What can Enterprise NAS Storage Offer to Enterprises?

Enterprise NAS storage offers enterprises scalability, reliability, and security. It offers a complete and fully secure data storage solution with so many benefits and advantages. Let’s look at some of these benefits and features in detail. 

Enterprise NAS Storage-File Level Storage

NAS storage solution offers file-level storage. In this storage solution, files, and data can be shared among different devices across the network. It facilitates the running operations of the businesses which require data sharing over a network to make things done faster and more efficiently.

Enterprise NAS Storage- Easy Scalability

A NAS storage solution offers scalability which allows businesses to get more and more storage capacity to meet their increasing data storage space needs. It makes scalability a lot easier and increases it to an extent which makes it a future-proof solution for the enterprises and businesses that are expecting data growth in the near future.

Another thing to note here is that a NAS storage solution is very affordable and offers a lot of convenience to the enterprise. It does not require too much hassle or cost in expanding the storage capacity, as it is made simple and efficient. A NAS storage solution can also be scaled up by adding expansion units and also can be scaled out quite easily as well to add more performance nodes.

Enterprise NAS Storage- Highly Fault Tolerant

NAS storage solutions are highly faulted tolerant due to the many hardware and software features it offers to the users. Talking about hardware features, the power supplies can be made redundant by the vendors and there are some vendors which are offering so many other features as well such as StoneFly. Software features can include encryption, snapshot, and replication to make the data storage infrastructure fault-tolerant at more than one level.

Moreover, a NAS storage solution gives businesses the ability to buy customized versions of their NAS storage so that they do not have to pay for what they do not really need. This makes it a really cost-effective solution as well and more importantly, an efficient and productive one for many enterprises and businesses.

With a NAS storage solution, enterprises can have low Capital Expenses (CapEx) and (Operational Expense (OpEx). This makes a NAS storage not only a reliable solution but also an affordable solution also.

Conclusion

Enterprises and businesses can get a lot of benefits and advantages from NAS storage. From scalability to data security, enterprise NAS storage solution is a cost-effective solution and covers all the aspects for a great user experience which makes it reliable and convenient. 

Ransomware Protection for Windows Server- Why is it Necessary?

Ransomware is on the rise. There have been a lot of ransomware attacks this year alone than the previous year and these attacks would continue to follow on for many years to come.

Windows Servers are also at risk of falling victim to an attack. The simplest way to protect Windows Servers against ransomware is to back them up. Ransomware protection for Windows server appliances is a must and every organization needs to be doing this.

Ransomware Attacks Are on a Rise

Ransomware attacks have significantly increased over the last few years and have become even more deadly than ever. Attacks now demand a ransom that is very high and sometimes proves a bit difficult for organizations to pay. And paying the ransom money is not recommended as there is no way to track these attackers and it is not uncommon for them to keep asking the organization for money and not giving them the decryption key. This is practically blackmailing and paying the ransom money is never recommended.

This is particularly true for Windows Servers as well. These attackers don’t just target storage repositories but also Windows Servers as well so it is important to gain ransomware protection for Windows Servers as well in order to ensure full ransomware protection for the organization.

Ransomware Can Lead to Excessive Downtime

Downtime is another concern for organizations that want to stay competitive and have to remain operational all the time. They cannot afford hours and even longer amounts of downtime as they would suffer a lot.

In order to avoid this, they need ransomware protection for all their data and ransomware protection for Windows Server as well in order to ensure that they remain operational even if they get hit by a ransomware attack.

Ransomware protection allows organizations to recover from a ransomware attack without having to pay any ransom money and without having to suffer any excessive amount of downtime.

This way, they won’t lose any of their data and they won have to pay any ridiculous amount of ransom money, while also at the same time, remaining operational even after the ransomware attack.

With ransomware protection of Windows Server and data, they were able to back up their data and back up their Windows Server without having to worry about any data loss whatsoever.

Conclusion

Ransomware attacks are on a rise, there is no doubt about it and getting ransomware protection for Windows Server and all of organization’s data is a very good idea as it can protect it from data loss, malware, and of course, ransomware. This way, the organization will always remain operational and no amount of data would be lost.

