Drew Robb

User concerns were front and center at this week’s Storage World Conference — not the least of which were worries about data tapes after recent high-profile backup tape losses. Most of the sessions at the Long Beach, Calif. conference steered clear of vendor trumpet-blowing, with user issues at the forefront. Thus, the more mundane aspects […]

Remote storage access is a challenge for any organization with branch offices separated by distance from the corporate data center. Latency, in particular, is a big issue. The widely used CIFS and NFS protocols, for example, are very chatty, and performance degrades rapidly as latency increases. Try accessing Microsoft Office files over a WAN — […]

Recent data security breaches like the loss of backup tapes at Bank of America and Ameritrade are boosting the fortunes of storage security vendors such as NeoScale Systems, Decru, Vormetric and Kasten Chase. “These public events of private data being compromised have increased the number of inquiries,” says Tom Grubb, vice president of marketing at […]

There is one lesson people learn very early in life: faster is better. Whether it’s a toy car or a bicycle, a network connection or a processor, there can never be too much speed. In June 2003, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) did its part for WiFi releasing the final standard for […]

It was a one-horse race in Datamation‘s Product of the Year wireless category, with the Linksys Wireless-G Broadband Router/Gateway (model WRT54G) grabbing 69 percent of the vote. The remaining finalists almost evenly split the remainer of the votes. In second place was the EliteConnect 2.4GHz 802.11b High Power Wireless PC Card (SMC2532W-B) from SMC Networks […]

Voice over IP (VoIP) is making a comeback after a few years on the back burner. Everywhere you turn it seems there is another ad for Vonage (a VoIP-based phone service that uses your broadband connection to save money on calls). Even the traditional telephone and cable companies are starting to push the service. The […]

Storage consolidation and server consolidation sound great in theory. Reduce the number of servers, cut down on management complexity, and improve return on investment. But does this work out in reality? Should every organization adopt networked storage? Are there parameters that must be met before organizations implement a Storage Area Network (SAN)? ”Networked storage doesn’t […]

Instant Messaging can speed critical communications across the corporate network, saving time and giving an edge to team projects. The trouble is that IM also can speed viruses into the network, and shoot corporate secrets out to competitors without leaving any trail behind it. IM technology, at this point in its maturity level, isn’t the […]