16GFC) environment. Running common applications like Microsoft Exchange Server, SQL Server, SharePoint, a web server and an SMB fileserver simultaneously we compared the performance of an array with all HDD storage to that with an SSD read cache and an SSD RealTier configuration. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Dot_Hill_AssuredSAN_4824_Mixed_Workload_Environment_2015-10.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Dot_Hill_AssuredSAN_4824_Mixed_Workload_Environment_2015-10.html Fri, 23 Oct 2015 22:30:00 GMT Dot Hill 16GFC SSD Performance News Four major developments have dominated the flash storage landscape in recent years: 3D architectures allow for denser NAND chips; memory channel flash uses a server’s DIMM slots and bus for additional solid-state storage; nonvolatile memory express (NVMe) delivers a more efficient means of tapping into a server’s PCI bus to extract greater performance; and NVDIMM tacks on a nonvolatile tier to system RAM. https://www.demartek.com/demartek_StorageMagazine_2015-10.html https://www.demartek.com/demartek_StorageMagazine_2015-10.html Mon, 12 Oct 2015 22:00:00 GMT SearchSSD FlashStorage SSD Article Fibre Channel technology has progressed through five generations of speeds and features and has provided datacenters with a robust, enterprise-grade storage interconnect. Today’s enterprise datacenters typically demand proven technology and need high-bandwidth storage solutions to satisfy the increasing demands of high density virtual server deployments, database workloads and other I/O-intensive applications. To get ready for the next generation, QLogic is releasing its Enhanced Gen 5 (16Gb) Fibre Channel Adapters. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_QLogic_Enhanced_Gen_5_Fibre_Channel_Solution_Brief_2015-10.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_QLogic_Enhanced_Gen_5_Fibre_Channel_Solution_Brief_2015-10.html Mon, 12 Oct 2015 19:40:00 GMT QLogic FibreChannel News Earlier today one of our employees was called from the telephone number 860-951-7532 from a person claiming to be with the Geek Squad. Our employee recognized this immediately as a scam attempt, but played along with it for a few minutes. Here is the conversation... https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Comments_on_Tech_Support_telephone_scam_2015-09-30.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Comments_on_Tech_Support_telephone_scam_2015-09-30.html Wed, 30 Sep 2015 17:00:00 GMT Tech Support Scam Commentary PMC-Sierra commissioned Demartek to perform a comparison of the PMC-Sierra Flashtec NVMe2032 PCIe SSD against eight high-performance SATA SSDs in a real-world workload environment. The PMC-Sierra Flashtec NVMe2032 controller can be deployed in a PCIe card form factor or a drive form factor. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_PMC-Sierra_Flashtec_NVMe2032_Evaluation_2015-09.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_PMC-Sierra_Flashtec_NVMe2032_Evaluation_2015-09.html Wed, 30 Sep 2015 12:00:00 GMT PMC-Sierra NVMexpress NVMe Lab Testing Performance News Dennis Martin, President of Demartek, will present two sessions at the Storage Decisions Conference in New York, November 3-4, 2015. Topics include identifying performance bottlenecks and new storage interfaces. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_StorageDecisions_NewYork_2015-11.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_StorageDecisions_NewYork_2015-11.html Fri, 25 Sep 2015 18:00:00 GMT Speaking Engagements Storage Decisions StorageEvents SDNewYork15 SSD In August 2015, I attended the Flash Memory Summit and the Intel Developer Forum, which were only a few days apart. Here are a few highlights. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Comments_FMS2015_and_IDF2015.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Comments_FMS2015_and_IDF2015.html Mon, 21 Sep 2015 20:00:00 GMT FlashMem IDF15 Commentary HP commissioned Demartek to compare Gen9 vs Gen8 and G7 performance of their HP ProLiant BL460c Server Blades using a data warehousing workload. The workload was chosen to provide comparative information as a decision support vehicle. It consists of a suite of business oriented ad-hoc queries and concurrent data modifications. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_HP_BladeSystem_Gen9_vs_Gen8_and_G7_Evaluation_2015-09.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_HP_BladeSystem_Gen9_vs_Gen8_and_G7_Evaluation_2015-09.html Mon, 14 Sep 2015 16:00:00 GMT HP Lab Testing Performance News The Dot Hill AssuredSAN 4824 is positioned in the market as a high performance hybrid storage system. Upgradeable with a customer configurable number of solid state drives (SSD), a base-model all hard disk drive (HDD) array can be enhanced to provide SSD read caching or an SSD performance tier to accelerate array performance. Dot Hill commissioned Demartek to evaluate the AssuredSAN 4824 storage array as backend storage for Microsoft Exchange Server, configured as might be deployed by a typical small or medium sized business. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Dot_Hill_AssuredSAN_4824_Improving_Exchange_Server_Performance_2015-08.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Dot_Hill_AssuredSAN_4824_Improving_Exchange_Server_Performance_2015-08.html Thu, 3 Sep 2015 20:00:00 GMT Dot Hill 16GFC SSD Performance News The Dot Hill AssuredSAN 4824 storage array delivers enterprise-class storage at a cost that may be attractive to small and medium businesses. These arrays can offer improved performance by replacing some hard disk drives (HDD) with solid state drives (SSD) for read caching or performance tiering. Dot Hill commissioned Demartek to evaluate the performance of a Microsoft SQL Server database workload on the AssuredSAN 4824 Fibre Channel array in an all-HDD configuration and then repeat the workload with the SSD read caching and SSD performance tiering options installed and configured. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Dot_Hill_AssuredSAN_4824_Improving_SQL_Server_Performance_2015-08.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Dot_Hill_AssuredSAN_4824_Improving_SQL_Server_Performance_2015-08.html Tue, 11 Aug 2015 13:00:00 GMT Dot Hill 16GFC SSD Performance News A friend recently mentioned that he was having trouble deleting a file with a long file name on a Microsoft Windows system. He tried several options, including PowerShell, Windows Explorer and others, but was not able to delete the file. I replied that I have seen that problem here at Demartek. Here is the solution... https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Comments_Long_Filename_Delete_Problem_2015-07-14.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Comments_Long_Filename_Delete_Problem_2015-07-14.html Tue, 14 Jul 2015 18:00:00 GMT Windows filesystem filename Delete Commentary HP commissioned Demartek to compare Gen8 and Gen9 performance of their HP ProLiant BL460c Server Blades using a Data Warehousing workload. The Gen9 Server Blades take advantage of the new Intel Xeon E5-2600 v3 processors, DDR4 Smart Memory, and improved Virtual Connect FlexFabric 20Gb. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_HP_BladeSystem_Gen8_Gen9_Evaluation_2015-07.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_HP_BladeSystem_Gen8_Gen9_Evaluation_2015-07.html Tue, 14 Jul 2015 12:00:00 GMT HP BladeSystem Performance News Earlier today I was called from the telephone number appearing to be 213-910-8228 from a person claiming to be with Microsoft technical support. He asked for me by name and said that he was calling to help me because they had reports of “corruptions” on my computer. Here is what I did... https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Comments_on_Tech_Support_telephone_scam_2015-07-08.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Comments_on_Tech_Support_telephone_scam_2015-07-08.html Wed, 8 Jul 2015 18:00:00 GMT Tech Support Scam Commentary Emulex commissioned Demartek to evaluate the performance of the Emulex LightPulse LPe16002B 16 Gb Fibre Channel (16GFC) HBA in a VMware VDI bootstorm environment and compare the performance to the QLogic QLE2672 16GFC HBA in the same environment. For these tests, 125 virtual machines were booted simultaneously. The storage system used for the virtual desktop environment was an all-flash array. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Emulex_LPe16002B_VMware_Bootstorm_Environment_2015-07.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Emulex_LPe16002B_VMware_Bootstorm_Environment_2015-07.html Wed, 1 Jul 2015 15:30:00 GMT Emulex Bootstorm 16GFC Performance News Demartek is proud to be a recognized test lab for the EPA ENERGY STAR Data Center Storage Program. We have a fully provisioned IT test lab with current generation servers and data center infrastructure, as well as knowledgeable staff, to drive the energy efficiency testing and submit official test results. Our infrastructure includes multiple speeds of Ethernet and Fibre Channel switches and adapters that are frequently used to connect storage systems. To help you better understand the process of gaining certification on your products, we have created an ENERGY STAR Data Center Storage case study. During the next 5 minutes, you’ll gain basic knowledge of the program and how the process would work if you contacted Demartek to help you with your testing. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_ENERGYSTAR_Certification_Video_2015-06.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_ENERGYSTAR_Certification_Video_2015-06.html Fri, 26 Jun 2015 14:30:00 GMT Energy Efficiency Testing Energy Efficiency ENERGY STAR Lab Testing Commentary Demartek has evaluated the All-flash HP 3PAR StoreServ 7450c storage system supporting an Oracle database application and analyzed the I/O response time improvements offered by both 16Gb FC technology and 8Gb Express Writes to an Oracle workload. For this project, Demartek ran a transactional workload application on an Oracle 12c database in an Oracle Enterprise Linux environment and analyzed the performance difference between end-to-end 8Gb FC and 16Gb FC SANs. Recognizing the some enterprises may be forced to remain at 8Gb FC for various business reasons, we also considered the performance effect of the HP 3PAR 8Gb Express Writes technology on the same workload. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_HP_3PAR_StoreServ_7450_Improving_Oracle_Database_Response_Times_2015-06.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_HP_3PAR_StoreServ_7450_Improving_Oracle_Database_Response_Times_2015-06.html Tue, 16 Jun 2015 14:30:00 GMT HPStorage flashstorage 16GFC 8GFC SSD Performance HP News In this episode of the Demartek Tutorial videos, we explore the last interface of the “Big Three,” FCoE, in an effort to bring newcomers up to speed on computer storage basics. While many will argue the importance and popularity of each of these three interfaces, we feel it beneficial, in striding to offer a comprehensive basic foundation, to introduce everything we see used in our Demartek test lab. We hope you enjoy this latest installment. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Tutorial_Video_FCoE.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Tutorial_Video_FCoE.html Tue, 19 May 2015 20:00:00 GMT Video FCoE News How does flash-based storage perform in the real world? Demartek will report on vendor-neutral performance tests run on database and virtualization workloads typical of today’s data centers. The tests cover both hybrid and all-flash storage systems from several manufacturers, using a variety of form factors and interfaces and including both block and file protocols. This year’s presentation will contain new performance data not seen elsewhere. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_FlashMemorySummit_2015-08.