STLATEST

STOR

MAGAZINE

STORAGE

The UK’s number one in IT Storage

September/October 2022

Vol 22, Issue 5

THE HEAT IS ON:

Why HDD temperature matters

RANSOMWARE PROTECTION:

Outdated infrastructure adds to risk

SERVICE INDUSTRY:

Success strategies for MSPs

A CHANGING WORLD:

Managing data from biodiversity research

COMMENT - NEWS - NEWS ANALYSIS - CASE STUDIES - OPINION - PRODUCT REVIEWS

On-Prem Cloud Success Stories

IDC Interviews with Three IT Leaders Achieving Superior Cost,

Control and Competitive Advantage

Powered by Intel ®

Learn more at

www.supermicro.com/en/on-prem-cloud

The UK’s number one in IT Storage

September/October 2022

Vol 22, Issue 5

THE HEAT IS ON:

CONTENTS

STOR

MAGAZINE

STORAGE

CONTENTS

Why HDD temperature matters

RANSOMWARE PROTECTION:

Outdated infrastructure adds to risk

SERVICE INDUSTRY:

Success strategies for MSPs

A CHANGING WORLD:

Managing data from biodiversity research

COMMENT - NEWS - NEWS ANALYSIS - CASE STUDIES - OPINION - PRODUCT REVIEWS

COMMENT….....................................................................4

Antiques roadshow

MARKET FOCUS: CONSERVATION….....................……..6

Davide Villa, Western Digital's Head of Business Development EMEAI, explores the

unsung hero of our world's biodiversity: research data

06

CASE STUDY: KANAL 75…………...........................……….8

International sports broadcaster Kanal 75 solves latency issues and achieves greater

operational simplicity

COMPANY UPDATE: INFINIDAT……….......................…10

Richard Bradbury, SVP for EMEA & APJ at Infinidat, explains how the company's latest

extended client promise looks set to shake up the entire enterprise storage industry

STRATEGY: MANAGED SERVICE PROVIDERS….......12

Mike Puglia, Chief Security Officer & GM of Security Products at Kaseya, describes

how MSPs can drive efficiencies through 2022 and beyond

08

CASE STUDY: SYSTEM FORCE I.T…......................……14

Gloucestershire company System Force I.T. is able to complete its client backups

successfully and smoothly, while saving hours on data protection administration

RESEARCH: DATA SOVEREIGNTY…............................……16

New research shows that data sovereignty strategies are embraced by 98% of IT

decision makers in Europe and US

ANALYSIS: LTO….......................................................…..18

Storage magazine takes a closer look at the latest roadmap announcements from the

LTO Program regarding the future of tape storage

12

TECHNOLOGY FOCUS: HARD DISK DRIVES……....….20

Rainer W. Kaese of Toshiba Electronics Europe explains the importance of HDD

temperature control

MANAGEMENT: HIGH AVAILABILITY………........………24

Today's always-on businesses require true active-active capabilities to keep up with

modern real-time data demands, argues Wasima Khan, Director Technical Programme

Management at Peer Software

INTERVIEW: FUJIFILM……......................................…….26

FUJIFILM recently launched Object Archive, 'an S3-compatible tape storage system

for long term data preservation and protection'. Storage magazine finds out more from

the company's Richard Alderson

14

ANALYSIS: LEGACY INFRASTRUCTURE…………....….28

A reliance on legacy backup and recovery technologies - some dating back to the

1990s - is undermining how UK organisations respond to ransomware

EVENT: DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION EXPO………….30

Europe's number one digital transformation event returns to London in October - find

out all you need to know right here

CASE STUDY: INET……….........................................…….32

INET Computer Solutions is helping its clients safeguard Business Continuity with the

help of Arcserve

20

RESEARCH: RANSOMWARE PROTECTION…...........34

New research findings from Druva and IDC highlight the fact that the vast majority of

organisations appear to be woefully unprepared for the increasingly inevitable fact of

a ransomware attack

www.storagemagazine.co.uk @STMagAndAwards Sept/Oct 2022

STORAGE

MAGAZINE

03

COMMENT

EDITOR: David Tyler

david.tyler@btc.co.uk

SUB EDITOR: Mark Lyward

mark.lyward@btc.co.uk

ANTIQUES ROADSHOW

BY DAVID TYLER

EDITOR

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advertising are accurate no responsibility

can be accepted by the publisher or BTC for

errors, misrepresentations or any

resulting effects

The Sep/Oct issue of Storage magazine comes to you, as usual, jam packed with

articles, opinions and interviews from the very cutting edge of storage technology.