Reasons for Choosing SAN Data Storage

 

In today’s world of IT, organizations don’t just need an IT storage solution, they need something a lot more. They need a solution that can offer many benefits as well.

So, this is why iSCSI SAN storage solutions came into existence and became immediately popular as they offer so much more than just data storage.

Better Disk Utilization with SAN Storage

The number one benefit of choosing the SAN data storage system is better disk utilization. What this does is that it gives you the ability to slice up the central pool of storage resources at the network level and also assign that storage more intelligently to the servers that really need it.

If this was not possible, you would have to buy tons of space and all that space would go to use until and unless it is being used completely.

Better Availability with SAN Storage

Applications usually fail because of data becoming corrupted. In SAN data storage systems, the storage arrays used are very good and reliable. They use efficient data protection algorithms which make sure that your enterprise data always stays consistent. This is how SAN data storage systems offer better availability.

Faster Backups with SAN Storage

Another reason to use SAN data storage is if you want faster backups. Decreasing the time needed to back up huge amounts of data is also one of the major benefits of SAN data storage and this is what is required by the enterprises nowadays.

Nowadays, hardware-based exact duplicates of data are made almost instantly. These duplicates of data can easily be used as either for backup purposes of your data or as a source for backing up that data to SAN storage. Either way, with SAN storage, you are able to create faster backups than ever before.

Good DR Solution with SAN Storage

If you have a lot of critical servers in your data center running applications that at no cost can go down and need to be recovered immediately if a disaster strikes, then you definitely need a SAN data storage system.

Although the upfront costs for implementing a SAN storage Disaster Recovery (DR) solution are high, the benefits can be realized in just a single hour if a disaster happens. The cost of downtime is critical in every organization and no one wants an extensive downtime. A SAN data storage or a san-based disaster recovery solution can do wonders as it offers less downtime and keeps the enterprise's data safe.

Conclusion

SAN data storage solutions offer a lot of benefits to the organizations that cannot be overlooked. All of the above-mentioned benefits also, act as a reason for choosing SAN data storage solutions as they add a lot of value to the enterprise and this is exactly what enterprises want from there data storage solution nowadays.

Software Storage Solutions- How Do They Work?

Software storage solutions have been on the IT map for quite a while now and are beginning to gain a lot of interest from enterprises all around the world. This is because unlike traditional storage, software storage solutions are designed to explicitly support the diversity, virtualization and self-service needs of the modern data center.

Software defined storage solutions allow automated, agile, reliable and cost-effective infrastructure to keep pace with the exponential growth of enterprise data.

Reduce Fragmentation with Software Storage Solutions

Fragmentation caused by data silos limits the visibility and adds friction in a broad range of use cases, from data analytics to regulatory compliance to backup and recovery.

A software storage solutions platform that supports multiple storage protocols, including block, file, and object, lets enterprises consolidate these silos in a common infrastructure. This consolidated software storage solutions platform can simplify storage management while also improving overall cost efficiency due to automation and orchestration.

Get High Availability & Improve Disaster Recover with Software Storage Solutions

One thing that can really help organizations is the ability to store and manage data really easily across different environments. This can help organizations reduce the business impact of a potential hardware failure, which can be from a single disk or node to an entire site.

With software storage solutions, data can be written to multiple locations simultaneously which makes it unnecessary to physically move data in the event of a disaster. What this does is that this makes it simpler to ensure high availability on multi-site for all the applications across all the geographically dispersed data centers.

There is no need for enterprises to deploy a lot of complex and expensive replication technologies on top of their storage infrastructure to meet business continuity and disaster recovery SLAs. As a result, uptime increases while at the same time, costs decrease.

Improved Scalability with Software Storage Solutions

Software storage solutions can be scaled up and scaled out seamlessly using off-the-shelf commodity servers. In other words, these solutions follow a “pay-as-you-grow” model which enables enterprises to add storage capacity only when it’s needed.

This eliminates the need for overprovisioning and the wasted capital expense that hyperconverged servers brings along while also helping storage admins respond quickly to changing business needs. As a result, IT can improve business alignment while at the same time, avoiding the dreaded forklift upgrade.