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_FlashMemorySummit_2015-08.html Wed, 13 May 2015 15:45:00 GMT FlashMem flashstorage SSD FlashMemorySummit Flash Memory Summit Performance Speaking Engagements HP commissioned Demartek to evaluate the performance of the All-Flash HP 3PAR StoreServ 7450 Storage system with its Express Writes feature in an end-to-end 8 Gb/s FC (8GFC) environment. We compared the latency of database writes with and without this feature. https://www.demartek.com/demartek_HP_3PAR_StoreServ_7450_8GFC_Express_Writes_2015-05.html https://www.demartek.com/demartek_HP_3PAR_StoreServ_7450_8GFC_Express_Writes_2015-05.html Tue, 12 May 2015 15:15:00 GMT HPStorage flashstorage 8GFC SSD Performance HP News HP commissioned Demartek to evaluate the performance of the All-Flash HP 3PAR StoreServ 7450 Storage system in an end-to-end 16 Gb/s FC (16GFC) SAN and compare it to an end-to-end 8 Gb/s FC (8GFC) environment. We compared the performance and latency characteristics of the entire solution in each configuration. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_HP_3PAR_StoreServ_7450_16GFC_2015-03.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_HP_3PAR_StoreServ_7450_16GFC_2015-03.html Mon, 30 Mar 2015 16:00:00 GMT HPStorage flashstorage 16GFC SSD Performance HP News Demartek will present two sessions at the Data Storage Innovation (DSI) Conference in April 2015. These include a session discussing next generation storage networking technologies and a session discussing storage system power supply efficiency, the SNIA Emerald test specification, the EPA ENERGY STAR Data Center Storage program, and Demartek’s experience running these tests. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_DSI_2015-04.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_DSI_2015-04.html Wed, 4 Mar 2015 20:30:00 GMT Speaking Engagements Storage Networking DSIcon ENERGY STAR SNIA Emerald Demartek recently updated the popular Identity Theft Prevention Tips and Commentary report in an effort to stay up-to-date on new techniques and methods in which your personal and private information can be compromised. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Identity_Theft_Prevention_Tips_and_Commentary.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Identity_Theft_Prevention_Tips_and_Commentary.html Fri, 20 Feb 2015 15:00:00 GMT Identity Theft Prevention Commentary News and Reports IRS Phone Scam Research Report The EmulexEngine™ (XE)100 series (Skyhawk™) of Ethernet Controllers powers the latest generation of Emulex OneConnect® 10Gb and 40Gb Ethernet (10GbE and 40GbE) Network Adapters and Converged Network Adapters (CNAs). Emulex commissioned Demartek to compare these adapters to the equivalent new adapters from Intel Corporation, the X710 10GbE adapter and the XL710 40GbE adapter. https://www.demartek.com/demartek_Emulex_OCe14102_10GbE_OCe14401_40GbE_Adapter_Evaluation_2015-02.html https://www.demartek.com/demartek_Emulex_OCe14102_10GbE_OCe14401_40GbE_Adapter_Evaluation_2015-02.html Tue, 17 Feb 2015 21:30:00 GMT Emulex Ethernet 10GbE 40GbE Commentary I spent one day last week at the 2015 International CES in Las Vegas. As is my custom, I spend part of the time there looking for technologies that may find their way into the datacenter, and part of the time to see a few new interesting technologies. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_CES_2015.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_CES_2015.html Thu, 15 Jan 2015 19:00:00 GMT CES2015 Commentary In this second evaluation of HP’s 20GbE technology, HP commissioned Demartek to perform additional performance tests using its 20GbE technology with its BladeSystem platform and compare it to existing 10GbE and 40GbE technology available today in the HP BladeSystem and Cisco UCS blade server environments. For these tests, we performed file transfers between blade servers within the same blade chassis and a database data warehousing workload involving a blade server and an all-flash storage array. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_HP_20GbE_Adapter_Evaluation_2015-01.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_HP_20GbE_Adapter_Evaluation_2015-01.html Tue, 6 Jan 2015 19:15:00 GMT HP 20GbE Performance BladeSystem News Demartek is excited to announce its investment in a new eight-node cluster of servers this month. This eight-node cluster will be used for Hadoop testing and other distributed computing and storage testing platforms. This set of servers can also be combined with our other servers to drive very heavy storage and networking enterprise workload tests. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Hadoop_Cluster_2014-12.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Hadoop_Cluster_2014-12.html Wed, 17 Dec 2014 13:00:00 GMT Hadoop Cluster News In the latest Demartek Tutorial video installment we dive into the basics of iSCSI, continuing to provide a more detailed foundation of computer storage basics. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Tutorial_Video_iSCSI.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Tutorial_Video_SCSI.html Wed, 17 Dec 2014 13:00:00 GMT Video iSCSI News Enterprises may find themselves constrained by the available bandwidth between the servers and storage, or foresee a constraint as they observe their growing data consumption patterns. The HP StoreFabric SN1100E Gen 5 Fibre Channel (16GFC) host bus adapter (HBA) addresses server-side limitations on these increasing demands for storage performance by providing double the bandwidth of previous generation Fibre Channel HBAs while Gen 5 FC switching from Brocade fills the performance and bandwidth needs between server and storage. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_HP_StoreFabric_SN1100E_Brocade_6510_16Gb_Fibre_Channel_Evaluation_2014-11.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_HP_StoreFabric_SN1100E_Brocade_6510_16Gb_Fibre_Channel_Evaluation_2014-11.html Wed, 3 Dec 2014 16:30:00 GMT HBA FibreChannel 16GFC HP Emulex Brocade Performance News I gave two presentations at this month’s SNIA Storage Developers Conference (SDC) 2014 in Santa Clara, California. I also had the opportunity to attend a few technical sessions and meet with friends and business partners. This was the 11th annual SDC, and I understand that the registration for this year’s event was nearly 500 people, up from approximately 400 people last year. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Comments_SDC2014.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Comments_SDC2014.html Fri, 26 Sep 2014 14:45:00 GMT SDC2014 SNIA Storage Developer Conference SNIAEmerald ENERGY STAR Energy Efficiency Performance Commentary Earlier this month I attended the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) 2014 in San Francisco. I was especially interested in four technologies: NVM Express (NVMe), Thunderbolt 2, USB 3.1 and PCIe 4.0. I also observed a few other interesting tidbits. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Comments_IDF2014_and_NVMe_Thunderbolt_2_USB_3_1.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Comments_IDF2014_and_NVMe_Thunderbolt_2_USB_3_1.html Wed, 24 Sep 2014 17:45:00 GMT NVMe USB 3.1 Thunderbolt 2 PCIe 4.0 SSD IDF2014 Lab Validation Lab Testing Commentary Demartek announces that it is the first test lab to become an official SNIA Emerald™ Recognized Tester. Demartek has demonstrated proficiency with the SNIA Emerald test procedure, and Demartek’s processes and expertise in this area have been audited by SNIA. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_SNIA_Emerald_Recognized_Tester_Recognition_2014-09.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_SNIA_Emerald_Recognized_Tester_Recognition_2014-09.html Mon, 22 Sep 2014 14:00:00 GMT SNIAEmerald ENERGY STAR Energy Efficiency News IBM commissioned Demartek to evaluate the performance of IBM FlashSystem 840, an all-flash storage array, by running the VMware VMmark2 benchmark against systems under test using FlashSystem 840 as the virtual machine storage. IBM FlashSystem 840 is an all-flash storage system designed for very low, sub-millisecond latency, trademarked as IBM MicroLatency. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_IBM_FlashSystem_840_VMmark_Evaluation_2014-09.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_IBM_FlashSystem_840_VMmark_Evaluation_2014-09.html Mon, 8 Sep 2014 19:00:00 GMT IBM Flash SSD VMmark News With all the hype associated with “cloud computing,” I decided to do some testing of the world’s public cloud infrastructure over the past few days. I was not trying to boil the ocean, but had a very specific hypothesis and set of tests in mind. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Commentary_Theres_Spam_in_Them_Thar_Clouds.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Commentary_Theres_Spam_in_Them_Thar_Clouds.html Fri, 29 Aug 2014 19:00:00 GMT Commentary Cloud Spam I attended the Flash Memory Summit 2014, held in Santa Clara, California. The organizers told me that registration for this year’s annual event was approximately 5000 people, with somewhere in the vicinity of 3500-4000 people attending, which should certainly be considered a success. There were approximately 130 sessions covering a wide range of topics relating to flash memory or future technologies beyond flash memory. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Flash_Memory_Summit_2014_Commentary.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Flash_Memory_Summit_2014_Commentary.html Thu, 14 Aug 2014 15:45:00 GMT Commentary FlashMem FlashMemorySummit Flash Memory Summit Last week I was called from the telephone number 202-241-1046 and the person claimed to be from the IRS and asked for somebody other than me. Here is what happened... https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Comments_on_IRS_telephone_scam_2014-08-05.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Comments_on_IRS_telephone_scam_2014-08-05.html Tue, 5 Aug 2014 13:00:00 GMT Commentary IRS Phone Scam HP commissioned Demartek to compare HP OneView management software and Cisco UCS Manager management software with respect to deploying and maintaining their respective blade server platforms. For our tests, we divided the tasks into those that would typically be performed once during an installation and those ongoing maintenance tasks that would be performed more frequently, in some cases, daily. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_HP_OneView_Evaluation_2014-07.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_HP_OneView_Evaluation_2014-07.html Mon, 28 Jul 2014 14:45:00 GMT HP OneView BladeSystem News Demartek will present “Storage Systems Can Now Get ENERGY STAR Labels and Why You Should Care” at the SNIA Storage Developer Conference (SDC) in September 2014. In this session, Dennis Martin, Demartek President, will discuss power supply efficiency, the SNIA Emerald test specification, the EPA ENERGY STAR Data Center Storage program, and Demartek’s experience running these tests and submitting the proper data to the EPA. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presents_SNIA_DeveloperConference_2014-07.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presents_SNIA_DeveloperConference_2014-07.html Thu, 24 Jul 2014 15:00:00 GMT Speaking Engagements SDC ENERGY STAR SNIA Emerald Demartek released the next installment in its Tutorial Video series - Fibre Channel Basics. This short video describes Fibre Channel, its history and some basic concepts. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Tutorial_Video_FC.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Tutorial_Video_FC.html Tue, 8 Jul 2014 17:00:00 GMT News Video FibreChannel This guide is designed for managers and technical professionals within IT departments who are exploring the benefits of deploying, or upgrading to, 16Gb Fibre Channel technology or who are looking for actual deployment examples of 16Gb Fibre Channel solutions. This guide is intended to be used as a reference and is divided into sections including marketplace data, technology areas (HBAs, switches, storage systems, etc.), and deployment guidance for virtual servers, including VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_FibreChannel_Deployment_Guide.