The Challenges IoT Brings to Storage and Data Strategy

Alex McDonald
Data generated from the Internet of Things (IoT) is increasing exponentially. More and more we are seeing compute and inference move to the edge. This is driven by the growth in capability to not only generate data from sensors, devices, and by people operating in the field, but also by the interaction between those devices. This new source of IoT data and information brings with it unique challenges to the way we store and transmit data as well as the way we need to curate it. It’s the topic the SNIA Cloud Storage Technologies Initiative will tackle at our live webcast on May 14, 2020, The influence of IoT on Data Strategy. In this webcast we will look at: Read More

Addressing Cloud Security Threats with Standards

Eric Hibbard
In a recent SNIA webinar, Cloud Standards: What They Are, Why You Should Care, the SNIA Cloud Storage Technologies Initiative (CSTI) highlighted some of the key cloud computing standards being developed and published by the ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 38 (Cloud Computing and Distributed Platforms) and SC 27 (Information security, cybersecurity and privacy protection) standards committees. While ISO and IEC are not the only organizations producing cloud computing standards and specifications (e.g., ITU-T, OASIS, NIST, ENISA, SNIA, etc.), their standards, sometime developed jointly with ITU-T, can play a role in addressing WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) issues. More importantly, they provide a baseline of cloud terminology, concepts, guidance/requirements, and expectations that are recognized internationally. Read More

Object Storage Questions: Asked and Answered

John Kim
Last month, the SNIA Networking Storage Forum (NSF) hosted a live webcast, “Object Storage: What, How and Why.” As the title suggests, our NSF members and invited guest experts delivered foundational knowledge on object storage, explaining how object storage works, use cases, and standards. They even shared a little history on how object storage originated.  If you missed the live event, you can watch the on-demand webcast or find it on our SNIAVideo YouTube Channel. We received some great questions from our live audience. As promised, here are the answers to them all. Read More

How AI Impacts Storage and IT

Alex McDonald
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have had quite the impact on most industries in the last couple of years, but what about the effect on our own IT industry? On April 1, 2020, the SNIA Cloud Storage Technologies Initiative will host a live webcast, “The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Storage and IT, where our experts will explore how AI is changing the nature of applications, the shape of the data center, and its demands on storage. Learn how the rise of ML can develop new insights and capabilities for IT operations. In this webcast, we will explore: Read More

Storage Networking Security Series: Protecting Data at Rest

Steve Vanderlinden
Contrary to popular belief, securing “data at rest” does not simply mean encrypting the data prior to storage. While it is true that data encryption plays a major role in securing “data at rest,” there are several other factors that come into play and are as important as encryption. It’s the next topic the SNIA Networking Storage Forum (NSF) will cover in our Storage Networking Security Series. On April 29, 2020, we will host a live webcast, “Storage Networking Security Series: Protecting Data at Rest,” where we will cover the end-to-end process of securing “data at rest,” and discuss all the factors and trade-offs that must be considered, and some of the general risks that need to be mitigated. As this series shows, there are many places along the chain where a weak link can break the entire process. One of the key aspects of keeping data secure – and probably the place where most people think of security – is what happens when the data is “at rest,” or being stored in some sort of stable media. Read More

The Potential Impact of QUIC – Will it Replace TCP/IP?

Tim Lustig
Have you heard about QUIC? Although initially proposed as the acronym for “Quick UDP Internet Connections,” IETF’s use of the word QUIC is not an acronym; it is merely the name of the protocol. QUIC is a new UDP-based transport protocol for the Internet, and specifically, the web. Originally designed and deployed by Google, it already makes up 35% of Google’s egress traffic, which corresponds to about 7% of all Internet traffic. Due to its ability to improve connection-oriented web application performance, it is gaining enthusiastic interest by many other large Internet players in the ongoing IETF standardization process, which is likely to lead to an even greater deployment. Read More

Tracking Consumer Personal Data – A Major Headache for Data Administrators

Thomas Rivera Leave a comment

First, it is now well understood that the CCPA* mandates strict requirements for companies to notify users about how their data will be used, along with giving customers the ability to “Opt Out” and request that their data be deleted, mirroring some of the primary aspects of the EU GDPR legislation known as the ‘right to be forgotten.’

I was reading a recent article from ThreatPost, entitled: “California’s Tough New Privacy Law and its Biggest Challenges,” and I realized that this article brought up something that I was thinking about even before the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) was enacted at the beginning of this year (2020).

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Will NVMe-oF™ Mean the End of iSCSI?

Tim Lustig
iSCSI is a block storage protocol for storage networking. It’s been around since 1988, is supported by multiple operating systems, and has been a standard since 2000. iSCSI has been used mostly for so-called “secondary” block storage, meaning storage for applications that are important but not mission-critical, and storage that must deliver good—but not great—performance. Read More

Wish You Knew More About Storage? Geek Out with SNIA

Diane Marsili Leave a comment

Are you a storage geek at heart? Or perhaps an aspiring one? Here’s your chance to “Geek Out” on all the storage basics. Whether you need a refresh on a foundational storage technology or want a 101 lesson on something new, SNIA has you covered.

Visit our “Geek Out on Storage” page for a unique lesson on storage basics. We call it “Everything You Wanted to Know About Storage But Were Too Proud to Ask.” Here you’ll find videos that clearly define and explain storage terminology and technologies.

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Take the Leap to SMI-S Version 1.8.0

SNIA Storage Management Blog
If you’re a storage equipment or management software vendor that uses SNIA’s Storage Management Initiative Specification (SMI-S) as the storage management interface for your solution, you’re not alone. First introduced in 2004, SMI-S has been used in over 1,350 storage products by some of the largest vendors in the industry. It defines a secure and reliable interface that can be used to discover, monitor, and control the physical and logical devices in enterprise storage area networks. Unlike proprietary management interfaces, SMI-S is a standard interface that allows management applications to reliably support a wider range of storage equipment from multiple vendors. Read More