Conclusion

Software storage solutions have been on the forefront ever since their introduction. This is simply because of the many features that these solutions offer to enterprises that use these solutions. It is safe to say that software storage solutions are the future of data storage and are definitely here to stay as apart from the many benefits they offer, they also offer enterprises convenience and peace of mind about their data storage strategy.

How Can Hyperconverged Hardware Speed Up SMBs?

Small to Medium-Sized Businesses (SMBs) can really make their businesses grow in speed and time saving by shifting towards hyper converged appliance. Data is very important for any business and they cannot afford to lose any of their mission-critical data. It costs the business so much and they simply cannot risk any sort of data loss. This is why hyperconverged hardware is preferred as it is fast and reliable.

Hyperconverged Hardware is Efficient

Anu data storage infrastructure or data storage solution should be efficient enough to provide the basic functionalities and benefits to the business, such as; speed and agility. Hyperconverged hardware provides both of these features in an efficient and reliable way. It provides the business all the scalability, agility, flexibility, and efficiency they need to stay competitive in the market.

Especially for SMBs, hyperconverged hardware proves to be a very efficient and reliable solution. It combines the network, computes, and storage together in one device and also adds the feature of virtualization to the infrastructure.

Instead of components working separately, putting them together in one place is more secure, easy to manage, cost-effective and reliable. The virtualization feature makes it so much easy for the businesses to manage the resources, as everything is software-defined hyperconverged infrastructure and hyperconverged hardware.

Hyperconverged Hardware & Virtualization

With virtualization, businesses can speed up their processes even more. It reduces the procedure to a small number of clicks literally. It makes businesses to carry out the tasks is far less time as compared to the legacy data storage solutions.

Modern data storage solutions offer more speed by reducing the complexity of the data centers. Data storage is the backbone of every business and this is why it needs to be taken care of efficiently.

Hyperconverged infrastructure makes it easier for the businesses to store data in a more efficient, reliable, a flexible and scalable environment that will allow them to work more in far less amount of time.

SMBs can speed up their businesses by getting storage solutions that offer them the features they need to carry out their tasks more efficiently.

Vendors like StoneFly, offer hyperconverged hardware and hyperconverged infrastructure appliances that offer speed, agility, cost-effectiveness, and are reliable. Not to mention several other features as well.

Conclusion

SMBs can take advantage of the modern and software-defined data storage infrastructures such as hyperconverged infrastructure to make their data-centric operations swifter and rapid. Features like; virtualization, scalability, reliability, and security make these environments conducive to have lots of data handled in far less amount of time as compared to the old and traditional storage solutions.

Everything You Need to Know About NAS Storage

What is NAS Storage?

NAS stands for Network Attached storage, which is a data storage technology that works across a network. Enterprise NAS Storage offers file-level data storage which is sharable quite easily across the network. This is one of the reasons it is so widely used in enterprises.

NAS storage enables users to access the data from anywhere they want. This element makes it a very suitable solution for enterprises that have branch offices or off-site locations that need access to data archiving storage.

Why Choose NAS Storage?

There are some highly useful benefits which make users decide in favor of NAS storage instead of remote cloud server. For instance, NAS appliances offer more speed and agility and there is also no dependency on any third party like it is the case with a remote cloud provider. So, it is easy to deploy and it fast.

NAS Storage Is Faster

NAS Storage is faster because it does not depend on many factors but only the speed of a network and the hardware of NAS. It is unlike a remote server that depends on numerous factors ranging from the internet connection to the firmware being used.

NAS Storage can be connected directly to your computer using a USB cable and it can create a network of its own where speed is not compromised.

NAS Storage Enables Hosting of Files

Another advantage is that users can host files. There are no security issues related to your data being hosted on a remote server so this makes it safe to do so. It adds on the security and minimizes the risks of data leakage.

NAS Storage Is Efficient & Easy to Use

NAS Storage works brilliantly for enterprises where file-sharing is made a lot easier and efficient. When the employees are working in one office, and need files to be shared over a network with high speed and efficient use of storage space, NAS storage does this in an easier, faster and a productive way for the business. 

NAS Storage Offers Data Protection & Security

There is a misconception in the market that NAS storage is more vulnerable to data breaches and data theft as it works over a network, well this is not true.