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_FibreChannel_Deployment_Guide.html Tue, 17 Jun 2014 12:00:00 GMT Research Report FibreChannel Deployment Guide News How does flash-based storage perform in the real world? Demartek will report the results of vendor-neutral performance tests run on database and virtualization workloads typical of those found in today’s data centers. The tests cover both hybrid and all-flash storage systems. Attendees will come away with reasonable estimates of what they can expect in practice, since the tests are independent and focus on current applications and environments. The results also reveal additional advantages of flash-based storage, with what Dennis Martin calls “happy side effects”. Dennis will also discuss improvements to expect in the near future. Vendors will get an idea of how their products shape up and where they need to put their efforts. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_FlashMemorySummit_2014-08.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_FlashMemorySummit_2014-08.html Wed, 11 Jun 2014 18:00:00 GMT FlashMem Speaking Engagements FlashMemorySummit SSD Flash In order to accommodate growing demands for bandwidth, HP has introduced its 20GbE technology for the HP BladeSystem environment. This HP 20GbE technology is compatible with today’s 10GbE and 40GbE technology, and is supported in existing HP BladeSystem enclosures. HP commissioned Demartek to analyze the performance of its 20GbE technology with its BladeSystem platform and compare it to existing 10GbE technology available today. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_HP_20GbE_Technology_BladeSystem_Evaluation_2014-06.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_HP_20GbE_Technology_BladeSystem_Evaluation_2014-06.html Mon, 9 Jun 2014 20:00:00 GMT HP 20GbE Performance BladeSystem News In the first calendar quarter of 2014, QLogic acquired the NetXtreme II technology from Broadcom. This technology includes the BCM957810S dual-port Converged NIC, now branded as the QLogic NetXtreme II 57810S that supports 10 Gbps IP networking with network protocol offload capabilities, Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) with full hardware offload and iSCSI with full hardware offload. This adapter fits the description of a Converged Network Adapter (CNA). QLogic commissioned Demartek to update a report previously issued in 2012 that evaluates this adapter and compares its performance to other competitive 10 Gbps adapters. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_QLogic_57810S_FCoE-iSCSI_Adapter_Evaluation_2014-05.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_QLogic_57810S_FCoE-iSCSI_Adapter_Evaluation_2014-05.html Wed, 28 May 2014 23:00:00 GMT QLogic Broadcom FCoE iSCSI News HP commissioned Demartek to run database workloads that show the performance of the HP 3PAR 7450 All-flash Storage system. Not only did the StoreServ 7450 showed excellent low latency and fast performance for a typical OLTP database workload, Demartek also found that the StoreServ 7450 was not very heavily taxed with a single OLTP database accessing the array. As a result, we proceeded to run a combination of database workloads including two online transaction processing (OLTP) workloads and a data warehouse workload to see how well this storage system would handle a fairly heavy, mixed workload. We deployed a mixture of 16Gb and 8Gb Fibre Channel infrastructure in this series of tests. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_HP_3PAR_StoreServ_FlashStorage_2014-05.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_HP_3PAR_StoreServ_FlashStorage_2014-05.html Wed, 21 May 2014 15:15:00 GMT HP SSD Performance News In order to validate the fault-tolerance of the Dell SPERC8 storage adapters, Dell commissioned Demartek to build a Windows Server 2012 R2 failover cluster with a PowerEdge VRTX system using two SPERC8 adapters, and run a database workload, testing the failover functions. The redundant PERC adapters were configured in an active/standby configuration where the second PERC was hot and ready to take over the workload in the event of failure of the first PERC adapter. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Dell_PowerEdge_VRTX_2014-05.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Dell_PowerEdge_VRTX_2014-05.html Tue, 20 May 2014 20:00:00 GMT Dell VRTX Failover News NetApp commissioned Demartek to evaluate the effectiveness of Flash Pool with different types and numbers of hard disk drives using an online transaction processing (OLTP) database workload, and to evaluate the performance of Flash Pool in a clustered Data ONTAP environment during a cluster storage node failover scenario. The configurations tested included SAS HDD + SSD for performance and SATA HDD + SSD for balance of performance and capacity – storage efficiency. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_NetApp_Hybrid_Array_with_Flash_Pool_Technology_Evaluation_2014-05.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_NetApp_Hybrid_Array_with_Flash_Pool_Technology_Evaluation_2014-05.html Fri, 16 May 2014 13:45:00 GMT SSD NetApp Caching Performance News In this podcast interview with SearchSolidStateStorage, Dennis Martin, president of Demartek, explains the importance of I/O per second (IOPS), throughput and latency for varying types of workloads, the significance of block size and random or sequential workloads and the chances that a million IOPS or microsecond latency will matter to the average enterprise data center. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_SearchStorage_SolidStateStorage_Podcast_2014-05.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_SearchStorage_SolidStateStorage_Podcast_2014-05.html Thu, 1 May 2014 16:00:00 GMT Flash Performance SSD Podcast Our computer storage basics video is the first in a series of short tutorial videos produced by Demartek. These videos help to provide a solid foundation for those seeking knowledge on computer storage and networking topics. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Tutorial_Video.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Tutorial_Video.html Thu, 27 Mar 2014 22:00:00 GMT News Video LSI and Dell commissioned Demartek to test dual Dell PERC H710P controllers with a split backplane Dell PowerEdgeR820 server, validating system availability when drives or controllers are removed, comparing performance parameters for simple I/O stress tests using one or both raid controllers, and validating performance parameters with two real-world workloads run in VMs. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Dell_LSI_Dual_PERC_RAID_Evaluation_2014-03.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Dell_LSI_Dual_PERC_RAID_Evaluation_2014-03.html Fri, 14 Mar 2014 13:00:00 GMT Dell LSI RAID Performance Demartek deployed a complete end-to-end 16GFC solution including an end-to-end Gen 5 (16Gb) Fibre Channel solution with the HP c7000 BladeSystem Enclosure, HP ProLiant BL460c Gen8 servers, 16GFC HBAs, embedded 16GFC switches and HP MSA 2040 16GFC storage system. Demartek ran a read-intensive data warehouse workload to determine whether this type of workload could take advantage of the increased bandwidth and performance that Gen 5 Fibre Channel provides. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_hP_BladeServer_MSA_16GFC_Storage_Evaluation_2014-03.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_hP_BladeServer_MSA_16GFC_Storage_Evaluation_2014-03.html Mon, 10 Mar 2014 20:00:00 GMT HP SSD Performance With our move now complete, our new office and testing lab are just what Demartek needed. With a growing staff, thriving B2B interaction and testing demand, along with a desired sense of “coming-of-age,” this new location is perfect for our growing business needs. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_move_2014_complete.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_move_2014_complete.html Thu, 13 Feb 2014 16:15:00 GMT Headquarters Golden Commentary Demartek will discuss next generation datacenters at the IT Roadmap Conference in Denver on Tuesday, June 17, 2014. Topics will include futures for Ethernet, Fibre Channel and other data center technologies. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_ITRoadmap_Denver_2014-06.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_ITRoadmap_Denver_2014-06.html Tue, 11 Feb 2014 17:00:00 GMT Speaking Engagements ITRoadmap Ethernet FibreChannel Demartek will present “Storage Systems Can Now Get ENERGY STAR Labels and Why You Should Care” at the inaugural Data Storage Innovation (DSI) Conference in April 2014. In this session, Dennis Martin, Demartek President, will discuss power supply efficiency, the SNIA Emerald test specification, the EPA ENERGY STAR Data Center Storage program, and Demartek’s experience running these tests. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_DSI_2014-04.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_DSI_2014-04.html Mon, 10 Feb 2014 13:00:00 GMT Speaking Engagements DSIcon ENERGY STAR SNIA Emerald Demartek will discuss next generation datacenters at the IT Roadmap Conference in Chicago on Wednesday, March 18, 2014. Topics will include futures for Ethernet, Fibre Channel and other data center technologies. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_ITRoadmap_Chicago_2014-03.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_ITRoadmap_Chicago_2014-03.html Fri, 7 Feb 2014 13:00:00 GMT Speaking Engagements ITRoadmap Ethernet FibreChannel We are very excited to announce that we are moving to a larger facility in Golden, Colorado, January 20-24, 2014! https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_move_2014.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_move_2014.html Mon, 20 Jan 2014 15:30:00 GMT Headquarters Golden Commentary I had the opportunity to spend a day at the 2014 International CES in Las Vegas last week. My primary goal in attending was to gain some insight into future technologies that may have an impact in datacenter environments during the next year or so. Of course, I also found a few moments to take a peek at a few of the newer consumer gadgets. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_CES_2014.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_CES_2014.html Wed, 15 Jan 2014 14:00:00 GMT CES2014 Commentary NetApp commissioned Demartek to provide a summary of the architectures of the NetApp flash solutions available today and the new FlashRay™ family expected to become available in 2014. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_NetApp_Flash_Storage_Portfolio_2014-01.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_NetApp_Flash_Storage_Portfolio_2014-01.html Tue, 7 Jan 2014 19:30:00 GMT SSD NetApp Caching Commentary Dennis Martin, Demartek President, was interviewed by SearchStorage in order to answer the question: When Does 16 Gbps Fibre Channel Make Sense? https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Interview_When_Does_16GFC_Make_Sense_2013-12.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Interview_When_Does_16GFC_Make_Sense_2013-12.html Mon, 23 Dec 2013 18:00:00 GMT FC 16GFC Fibre Channel News Demartek, an independent computer industry analyst firm with its own computer test lab, today announces that it has become an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recognized test laboratory for the United States EPA ENERGY STAR® Data Center Storage program. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_EPA_Test_Laboratory_Recognition_2013-12.