But one recent news story that caught my eye was about the exact opposite: a

very old-fashioned storage medium that many of us assumed had disappeared forever,

but is in fact still very much in use.

According to the BBC's website, the digital minister for Japan has 'declared war' on

the humble floppy disk, having discovered that the country's bureaucrats remain

wedded to the old tech, with almost 2,000 different government processes still

requiring the use of floppy disk media. In addition, CDs and even mini-discs are

apparently still in widespread use across Japanese governmental functions.

It might seem odd to think of Japan - a country we historically link with technological

innovation and development - as being 'stuck in the past' in this way, but there have

been precedents. As recently as 2018, the country's cyber-security minister, of all

people, was forced to admit that he never used a computer, preferring to delegate any

IT-related tasks to junior staffers. Anyone picturing Jacob Rees-Mogg when hearing

this story has my sympathy.

In some ways I feel a certain 'good old days' type bond with the floppy disk, I must

admit - after all, without it we wouldn't have the universally recognised icon for 'Save'

on every computer application in the world! And I am not immune to a bit of techrelated

nostalgia myself: as a callow youth I was employed as a computer operator at

a number of very large mainframe sites, and in those days a regular part of our job

involved the maintenance of a huge robotic library of what were known as MSS (Mass

Storage System - abbreviations were simpler in those days!) tapes.

The IBM 3850 MSS system employed thousands of tape cartridges around the size of

a hand grenade, each of which could hold a then-impressive 50MB of data. The

cartridges themselves, when removed from the library, were stored in one particular

employer's computer centre in racks of steel boxes that had once held punch cards -

and who remembers Hollerith cards? That's a story for another time!

When I left that employer, a number of those metal boxes came with me, and are still

in use today, as they are the perfect size for storing 7" singles - of which I have far too

many on my shelves. As I rifle through my much-loved collection of rare punk 45's, I

am often reminded of the history of the boxes they are kept in.

04 STORAGE

MAGAZINE

Sept/Oct 2022

@STMagAndAwards

www.storagemagazine.co.uk

DON’T TAKE THE

PROACTIVE

IMMUTABLE

STORAGE

OUT

OF YOUR

IT SECURITY

STRATEGY!

KILL RANSOMWARE ATTACKS WITH

PROACTIVE IMMUTABLE STORAGE

Make OneXafe a cornerstone of your IT security strategy

and you can be sure your data is well protected from cyber

threats or accidental loss. And, instant recovery from

clean snapshots means you can confidently SAY NO to

ransomware demands, allowing you to focus on getting

your business back up and running fast.

Complete your killer strategy with immutable storage.

arcserve.com/onexafe

MARKET FOCUS: CONSERVATION FOCUS:

MEASURING A CHANGING WORLD

DAVIDE VILLA, WESTERN DIGITAL'S HEAD OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT EMEAI, EXPLORES THE UNSUNG

HERO OF OUR WORLD'S BIODIVERSITY: RESEARCH DATA

Beyond the climate, human activity

continues to affect the health and wellbeing

of our plant and fragile

ecosystems. Biodiversity, or the variety of life

on earth, is vital to the functionality of earth

and is being lost at a startling rate. Any

change to these balanced ecosystems can

result in irreversible and devastating changes

to habitats.

The World Health Organisation has

predicted that the loss in biodiversity may

cause food shortages, economic difficulties,

and challenges developing

pharmaceuticals, among others. The UK has

the most drastic wildlife loss of all G7

countries, with 50% of all biodiversity gone

since the industrial revolution, according to

the Natural History Museum.

Although rarely equated with helping to

protect the environment, information and

data will be crucial in protecting endangered

species and our environment. To measure

and understand the bigger picture of the

human impact on biodiversity, institutions are

compiling vast amounts of data. With this

information, they will have the tools to

analyse and remediate our impacts and

design methods to exist more harmoniously

with the natural world. The loss of

biodiversity is an impending threat, and data

is enabling us to fight back.

HOW DOES DATA HELP?

As with most complex issues, a diverse pool

of data is key to understanding biodiversity

and the factors which affect it. As a starting

point, conservation groups collaborated on

06 STORAGE Sept/Oct 2022

@STMagAndAwards


MAGAZINE

MARKET FOCUS: FOCUS:

CONSERVATION

"The default solution for this kind of data was traditionally Network Attached Storage

but now that data is growing so rapidly in the life sciences sector, storing it is

evolving beyond what NAS can offer. In this field, object storage is now the primary

storage tier, ideal for unstructured data. Object storage can successfully handle data

expansion, long-term data preservation and provides optimal random-access

performance to data when scientists and researchers need it."

a paper, reviewing the data around

biodiversity in quite a manual process.