There are vendors (like StoneFly) which offer NAS Storage solutions along with state-of-the-art TLS and SLL encryption which protects enterprise data while it is transmitted over a network, and I/O encryption when data is residing in the storage or when is it at rest.

So, data protection and security are not a concern with NAS appliances and offers enterprises peace of mind about their data security.

Conclusion

NAS appliance has its numerous advantages and features that makes it a very suitable option for enterprises, especially of small and medium-size. It can offer storage capacity for large volumes of data with a lot of ease.

The main advantage of using NAS storage is that it offers high speed and data availability and accessibility from anywhere. It is a file-level shareable data storage solution which works great for enterprises that need high-speed file sharing at run time.

Virtual Storage Appliance - Magical Storage in a Box!

Technology has become an integral part of businesses globally. Businesses need to implement a robust usage of technological advancements like storage virtualization to help them keep up with rivals or market trends. For this, a virtual storage appliance is set up. It is a single storage device that pools physical storage across multiple network storage systems.

We say systems because the software converts the server into a storage system. Usually, storage virtualization is the least-expensive way to bring to life enterprise-class functionality. One central console that does it all! It also makes administrators' lives easier! For instance, backing up, archiving along with recovery is simpler and quicker. This appliance provides virtual environments with shared storage without extra or separate hardware. There are a ton of reasons to turn towards this magical storage in a box.

Simplicity

The most prominent aspect of a virtual storage appliance is the ease it brings about. Virtual storage allows resources to be bundled up so users can avail any storage, any time. The whole process, however, involves a lot of complexities but thankfully, this all-in-one box delivers an administrative experience in a single window panel that is flexible and easy to understand.

Cost Effective Shared Virtual Storage

Straight off, a virtual storage appliance can lower expenses in terms of daily operations and expenditure. The appliance uses commodity hardware storage as its own components thus controlling all underlying resources. Virtual appliances have file, block and object capabilities so that makes it an important aspect to consider.

Secure & Reliable

As compared to other storage, virtual storage provides robust, reliable security. Businesses using enterprise level processing means that mission-critical data is always available and unlike other categories of storage like Network Attached Storage, the appliance doesn’t have a single-point-of-failure.

Always Available Data

One of the main reasons for using storage virtualization is to keep mission-critical data always available to users who need it all the time. Business continuity benefits are abundant with a virtual storage appliance as data is mirrored to two points which ensures that business needs, information-wise, are met without fail.

Scalability without Limits

Businesses are rapidly growing. A big problem faced is data growth. The implemented capacity has reached its limit so now, additional hardware is needed. Not with the virtual appliance. It leverages existing resources so it can use existing hardware to scale up for computing power or out for storage capacity, depending on business needs.

No Training Needed

A virtual storage appliance is a simple device that does not require specialist training. All IT professionals can easily understand it as a tool and quickly learn to use it for its extraordinary storage powers. Gone are the days when branch or remote offices needed to employ manpower at every business location.

Conclusion

Businesses have leveraged technology to integrate virtual storage into its infrastructure. Using virtual appliances, a business can have enterprise class features for mission-critical data. Data is secure, always available and under the reliable central management of the appliance which is a cost-effective solution with unlimited scalability.

Hyperconverged Infrastructure Can Be Effective For Video Surveillance

One of the effective implementations of hyperconverged infrastructure is for the video surveillance businesses. Hyperconverged infrastructure can effectively enhance the performance and productivity of the video surveillance data management and recording businesses. This article will look into the ways in which HCI can benefit these systems.

Hyper converged cloud brings together all the components of a video surveillance business in a unified platform that offers a management layer which is common to all the components.

Another reason of using hyperconverged infrastructure for surveillance systems is that it simplifies the management of the system to an extent that the business does not require hiring IT expert staff for handling the infrastructure.

Video Surveillance Is Complex

Hyperconverged infrastructure makes it easier, simpler and less complex to manage the three components of a video surveillance system that are Cameras, a software called Video Management Software (VMS) and storage. Cameras are used to take the images and make videos, the software is used to manage and process the images and videos, and lastly the storage is used to archive the data collected through the cameras, and managed through the software.