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_EPA_Test_Laboratory_Recognition_2013-12.html Mon, 23 Dec 2013 18:00:00 GMT ENERGY STAR Lab Testing News Demartek, an independent computer industry analyst firm with its own computer test lab, today announces that it has been awarded ISO/IEC 17025:2005 accreditation as an electrical testing laboratory. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_ISO-17025_Accreditation_2013-12.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_ISO-17025_Accreditation_2013-12.html Thu, 19 Dec 2013 16:00:00 GMT ISO 17025 Lab Testing News Demartek recently tested NetApp Flash Accel and Flash Cache Technologies in an effort to show the ways they accelerate performance and improve storage efficiency. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_NetApp_FlashAccel_FlashCache_Technology_2013-10.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_NetApp_FlashAccel_FlashCache_Technology_2013-10.html Thu, 31 Oct 2013 13:00:00 GMT News NetApp SSD Performance Demartek will present two sessions at the upcoming Storage Decisions Conference New York in October. Sessions will focus on SSD Storage applications and new technology in the field of SSDs. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_StorageDecisions_SanFrancisco_2013-10.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_StorageDecisions_SanFrancisco_2013-10.html Wed, 16 Oct 2013 16:00:00 GMT Speaking Engagements Storage Decisions StorageEvents SSD In an effort to inform the computer technology community of services we lend, Demartek has created a short video detailing our offerings. If you have any questions regarding a service we offer, or could potentially provide, don't hesitate to contact us. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Video_Library.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Video_Library.html Wed, 16 Oct 2013 15:00:00 GMT News Video In those cases where mission-critical applications need the fastest performance, an all-flash solution can be the right choice. In other cases, a solution that uses flash as a caching layer combined with hard disk drive technology may be the best choice. NetApp commissioned Demartek to evaluate the performance of its EF540 flash array and the E-Series SANtricity SSD Cache technology. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_NetApp_EF540_FlashArray_SANtricity_SSD_Cache_2013-09.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_NetApp_EF540_FlashArray_SANtricity_SSD_Cache_2013-09.html Fri, 20 Sep 2013 14:15:00 GMT SSD NetApp Performance Fibre Channel News I recently attended the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) 2013 in San Francisco in order to follow-up on the progress of NVM Express (NVMe). While there, I attended an NVMe technical session and spent a large amount of time in the NVMe Pavilion discussing NVMe with most of the vendors there. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Comments_IDF2013_and_NVMe.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Comments_IDF2013_and_NVMe.html Thu, 19 Sep 2013 17:00:00 GMT SSD NVMe IDF2013 Lab Validation Lab Testing Commentary Dennis Martin recently sat down with HP to discuss the increasing demand for storage performance and bandwidth in today's datacenters. The podcast discussion and Demartek’s evaluation summary are now available. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_HP_16GFC_Podcast_2013-09.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_HP_16GFC_Podcast_2013-09.html Wed, 11 Sep 2013 15:00:00 GMT SSD Fibre Channel Performance News EMC commissioned Demartek to evaluate the performance of its VNX8000 storage system with MCx (multi-core optimization) and SSD technology, along with its server-side flash software EMC XtremSW Cache. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_EMC_VNX8000_XtremSW_Cache_Evaluation_2013-09.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_EMC_VNX8000_XtremSW_Cache_Evaluation_2013-09.html Wed, 04 Sep 2013 09:00:00 GMT SSD EMC Performance Fibre Channel iSCSI FCoE News Demartek was recently commissioned by HP to evaluate their new HP StoreFabric SN1000E 16GFC HBA in an effort to meet the increasing server and storage demands in today's datacenter. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_HP_StoreFabric_SN1000E_16GFC_HBA_Evaluation_2013-08.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_HP_StoreFabric_SN1000E_16GFC_HBA_Evaluation_2013-08.html Mon, 26 Aug 2013 13:00:00 GMT 16GFC SSD Performance HP Fibre Channel News Demartek, in staying on top of trends, plans to offer energy efficiency testing to its suite of lab validation tests. How can we help your business do more with less? https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_lab_validation.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_lab_validation.html Mon, 12 Aug 2013 13:00:00 GMT Energy Efficiency Testing Lab Validation Performance Lab Testing News Dennis Martin will present three sessions at Storage Networking World Conference in Long Beach, CA in October. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_SNWUSA_2013-10.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_SNWUSA_2013-10.html Fri, 09 Aug 2013 13:00:00 GMT Speaking Engagements SNWUSA Virtualization Demartek will present two sessions at the upcoming Storage Decisions Conference New York in September. Sessions will focus on SSD Storage applications and new technology in the field of SSDs. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_StorageDecisions_NewYork_2013-09.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_StorageDecisions_NewYork_2013-09.html Fri, 09 Aug 2013 13:00:00 GMT Speaking Engagements Storage Decisions StorageEvents SSD Dennis Martin, Demartek President, will present and chair sessions at the Flash Memory Summit 2013 in Santa Clara, California, August 13-15, 2013. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Flash_Memory_Summit_2013-08.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Flash_Memory_Summit_2013-08.html Tue, 16 Jul 2013 12:00:00 GMT SSD Caching PCIe FlashMem Flash Memory Summit Speaking Engagements Demartek announces that it participated in the SNIA Emerald Power Efficiency Training program held at the SNIA Technology Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, during the week of June 24, 2013. Demartek brought one of its high-performance servers along with an all-flash array to the event to demonstrate how to run the SNIA Emerald tests. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Attends_SNIA_Emerald_Training.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Attends_SNIA_Emerald_Training.html Tue, 16 Jul 2013 12:00:00 GMT SNIA Emerald Power Efficiency Lab Testing Lab Validation Demartek announces the addition of 220VAC electric power to its lab. This expands Demartek’s capabilities to test storage systems, blade servers and other systems that have higher power requirements. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_220v_Capabilities_2013-07.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_220v_Capabilities_2013-07.html Tue, 16 Jul 2013 12:00:00 GMT 220VAC Lab Testing Lab Validation Demartek evaluated the performance of Internal HDD, Fibre Channel (FC) HDD, and Fibre Channel solid state drives (SSD) under bootstorm conditions and compared VM boot times, server load, and disk throughput performance metrics. In addition, Demartek compared results for different RAID controller cache configurations and FC host bus adapter (HBA) queue depths. We also compared latency of the storage systems and host server CPU utilization during the bootstorm tests. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Analysis_of_VDI_Storage_Performance_during_Bootstorm.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Analysis_of_VDI_Storage_Performance_during_Bootstorm.html Mon, 17 Jun 2013 11:00:00 GMT VDI Bootstorm Performance SSD FC Fibre Channel SAS Lab Validation News Dennis Martin, in an interview with Tech Target, discusses how solid-state storage has completely revolutionized consumer electronics products and best practices for maximizing SSD performance. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_StorageMagazine_2013-07.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_StorageMagazine_2013-07.html Wed, 10 Jul 2013 11:00:00 GMT SSD Commentary Interview SearchDataCenter Dennis Martin, Demartek President, found some interesting similarities between the horse and buggy era and today's solid state storage and SSD technology. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Horses_Buggies_SSDs_Commentary.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Horses_Buggies_SSDs_Commentary.html Mon, 03 Jun 2013 11:15:00 GMT SSD Commentary With different methods of Identity Theft popping up all the time it is best to stay informed in an effort to avoid becoming a victim of ID Theft. Dennis Martin will be providing Identity Theft prevention tips in this upcoming speaking engagement. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Identity_Theft_Prevention_Tips_Speaking_Event.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Identity_Theft_Prevention_Tips_Speaking_Event.html Wed, 08 May 2013 17:00:00 GMT Identity Theft Prevention Speaking Engagements All-to-often there is a lack of thought put into how to securely, safely, and thoroughly "wipe" a computer's drives clean before repurposing, selling, donating or disposing it. This presentation details the best practices for secure and complete data deletion. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presents_Data_Destruction_Methods.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presents_Data_Destruction_Methods.html Wed, 08 May 2013 15:00:00 GMT SSD Identity Theft Prevention News Astute commissioned Demartek to compare the performance of their all-flash ViSX G4 Storage Appliance with two competing all-flash storage arrays. One of these competing arrays is currently available from a major storage vendor, and the other is currently available from a “start-up” storage vendor. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Astute_ViSX_G4_Evaluation_2013-04.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Astute_ViSX_G4_Evaluation_2013-04.html Tue, 07 May 2013 13:00:00 GMT SSD iSCSI Lab Validation News Dennis Martin, Demartek President, will be speaking again at the Storage Decisions Chicago conference in June. He will be giving two sessions covering the ways to deploy solid state storage, ways to evaluate solid state storage including caching solutions and primary storage solutions. He will also discuss the current state of the art and emerging technologies. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_StorageDecisions_Chicago_2013-06.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_StorageDecisions_Chicago_2013-06.html Wed, 10 Apr 2013 18:00:00 GMT SSD StorageEvents SDChicago13 SDChicago2013 Storage Decisions Speaking Engagements We have been testing 16 Gb Fibre Channel (16GFC) in our lab for more than a year, and were curious about backward compatibility. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_16GFC_Backward_Compatibility_2013-04.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_16GFC_Backward_Compatibility_2013-04.html Wed, 10 Apr 2013 12:00:00 GMT FC 16GFC Fibre Channel Commentary Recently, SearchStorage interviewed Dennis Martin on the state of network storage technologies including server virtualization, solid-state storage, and new generations of servers. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_StorageMagazine_2013-02.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_StorageMagazine_2013-02.html Thu, 28 Feb 2013 15:00:00 GMT iSCSI FCoE FC SSD Virtualization PCIe Fibre Channel STEC commissioned Demartek to evaluate its s1120 PCIe Accelerators in both primary storage and caching configurations with its EnhanceIO SSD Cache Software, and to compare these solutions to a more traditional Fibre Channel SAN hard disk drive storage solution. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_STEC_S1120_PCIe_Evaluation_2013-02.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_STEC_S1120_PCIe_Evaluation_2013-02.html Wed, 20 Feb 2013 15:00:00 GMT Performance STEC FC SSD caching PCIe Dennis Martin was interviewed by SearchDataCenter about why we have data center storage bottlenecking problems and potential solutions to these problems. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Data_Center_Storage_Bottleneck_Discussion.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Data_Center_Storage_Bottleneck_Discussion.html Fri, 01 Feb 2013 13:00:00 GMT Performance Interview SearchDataCenter SSD Dennis Martin will be presenting a session titled "Analyst Perspective and Test Lab Report: 16Gb Fibre Channel Performance and Recommendations" at Storage Networking World's Spring 2013 Conference in Orlando, FL. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_SNWUSA_2013-04.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_SNWUSA_2013-04.html Wed, 16 Jan 2013 17:00:00 GMT Fibre Channel 16GFC SNWUSA Speaking Engagements Demartek updates its web site for 2013. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Rolls_Out_New_Web_Design_2013.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Rolls_Out_New_Web_Design_2013.html Wed, 2 Jan 2013 17:00:00 GMT Commentary website In November, Dennis Martin was interviewed by SearchDataCenter regarding iSCSI Performance as well as the advantages and disadvantages of using iSCSI. This is the second and third installment of this interview. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_iSCSI_Performance_Expert_Discussion_Parts_2-3.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_iSCSI_Performance_Expert_Discussion_Parts_2-3.html Fri, 7 Dec 2012 13:00:00 GMT iSCSI SearchDataCenter Performance Interview QLogic has released its PCIe 3.0 16Gb Fibre Channel (16GFC) host bus adapter (HBA), known as the QLogic 2600 series Fibre Channel HBA. In this report Demartek analyzed the storage performance, reliability and scalability of QLogic 2600 Series FC HBAs relative to those from Emulex as well as its previous generation adapter. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_QLogic_2600_FC_HBA_2012-12.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_QLogic_2600_FC_HBA_2012-12.html Tue, 4 Dec 2012 13:00:00 GMT FC QLogic HBA Fibre Channel Research Report Earlier this month, Dennis Martin was interviewed by SearchDataCenter regarding iSCSI Performance as well as the advantages and disadvantages of using iSCSI. This question and answer interview, along with a downloadable podcast, are available now. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_iSCSI_Performance_Expert_Discussion.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_iSCSI_Performance_Expert_Discussion.html Thu, 29 Nov 2012 20:00:00 GMT iSCSI SearchDataCenter Performance Podcast Interview Demartek will participate on a webcast discussing 16Gb Fibre Channel with Emulex on Friday, November 30, 2012. Demartek audited the results of some tests recently completed using the Emulex LPe16000B 16GFC HBA. The Demartek report, Demartek Emulex LPe16000B 16GFC HBA Evaluation that will be discussed during this webcast was released in early October. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Emulex_16Gb_Evaluation_Webcast.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Emulex_16Gb_Evaluation_Webcast.html Mon, 26 Nov 2012 18:00:00 GMT Fibre Channel Webcast Emulex As the interest in converged networks grows, and as the vendors from the traditional Ethernet adapter and Fibre Channel adapter marketplaces produce converged products, questions arise about the capabilities and performance of Converged Network Adapters (CNA) that support storage over Ethernet protocols including NFS, iSCSI, and FCoE. Intel® commissioned Demartek to compare the performance of CNAs from two leading Fibre Channel adapter vendors and the Intel® Ethernet Converged Network Adapter X520 in virtual server environments with various numbers of guest virtual machines. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Intel_X520_Performance_Evaluation_2012-11.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Intel_X520_Performance_Evaluation_2012-11.html Thu, 8 Nov 2012 16:00:00 GMT Intel 10GbE FCoE iSCSI CNA Fibre Channel Lab Validation Lab Testing Research Report Dennis Martin, Demartek President, was interviewed by SearchDataCenter about Windows Server 2012 as part of their Expert Q and A series. Topics include: Windows Server 2012, SR-IOV and SMB 3.0. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Interview_SSD_FiveQuestions_2012-01.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Interview_SSD_FiveQuestions_2012-01.html Mon, 29 Oct 2012 16:00:00 GMT Windows Server 2012 Interview SR-IOV SMB 3.0 Emulex has released its second-generation 16Gb Fibre Channel (16GFC) host bus adapter (HBA), known as the LPe16000B, to address these increasing demands on storage performance. Demartek audited the results of some tests recently completed using the Emulex LPe16000B 16GFC HBA. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Emulex_LPe16000B_Evaluation_2012-10.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Emulex_LPe16000B_Evaluation_2012-10.html Mon, 1 Oct 2012 13:00:00 GMT Emulex 16GFC Fibre Channel Lab Validation Lab Testing Research Report I spent part of this week at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) 2012 in San Francisco, primarily to learn more about NVM Express (NVMe) and see the prototype solutions on display. I spent time with representatives from several companies and discussed some of the technical details with a few of the architects. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Comments_IDF2012_and_NVMe.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Comments_IDF2012_and_NVMe.html Thu, 13 Sep 2012 17:00:00 GMT SSD NVMe Lab Validation Lab Testing IDF2012 Commentary Demartek evaluated the LSI Nytro XD Application Acceleration solution with a read-intensive decision support workload in order to measure performance and latency. We observed substantial performance improvements with this server-side SSD caching solution. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_LSI_NytroXD_Evaluation_2012-09.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_LSI_NytroXD_Evaluation_2012-09.html Tue, 4 Sep 2012 13:30:00 GMT SSD LSI Lab Validation Lab Testing Research Report Demartek evaluated the performance and latency of the Brocade 6510 16 Gbps Fibre Channel switch. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Brocade6510_Latency_Evaluation.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Brocade6510_Latency_Evaluation.html Tue, 4 Sep 2012 13:30:00 GMT Fibre Channel Brocade Lab Validation Lab Testing Research Report Demartek presents a comparison of different file compression methods and how they perform on various file types. A variety of compression algorithms and applications were used to compress a large number of file types. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Shares_Compression_Results.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Shares_Compression_Results.html Fri, 10 Aug 2012 12:00:00 GMT Compression Research Report Lab Validation Lab Testing Dennis Martin, Demartek President, will describe various forms of I/O virtualization at the Storage Networking World conference in Santa Clara, October 16-19, 2012. In this session, we will define I/O virtualization and how it complements server virtualization. We will discuss standards such as SR-IOV and MR-IOV, and include a sneak peek at SR-IOV in Windows Server 2012. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_SNWUSA_2012-10.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_SNWUSA_2012-10.html Fri, 10 Aug 2012 12:00:00 GMT SNWUSA SR-IOV I/O Virtualization Speaking Engagements Dennis Martin, President of Demartek, will present two sessions at the Storage Decisions Conference in New York, September 24-25, 2012. These sessions are: “Where (and How and Why) to Implement Solid-State Storage” and “Innovations in Storage Networking: Next-Gen Storage Networks for Next-Gen Data Centers”. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_SSDs_StorageDecisions_2012-09.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_SSDs_StorageDecisions_2012-09.html Fri, 10 Aug 2012 12:00:00 GMT SSD SDNY2012 Flash Fibre Channel FCoE 10GbE 16GFC Storage Decisions StorageEvents Speaking Engagements Demartek will present findings and discuss impressions of thier recent evaluation of multi-protocol and multi-topology storage networks in this upcoming webinar. Event takes place on Aug. 9, 2012 at 1pm ET/10am PT. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Webinar_Multiprotocol_Topology_Storage.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Webinar_Multiprotocol_Topology_Storage.html Thu, 2 Aug 2012 20:00:00 GMT Webinar Fibre Channel FCoE iSCSI Cisco Speaking Engagements In today’s complex storage networking environments and with the advent of converged, or unified networking, it is possible to run multiple storage protocols in the same network. Current datacenter networks deploy a variety of network topologies, from simple one-switch networks found in small and medium business, to complex aggregate/core and access multi-switch topologies found in large datacenters. There are often questions regarding latencies for storage systems when deployed in various network topologies. Cisco Systems® commissioned Demartek to evaluate the effects of various networking topologies in a server and storage environment. Specifically, three storage protocols were tested in the same network simultaneously and with different network topologies. These protocols are iSCSI, FCoE and native Fibre Channel. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Cisco_Multi-protocol_Multi-topology_Latency_Evaluation_2011-07.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Cisco_Multi-protocol_Multi-topology_Latency_Evaluation_2011-07.html Mon, 23 Jul 2012 14:15:00 GMT Cisco 10GbE Fibre Channel FCoE iSCSI Multi-protocol Latency Research Report With SSDs taking the enterprise by storm, one way to deploy them is as a cache in front of existing storage. The competition is heating up in the SSD caching marketplace, as vendors both large and small are introducing SSD caching products. One of these is the VeloBit HyperCache 1.1 SSD caching software. Because it is a host-based software solution, it can work with any SSD in any form factor, including PCIe cards and disk-drive form factor SSDs. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_VeloBit_SSD_Caching_Evaluation_2012-07.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_VeloBit_SSD_Caching_Evaluation_2012-07.html Wed, 11 Jul 2012 12:29:00 GMT VeloBit SSD Caching Research Report Demartek announces the addition of its first PCI Express 3.0 server (formerly known as “Romley”) to its on-site test lab that further strengthens its virtual server and I/O testing capabilities. This server includes two Intel® Xeon E5-2690 (“Sandy Bridge-EP”) eight-core processors that support hyper-threading, for a total of 32 logical processors. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Romley_2012-07.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Romley_2012-07.html Tue, 10 Jul 2012 18:00:00 GMT PCI Express 3.0 Lab Testing SSD News and Reports PCIe 3.0 Lab Validation Now that SSDs are gaining in acceptance, automated tiering for SSDs and SSD caching are getting much more serious consideration. In this session we will compare SSD automated storage tiering and SSD caching, showing commonalities and the differences as well as the advantages and disadvantages of each type of technology. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Flash_Memory_Summit_2012-08-22.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Flash_Memory_Summit_2012-08-22.html Fri, 15 Jun 2012 18:00:00 GMT SSD FlashMem Flash Memory Summit Caching Speaking Engagements Dennis Martin, President of Demartek, was a special guest on an Emulex webcast discussing 10GbE I/O connectivity. The results of this webcast are available here, along with the slides from this presentation. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Emulex_Cabling_Guide_Webcast_Results_2012-06-13.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Emulex_Cabling_Guide_Webcast_Results_2012-06-13.html Wed, 13 Jun 2012 18:00:00 GMT 10GbE Cabling Emulex Webcast Speaking Engagements Demartek announces the upgrade of its lab and the addition of new resources and capabilities. The Demartek lab has been expanded with additional rack space, increased electric power and upgraded air conditioning. Several new resources and capabilities have also been added. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Lab_upgrades_2012-06.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Lab_upgrades_2012-06.html Mon, 11 Jun 2012 15:45:00 GMT 16GFC Lab Validation Virtualization Fibre Channel WAN Infiniband Dennis Martin, President of Demartek, is a special guest on an Emulex webcast discussing 10GbE I/O connectivity. Customers today have a wide selection of servers, switches, adapters and storage for their traditional Storage Area Network environments, virtualization deployments and emerging cloud infrastructures. A critical piece to any data center is the cables making everything work together. With all the cable options available, it can be hard to know which apply to a given scenario. In this webcast, we will provide an overview of cable options. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Emulex_Cabling_Guide_Webcast_2012-06-13.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Emulex_Cabling_Guide_Webcast_2012-06-13.html Fri, 8 Jun 2012 14:00:00 GMT 10GbE Cabling Emulex FCoE iSCSI Webcast Speaking Engagements As the deployment of bandwidth-intensive applications such as public and private cloud computing continue to increase, IT administrators are turning to 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) technology for cost-effective and flexible methods of addressing growing network traffic demands. A key component of the 10GbE network is the network adapter with network protocol processing offload capabilities... https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Broadcom_BCM957810_FCoE-iSCSI_Adapter_Evaluation_2012-06.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Broadcom_BCM957810_FCoE-iSCSI_Adapter_Evaluation_2012-06.html Fri, 1 Jun 2012 13:00:00 GMT Broadcom 10GbE FCoE iSCSI Research Report Our web logs indicate that the Demartek SSD Deployment Guide 2012-Q2 was downloaded more than 1000 times during the first 30 days that it became available. This count excludes web crawlers, bots and other non-human accesses. Here are a few statistics regarding these downloads... https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_SSD_Deployment_Guide_statistics_2012-06.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_SSD_Deployment_Guide_statistics_2012-06.html Fri, 1 Jun 2012 13:00:00 GMT Commentary SSD Deployment Guide Today’s datacenters face a myriad of challenges brought by mounting data volumes, larger user populations, and increasingly more complex data analyses. Many bandwidth-intensive applications such as data warehousing, data mining, high-end video production, seismic data interpretation and high-performance computing applications need faster throughput to satisfy complex, large-scale challenges. Recent innovations in networking and storage technologies such as 16 Gbps Fibre Channel and solid state storage can help alleviate bandwidth issues for high traffic applications. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Brocade_Texas_Memory_Systems_16GFC_Oracle_RAC_Evaluation_2012-05.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Brocade_Texas_Memory_Systems_16GFC_Oracle_RAC_Evaluation_2012-05.html Thu, 31 May 2012 14:00:00 GMT SSD TexasMemorySystems Brocade 16GFC Benchmark Research Report As CIOs and datacenter managers consider increasing stresses on existing computing infrastructure and the seemingly insatiable demand for storage and rapid access to that storage, new infrastructure concepts must be investigated. The combination of recently announced 16 Gbps Fibre Channel infrastructure and Solid State Drive (SSD) technology offers a compelling way to significantly improve performance, lower costs and dramatically condense server and storage infrastructure footprints. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Brocade_GridIron_16GFC_MySQL_Evaluation_2012-04.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Brocade_GridIron_16GFC_MySQL_Evaluation_2012-04.html Wed, 30 May 2012 12:00:00 GMT SSD GridIron Brocade 16GFC Benchmark Research Report Dennis Martin, President of Demartek, will present two sessions at the Storage Decisions Conference in Chicago on Wednesday, June 20, 2012. These sessions are: “Where (and How and Why) to Implement Solid-State Storage” and “Innovations in Storage Networking: Next-Gen Storage Networks for Next-Gen Data Centers”. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_SSDs_StorageDecisions_2012-06.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_SSDs_StorageDecisions_2012-06.html Mon, 14 May 2012 19:00:00 GMT SSD SDCHI12 Flash Fibre Channel FCoE 10GbE 16GFC Storage Decisions StorageEvents Speaking Engagements Solid state storage is transforming the entire computing industry. Solid state storage has completely revolutionized consumer electronics products, replacing spinning disk drives in virtually every category of consumer devices. This same enthusiasm for solid state storage has moved into the data center. Because of this interest, Demartek has produced this Demartek SSD Deployment Guide 2012-Q2, one in a series of technology deployment guides. This guide covers NAND flash characteristics, SSD form factors, data placement strategies and more. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_SSD_Deployment_Guide.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_SSD_Deployment_Guide.html Thu, 19 Apr 2012 13:15:00 GMT Research Report SSD FlashSoft Nimbus Data OCZ SMART Storage Systems Deployment Guide At the SCSI Trade Assocation (STA) Technology Showcase on May 9, 2012, Dennis Martin, President of Demartek, will explore how SAS is maturing in the datacenter. He will discuss SAS as a disk drive interface, as a host interface to modern storage systems, and in a small shared storage environment. He will also explain how SAS compares to other storage interfaces, and how this technology fits into IT departments and enterprises of all sizes. In addition, he will discuss the current 6Gb/s SAS interface and the roadmap for 12Gb/s SAS, along with newer cabling options and more. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_STA_Showcase_2012-05-09.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_STA_Showcase_2012-05-09.html Fri, 6 Apr 2012 19:00:00 GMT SAS STAShowcase Speaking Engagements Enterprise-level flash technology is transforming the computing environment and is bringing high performance storage to the datacenter environment. Flash-based caching is an excellent way to bring the high performance and low latency of flash technology at a minimal cost and without requiring application changes or back-end storage changes... https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_LSI_NytroXD_Evaluation_2012-04.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_LSI_NytroXD_Evaluation_2012-04.html Mon, 2 Apr 2012 12:00:00 GMT LSI SSD iSCSI Flash Research Report SSD technology is transforming the computing environment and enterprise SSDs are bringing high performance storage to the datacenter environment. Here we evaluate the SMART Storage Systems XceedStor server-grade SSDs for performance. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_SMART_XceedStor_Evaluation_2012-03.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_SMART_XceedStor_Evaluation_2012-03.html Thu, 8 Mar 2012 16:30:00 GMT SMART Storage Systems SSD Research Report As the deployment of bandwidth-intensive applications such as public and private cloud computing continue to increase, IT administrators are turning to 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) technology for cost-effective and flexible methods of addressing growing network traffic demands. A key component of the 10GbE network is the network adapter with network protocol processing offload capabilities... https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Broadcom_BCM57810_10GbE_Evaluation_2012-03.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Broadcom_BCM57810_10GbE_Evaluation_2012-03.html Tue, 6 Mar 2012 17:05:00 GMT Broadcom 10GbE Research Report Demartek announces its evaluation of the EMC VFCache flash caching solution, showing test results for servers running Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server database transaction workloads connected to EMC storage systems. "PCIe caching is an excellent way to deploy solid state storage, and the EMC VFCache flash caching solution provided performance improvements of 2.5 to 3.5 times the performance of the baseline tests," said Dennis Martin, Demartek President... https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_EMC_VFCache_Evaluation_2012-02.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_EMC_VFCache_Evaluation_2012-02.html Mon, 6 Feb 2012 18:00:00 GMT EMC PCIe SSD Research Report Dennis Martin, President of Demartek, will present three sessions and moderate a panel session at the Storage Networking World (SNW) in Dallas, Texas in November 2012. Topics include 16G Fibre Channel, Using file server protocols for block storage, and I/O Virtualization. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_SNWUSA_2012-04.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_SNWUSA_2012-04.html Thu, 2 Feb 2012 15:30:00 GMT Fibre Channel Windows 8 I-O Virtualization SNWUSA Speaking Engagements In a relatively short time, solid-state storage has become a viable alternative for enterprise storage applications. It offers far superior performance over magnetic media while using much less power and creating little heat. Solid-state storage is, however, still considerably more expensive than spinning disk, so a cost-effective approach to implementation is required. In this free, multi-city, half-day seminar, Dennis Martin, President of Demartek will cover the key solid-state technologies and the specs that users need to know, along with the various implementation alternatives... https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_SSD_Seminar_Multicity_2012.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_SSD_Seminar_Multicity_2012.html Mon, 16 Jan 2012 12:00:00 GMT SSD Flash Speaking Engagements I spent two days at this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2012) looking for technologies and products that bring consumer and datacenter technologies a little closer together. We are seeing the "Consumerization of IT" in many areas and I wanted to get a glimpse of what is available now and what is coming this year or in the not too distant future... https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_CES_2012.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_CES_2012.html Mon, 16 Jan 2012 12:00:00 GMT CES2012 Ultrabook Tablet 3D 4K USB 3.0 HDBaseT Wireless Power SSD Consumer Electronics Show Commentary NetApp commissioned Demartek to evaluate its FAS3240, one of the members of its full line of unified storage solutions, for its ability to handle a full load of mixed traffic types simultaneously. The NetApp FAS3240 storage system was able to handle multiple file and block protocols simultaneously including NFS, iSCSI, FC and FCoE, and supported the bandwidth allocation capabilities of DCB known as Enhanced Transmission Selection (ETS). It also provides traditional Fibre Channel data access on separate Fibre Channel connections within the same storage controller... https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_NetApp_Multiprotocol_Evaluation_2012-01.