Hyperconverged Infrastructure Brings Simplicity

All of this is not as simple as it may look. The complex processes involved needs to be simplified in order to enhance the productivity and performance of the business. This simplification is offered by hyperconverged infrastructure because it is the only system which is required to handle and manage all the mentioned components of a video surveillance system. Unlike the legacy systems where every function required a separate infrastructure to perform it properly, hyperconverged infrastructure makes all the things to be done effectively under one umbrella.

Hyperconverged Infrastructure Offers Enough Storage Space

High resolution cameras generation data in the form of images and videos which require large volumes of storage capacity to be archived. It requires a data storage infrastructure which is flexible to scalability and offering more and more storage capacity as needed.

HCI Does Not Require Highly Skilled IT Experts

The increasing advancements in the technology is bringing complex changes and upgradations in cameras and other components, make it tougher for the security professionals of the video surveillance organization to handle the data storage infrastructure. This is where Hyperconverged infrastructure become effective as it is not at all a difficult infrastructure to run, use and manage.

HCI Allows New Applications To Run Swiftly

Hyperconverged infrastructure also allows the business to leverage new applications by providing support to all kinds of applications which might improve the productivity and efficiency of the business. This is one of the most beneficial use of hyperconverged infrastructure for video surveillance businesses.

The limited IT expertise and demand of modern changes in the technology calls for new applications which are difficult or even impossible to deploy in case of other data storage infrastructure on the contrary, hyperconverged infrastructure provides maximum support to the modern applications.  

Conclusion       

Hyperconverged infrastructure can be used effectively for the improvement of a video surveillance business because it can offer simplicity, more scalability, application support and other benefits which benefits the surveillance systems a lot.

Advantages of Software Defined Storage or Hyperconverged Storage

Software defined storage offers many advantages and efficient solutions for several use cases. Sometimes it is just not feasible to use a storage solution in the hardware configuration. Software based virtual data storage solution plays handful in such scenarios where enterprises do not want to depend on hardware. One of the main advantages that SDS gave rise to hyperconverged storage which is a software defined infrastructure too. So, whenever we will be talking about the benefits of SDS that will be pretty much true in case of Hyperconverged Storage as well.  

Software Defined Storage Offer Virtualization

Virtualization is the most important aspect of virtual san appliance which allows the businesses to store their data on premise, offsite, on a remote location or even in the cloud.

Software Defined Storage is Cost Effective

Another big advantage is that SDS proves to be cost effective because it does not involve a number of tools and ads to the simplicity of the management of the resources.

Software Defined Storage is Dynamic

If we further discuss the advantages of SDS, we can say that it is the smarter way of storing data due to some reason. Firstly, it allows storage and workloads to interact with each other is a more efficient manner. Resultantly, the data storage becomes dynamic and effective. The requirements of the data workload are met adequately in case of SDS.

Being Agile is Being Alive

The agility SDS brings to the floor makes it the ultimate choice for the businesses. Storage consumption becomes intelligent and agile across different platforms like mobile, cloud and social infrastructure etc. it makes sure that no storage is wasted and optimum usage of storage capacity is achieved.

Software Defined Storage Outsmarts Hardware Dependent Storage

With the rapid changes in the businesses, it is impossible to meet the needs and requirements with the hardware based storage. Software defined storage helps optimize the ability of the storage system to meet the changing requirements.

Software Defined Storage is Highly Scalable

With a storage solution that is run through a software, scalability becomes possible and easier. When we talk about scalability here, we ae referring to the real time scalability. It allows storage provision as demanded in the real time by the enterprises.

Software Define Storage is not only agile, cost effective and scalable but is also dynamic to offer a lot more to the businesses. The overall impact of using a SDS is positive on the businesses. SDS provides automation which makes the staff more efficient.

Conclusion

A software defined storage solution such as a hyperconverged storage solution is much better than the traditional infrastructures used for storage. These are flexible, scalable and thus able to meet the challenges that are coming up with the rapid pace of development in the technological world.

Every new invention, gadget or technology means there will be more data generated, hence making the data storage more complex and more challenging. To meet these challenges software defined storage solutions are much more capable than others.