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_NetApp_Multiprotocol_Evaluation_2012-01.html Fri, 6 Jan 2012 17:15:00 GMT NetApp DCB 10GbE FCoE Fibre Channel iSCSI Research Report Demartek announces the addition of a new small, fast server that will augment its virtual server and I/O testing capabilities. This server includes one Intel® Xeon E3-1280 (“Sandy Bridge”) 3.5GHz four-core processor that supports hyper-threading, the new AES instructions and I/O device virtualization (Intel VT-d). With 32GB of DDR3 RAM, this new server is capable of running operating systems and applications in physical environments or can be used to run a few virtual machines in environments such as VMware, Hyper-V and other virtual server environments. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_SandyBridge1_2012-01.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_SandyBridge1_2012-01.html Wed, 4 Jan 2012 17:45:00 GMT Lab Validation Virtualization Hyper-V VMware FCoE Fibre Channel iSCSI SAS SSD Demartek’s second SSD Giveaway will occur on February 29, 2012. We will select the winner by randomly drawing names from our free monthly email newsletter list. This second SSD giveaway is for an eMLC SSD from SMART Modular... https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_SSD_giveaway_2011-10.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_SSD_giveaway_2011-10.html Tue, 13 Dec 2011 17:00:00 GMT SSD Flash SMART Modular Giveaway We run a variety of benchmark tools in the course of our lab validation tests. We were curious about the actual data that these tools write in their respective data files, so we decided to look inside these files, and share that data. These benchmark tools include IOmeter, SQLIO and others. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Benchmark_Output_File_Formats.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Benchmark_Output_File_Formats.html Fri, 9 Dec 2011 19:30:00 GMT Research Report Benchmark Dennis Martin participated in a panel session on the topic of Storage Efficiencies at the Comdex Virtual Conference in November 2011. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_ComdexVirtual_2011-11.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_ComdexVirtual_2011-11.html Thu, 17 Nov 2011 20:00:00 GMT SSD Commentary Dennis Martin, Demartek President, was interviewed by SearchDataCenter about FCoE as part of their Expert Q and A series. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Interview_FCoE_2011.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Interview_FCoE_2011.html Mon, 07 Nov 2011 20:00:00 GMT FCoE Interview Everybody knows that solid-state storage runs fast and cool, and uses far less power than hard disk alternatives. And everybody knows that solid state is expensive, too. In this session, we will see where SSD can have the most impact in a storage environment, including looking at the various implementation alternatives. We will discuss the device choices and data placement choices you need to make when considering SSD deployments. Included in the presentation will be results from various SSD lab tests conducted at the Demartek lab. We will also discuss the Demartek SSD Giveaway. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_RMWTUG_SSD_2011-10.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_RMWTUG_SSD_2011-10.html Mon, 17 Oct 2011 17:00:00 GMT SSD RMWTUG Speaking Engagements Block host interfaces, including Fibre Channel, iSCSI and SAS are all becoming increasingly available for today’s storage systems. While high IOPS is frequently the metric for assessing drive and array performance, in many cases latency is equally as important. For example, in an OLTP application, short response times are critical. A transaction may require many successive queries to a database, where each query depends on answers returned from the previous query. User response times are entirely dependent on how quickly storage can return answers to the queries. We compared four block interface and speed combinations on the same storage system for basic performance. These four host interfaces were 8Gb FC, 10Gb iSCSI, 1Gb iSCSI and 6Gb SAS. At first glance, one might assume that the interfaces with the highest line rates would provide the best overall performance, but we found that this was not the case. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Low_Latency_FC_iSCSI_SAS_Evaluation_2011-10.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Low_Latency_FC_iSCSI_SAS_Evaluation_2011-10.html Fri, 14 Oct 2011 12:30:00 GMT Fibre Channel iSCSI SAS 1GbE 10GbE 10GbE Research Report All the old standards -- FC, iSCSI and NAS -- are still going strong, but FCoE and virtualized I/O are waiting in the wings to help remake our storage networks. Storage networking rarely gets much attention, and it’s frequently overshadowed by the server and storage gear it links together. But there’s renewed interest in storage networking as new or enhanced technologies begin to show up in our data centers. The complete article is available in the October 2011 edition of Storage Magazine. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_StorageMagazine_2011-10.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_StorageMagazine_2011-10.html Fri, 7 Oct 2011 11:00:00 GMT DAS FCoE Fibre Channel iSCSI NAS SR-IOV MR-IOV Dennis Martin, President of Demartek, will present “Efficient Storage: Automated Storage Tiering” and “Making the Case for Solid-State Storage” at the Storage Decisions Conference in San Francisco, November 8, 2011. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_SSDs_StorageDecisions_2011-11.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_SSDs_StorageDecisions_2011-11.html Wed, 5 Oct 2011 12:00:00 GMT Storage Decisions StorageEvents SSD Speaking Engagements Dennis Martin, Demartek President, was interviewed in preparation for his presentations at SNW Europe 2011 by Rose Ross from Omarketing in the UK (Twitter: @o_marketing). The link to this interview is posted here. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Interview_SNWEurope_2011.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Interview_SNWEurope_2011.html Fri, 23 Sep 2011 17:00:00 GMT SNWEurope SSD Interview The five-minute highlight video describing the Demartek iSCSI Deployment Guide 2011 is now available. This video provides highlights from the Demartek iSCSI Deployment Guide 2011. This guide includes iSCSI marketplace and technical information, followed by deployment examples of iSCSI products and solutions from Broadcom, Chelsio, Emulex, HP, Intel, NetApp, QLogic and Xiotech (now known as XIO). This guide is part of the Demartek Deployment Guide series. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_iSCSI_Deployment_Guide_video_announcement.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_iSCSI_Deployment_Guide_video_announcement.html Tue, 6 Sep 2011 12:00:00 GMT iSCSI 1GbE 10GbE Research Report Broadcom Chelsio Emulex HP Hyper-V Intel Microsoft NetApp QLogic VMWare Xiotech Deployment Guide Dennis Martin, President of Demartek, will present two sessions and participate in a panel at the Storage Networking World (SNW) in Frankfurt, Germany in November 2011. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_SNWEurope_2011-11.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_SNWEurope_2011-11.html Mon, 15 Aug 2011 15:30:00 GMT FCoE I-O Virtualization SNWEurope Speaking Engagements We do a fair amount of scripting in our validation and performance testing, and we often require time-related functions for our batch files on our Windows machines. These time-related functions can be divided into three categories: Display the date and/or time, Delay execution (wait) for a specified period of time, and Synchronize the clocks between machines. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_lab_tips_time-related-scripting_2011-07-25.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_lab_tips_time-related-scripting_2011-07-25.html Mon, 25 Jul 2011 17:15:00 GMT Windows 7 Windows Server Scripting Lab Validation Lab Tips Dennis Martin, President of Demartek, will present “I/O Virtualization - The Next Virtualization Frontier” and will moderate a panel on “Advancements in Fibre Channel” at the Storage Networking Wolrd Conference in Orlando, October 10-13, 2011. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_SNWUSA_2011-10.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_SNWUSA_2011-10.html Mon, 25 Jul 2011 17:00:00 GMT SNWUSA I-O Virtualization Fibre Channel Speaking Engagements Dennis Martin, President of Demartek, will present “Efficient Storage: Automated Storage Tiering” and “Making the Case for Solid-State Storage” at the Storage Decisions Conference in New York, September 19-20, 2011. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_SSDs_StorageDecisions_2011-09.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_SSDs_StorageDecisions_2011-09.html Fri, 22 Jul 2011 16:00:00 GMT Storage Decisions StorageEvents SSD Speaking Engagements Dennis Martin, President of Demartek, will participate in two panel discussions at the Flash Memory Summit in Santa Clara, California, August 9-11, 2011. These panel discussions are “Implementing Solid State Storage Technology in the Database Infrastructure” and “Solid State Drive (SSD) Technology,” at which Dennis will serve as chairperson. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_Flash_Memory_Summit_2011.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_Flash_Memory_Summit_2011.html Fri, 22 Jul 2011 15:15:00 GMT FlashMem Flash Memory Summit SSD Speaking Engagements Our web logs indicate that the Demartek iSCSI Deployment Guide 2011 was downloaded more than 1000 times during the first 30 days that it became available. This count excludes web crawlers, bots and other non-human accesses. Here are a few statistics regarding these downloads... https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_iSCSI_Deployment_Guide_statistics_2011-07.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_iSCSI_Deployment_Guide_statistics_2011-07.html Thu, 14 Jul 2011 15:30:00 GMT Commentary iSCSI Deployment Guide Demartek announces its evaluation of the Broadcom BCM957712-S 10Gb Ethernet/FCoE/iSCSI Offload Adapter. This Broadcom adapter supports 10Gb Ethernet, Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) with full hardware offload and iSCSI with full hardware offload. This adapter fits the description of a Converged Network Adapter (CNA). We were able to achieve 1.7 million IOPS for FCoE random reads and more than 1 million IOPS for iSCSI random reads using this Broadcom adapter. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Broadcom_BCM57712_FCoE-iSCSI_Evaluation_2011-07.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Broadcom_BCM57712_FCoE-iSCSI_Evaluation_2011-07.html Mon, 11 Jul 2011 12:00:00 GMT 10GbE FCoE Fibre Channel iSCSI Demartek announces the addition of a large-memory server that will augment its virtual server and I/O testing capabilities. This server includes two Intel® Xeon X5680 (“Westmere”) six-core processors that support hyper-threading, for a total of 24 logical processors. With 144GB of DDR3 RAM, this new server is capable of running many virtual machines and will be used for VMware, Hyper-V and other virtual server environments running real-world applications, boot storms and more. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Westmere1_2011-06.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Westmere1_2011-06.html Mon, 27 Jun 2011 17:30:00 GMT Lab Validation Virtualization Hyper-V VMware FCoE Fibre Channel iSCSI SAS SSD There are various reasons why it may be necessary to convert physical systems directly into virtual machines (VMs). Aging, out-of-warranty or failing hardware may necessitate such a migration, as may the simple need to consolidate underutilized systems to reduce operating costs. It is certainly possible to manually build guest VMs and migrate the applications and resources from the physical systems over to them, but this can be a time-consuming and error-prone operation. A simpler alternative is to perform a physical to virtual (P2V) migration to get these servers into a virtualized server environment. Here we’ll discuss Hyper-V P2V conversion, as well as the storage considerations around such a conversion. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_SearchStorage_Hyper-V_P2V_2010-05.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_SearchStorage_Hyper-V_P2V_2010-05.html Mon, 27 Jun 2011 17:00:00 GMT Virtualization SCVMM Hyper-V VMware Fibre Channel iSCSI This guide is designed to provide basic information about iSCSI and practical guidance for planning and deploying iSCSI technology and products. Although this guide contains some iSCSI marketplace information and discusses specific vendor products, it is primarily a technical document. It focuses on iSCSI primarily, but not exclusively, in a Microsoft Windows environment and is an updated version of the 150-page Microsoft iSCSI Storage Deployment White Paper that we published for Microsoft in June 2007, which is available on our website. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_iSCSI_Deployment_Guide.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_iSCSI_Deployment_Guide.html Tue, 31 May 2011 22:45:00 GMT iSCSI 1GbE 10GbE Research Report Broadcom Chelsio Emulex HP Hyper-V Intel Microsoft NetApp QLogic VMWare Xiotech Deployment Guide Dennis Martin, Demartek President, has written an article describing how SSD technology affects the performance balance among CPU, memory, networks and storage. The article also explains why SSDs and 10 gigabit networking can be a good match. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_SearchStorage_SSD_CPU_Performance_2011-04.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_SearchStorage_SSD_CPU_Performance_2011-04.html Wed, 27 Apr 2011 20:30:00 GMT Research Report 10GbE SSD The Spring 2011 Storage Networking World (SNW) conference held last week in Santa Clara, California was a great conference for us. I had the great pleasure of giving three sessions at this SNW conference covering topics such as SSDs, Unified Storage Networking and FCoE, and I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV and MR-IOV). In addition, we met with several companies including Avere Systems, Dataram, Fusion-IO, Marvell, Micron, Nimbus Data, Pliant Technologies, Scality, Texas Memory Systems, Viking Modular, Virident, and others discussing SSD technology and cloud computing. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Commentary_SNW_2011_Spring.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Commentary_SNW_2011_Spring.html Wed, 13 Apr 2011 11:30:00 GMT Commentary SNWUSA SSD FCoE DCB I-O Virtualization Avere Systems Dataram Fusion-IO Marvell Micron Nimbus Data Pliant Technologies Scality Texas Memory Systems Viking Modular Virident Dennis Martin, Demartek President, has written an article describing SSD data placement. Data placement for solid-state storage technology can be achieved in two ways: via SSD caching or primary storage. Learn about the pros and cons of both methods of implementation and how to determine which is right for your environment. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_SearchStorage_SSD_Caching_vs_PrimaryStorage_2011-04.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_SearchStorage_SSD_Caching_vs_PrimaryStorage_2011-04.html Wed, 13 Apr 2011 11:30:00 GMT Research Report SSD Dennis Martin, President of Demartek, will present “Everything You Need to Know to Deploy iSCSI in Your Datacenter”, a SNIA webcast, that will include a discussion of iSCSI technologies and best practices. This webcast is open to the public and will be held on Thursday, April 21, 2011. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_SNIA_iSCSI_webcast_2011-04.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_SNIA_iSCSI_webcast_2011-04.html Wed, 30 Mar 2011 17:00:00 GMT iSCSI Speaking Engagements Robocopy (“robust file copy”), included with Windows operating systems, is a rich file copy utility with many options. For this presentation we compared the results with and without the multithread option: robocopy /MT. Using the multithread option in most cases results in faster or significantly faster file copy operations than without the multithread option. View the presentation given at the RMWTUG March 2011 meeting, which includes test results for local, 1GbE and 10GbE file copy operations. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_RMWTUG_March_2011-03.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_RMWTUG_March_2011-03.html Wed, 23 Mar 2011 13:55:00 GMT RMWTUG Windows Server Windows 7 Robocopy Speaking Engagements Dennis Martin, President of Demartek, will present “Making the Case for Solid-State Storage” and “Automated Storage Tiering in General” at the Storage Decisions Conference in Chicago on June 21, 2011. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_SSDs_StorageDecisions_2011-06.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_SSDs_StorageDecisions_2011-06.html Wed, 16 Mar 2011 16:45:00 GMT Storage Decisions StorageEvents SSD Speaking Engagements Solid state storage can be deployed directly as primary storage where the users decide what data to place on the storage, or it can be deployed as a cache in front of traditional storage, where the storage controller determines what data is placed on the SSS or solid state disk (SSD). Each implementation has advantages. LSI Corporation commissioned Demartek to evaluate MegaRAID FastPath software in a web server environment. FastPath software is a high-performance IO accelerator for SSD arrays connected to a MegaRAID controller card. FastPath is an optimized version of LSI’s MegaRAID technology that is designed with SSDs in mind, taking advantage of the increased read and write performance of SSDs. FastPath is used for primary storage where the user places files directly on the SSD devices. We achieved outstanding results in the web server environment using FastPath software. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_LSI_FastPath_Performance_Evaluation_2010-11.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_LSI_FastPath_Performance_Evaluation_2010-11.html Mon, 28 Feb 2011 18:30:00 GMT News SSD Video LSI There has been much confusion and discussion about the ease of installation and the ease of use of Fibre Channel storage. Some technology professionals, after looking at Fibre Channel storage technology, have decided that it is too complicated and have concluded that deploying iSCSI storage, running over Ethernet, would be simpler. Although Ethernet may be ubiquitous, many network administrators have little knowledge or experience managing storage. Basic storage management knowledge is needed to successfully manage storage regardless of the interface to the storage. QLogic Corporation commissioned Demartek to evaluate the ease of installation and the ease of use of HP Simple SAN Connection Manager (SSCM) software that QLogic developed for HP as part of the HP StorageWorks H-series Fibre Channel switch portfolio. SSCM provides a simple, wizard-based procedure to configure and manage Fibre Channel SAN agent components, including host bus adapters, Fibre Channel switches, and storage arrays. SSCM allows a complete Fibre Channel SAN to be deployed in minutes. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_QLogic-HP_SSCM_Software_Evaluation_2011-02.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_QLogic-HP_SSCM_Software_Evaluation_2011-02.html Wed, 16 Feb 2011 20:45:00 GMT Research Report QLogic Dennis Martin, President of Demartek, spoke at the February 2011 Rocky Mountain Windows Technology User Group (RMWTUG) meeting. In his presentation, Dennis provided an overview of the architectures and technologies of solid state storage devices, including some of the physics of NAND flash and power consumption comparisons with spinning hard disk drives. Dennis discussed the difference between deploying SSD technology as a cache and as primary storage, highlighting the advantages of each deployment style. Dennis also shared how SSD technology can move the bottleneck from storage to other areas of I.T. infrastructure. In the last part of this presentation, Dennis included some of the recent results from his solid state storage performance testing of a web server using Microsoft Server 2008 R2 and IIS 7.5 in the Demartek lab. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_RMWTUG_February_2011-02.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_RMWTUG_February_2011-02.html Wed, 16 Feb 2011 18:30:00 GMT RMWTUG Windows Server Windows 7 SSD Speaking Engagements Dennis Martin, President of Demartek, will present three sessions at the Storage Networking World Conference (SNW) in Santa Clara, California, April 4-7, 2011. These sessions are: “Unified Storage Networking,” “Deep Dive on SSD,” and “I/O Virtualization — The Next Virtualization Frontier.” https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_SNWUSA_2011-04.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Presenting_SNWUSA_2011-04.html Wed, 12 Jan 2011 16:45:00 GMT SNWUSA FCoE DCB I-O Virtualization SSD Speaking Engagements I spent this past weekend attending the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2011 in Las Vegas. Although this is not a datacenter event, I spent a full day there looking at technologies that were interesting mostly on a professional level, though I admit I did spend some time on technologies that were interesting to me personally. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_CES_2011.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_CES_2011.html Tue, 11 Jan 2011 23:30:00 GMT Commentary 3D Wireless USB SATA SSD Consumer Electronics Show We have been testing SSD technology for quite a while in our lab, so I decided that it was time to put some SSDs into production at Demartek. Over the 2010 Christmas and New Year’s holidays, we installed SSDs as boot drives in the desktop computers of all our staff, as well as in our production file server. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_SSD_production.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_SSD_production.html Tue, 11 Jan 2011 23:30:00 GMT Commentary Windows 7 Windows Server SSD When users have a choice of websites to do their business, providing acceptable response times is critical in retaining customers. As the client base grows, the high demand for serving pages may cause users to experience slow page delivery. To solve this problem, businesses may spread the web page demand across scores of systems each capable of providing web pages. This report evaluates whether using solid state storage will allow fewer systems to be deployed. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_LSI_WarpDrive_Performance_Evaluation_2011-01.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_LSI_WarpDrive_Performance_Evaluation_2011-01.html Mon, 03 Jan 2011 16:25:00 GMT Research Report SSD LSI With Exchange Server 2010, Microsoft has again made several changes to the Extensible Storage Engine (ESE) to increase performance and reduce the frequency of reads and writes. Two of the major changes are to perform fewer, larger and more sequential I/O operations and to increase the page size to 32KB. In order to eliminate confusion and provide a side-by-side comparison of the estimated IOPS for Exchange Server 2003, 2007 and 2010, we have compiled the data provided by Microsoft for each of the three versions of Exchange Server into a single table for comparison. We have also provided some charts that help to visualize these differences. https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Exchange_2003_2007_2010_I-O_Comparison_Summary.html https://www.demartek.com/Demartek_Exchange_2003_2007_2010_I-O_Comparison_Summary.html Tue, 21 Dec 2010 23:00:00 GMT Research Report Windows Server Exchange Server