A major contributor to data collection is

NASA. Through satellites and other

technology, the agency records data about

temperature, location, moisture, light

reflection, and other factors. These data

points give scientists a better understanding

of the threat to a given species. The loss of

habitat is the main cause of species'

extinction and being able to see long-term

changes in temperature or water content

can help identify stressors on species and

their environment.

Recording such a huge number of

environmental factors, of course, requires a

vast amount of data which poses a problem

for NASA and other research organisations

who are tasked with managing that

information and structuring it into workable

sets and patterns. To manage and better

understand recordings taken, data on

biodiversity is being passed through the

bioinformatics workflow to provide solutions

to the loss of habitats and, ultimately,

biodiversity.

The default solution for this kind of data

was traditionally Network Attached Storage

(NAS) but now that data is growing so

rapidly in the life sciences sector, storing it is

evolving beyond what NAS can offer. In this

field, object storage is now the primary

storage tier, ideal for unstructured data.

Object storage can successfully handle data

expansion, long-term data preservation and

provides optimal random-access

performance to data when scientists and

researchers need it.

WHAT CAN THIS DATA TELL US?

After being hunted to the point of extinction

in the 1800s, the osprey, a magnificent bird

of prey, had not been recorded breeding in

Scotland since 1916. The birds spend the

winters in West Africa and return to Europe in

the summer to nest, often in Scandinavia.

However, ospreys began to reappear and

start breeding again in the 1950's in the

Loch Garten site in Strathspey, Scotland.

In order to map their migratory movements

and the mortality of young birds, the RSPB

fits the two eldest chicks with tracking devices

connected to satellites. Thanks to these

research efforts and extensive protection,

there are now over 300 breeding pairs in the

UK. Surveying critically endangered animals

like osprey and identifying protection priority

areas is crucial and would be impossible

without analysing large amounts of data.

Alongside the impact on the flora and

fauna, a loss of biodiversity can radically

alter the life of human populations across the

planet. A lack of equilibrium in fragile

ecosystems threatens people's livelihoods

and housing security. It has the potential to

wipe out vital plants and animals that we rely

on for everyday goods and medicine. It even

poses a threat to global health through the

resurgence of infectious agents, causing

spikes in illnesses like Lyme disease or West

Nile virus. These changes in habitat pose a

real danger for people globally, as well as to

our most precious and vulnerable

necessities.

DATA AND OUR NATURAL WORLD

Data empowers impactful research aiming to

protect our fragile ecosystems, and sharing

this digital information is an important next

step in the process to protect the planet.

Recognising this, much of the data collected

by NASA has already been included in the

UN Biodiversity Lab, which seeks to

democratise biodiversity data across borders,

empower policymakers, and inform

stakeholders with access to data. Therefore,

the data that is collected and organised are

directly supporting progress towards the '17

Sustainable Development Goals' laid out by

the UN. Many of these are linked to

preserving our biodiversity, their habitats,

and the overall health of our planet.

What we can learn from this is that the data

sets and storage technologies, such as object

storage, underpinning this research are

advancing the world in the right direction;

allowing us to protect our environment, the

plants and animals around us, and to ensure

we have the understanding needed to

improve the way we live on and interact with

our planet.

More info: www.wd.com


@STMagAndAwards Sept/Oct 2022

STORAGE

MAGAZINE

07

CASE STUDY: KANAL STUDY:

75

A CLEAR WINNER

INTERNATIONAL SPORTS BROADCASTER KANAL 75

SOLVES LATENCY ISSUES AND ACHIEVES GREATER

OPERATIONAL SIMPLICITY

Sweden's Kanal 75 has chosen VAST's

Universal Storage architecture as the

backend to real-time video for its live

productions. One of the largest multimedia

companies in the Nordic region, Kanal 75

produces TV, internet and news content

focused on horse racing and the betting

culture surrounding it. The company

produces more than 100 hours of TV each

week and delivers more than 1000 live

productions each year for viewers in Europe,

Australia, South Africa, and the USA . Kanal

75's renown grew exponentially during the

COVID-19 pandemic as viewers across the

world embraced horse racing at a time

when almost all other sporting events had

been cancelled due to global social

distancing efforts.

Kanal 75 turned to VAST when growing

interest in its content highlighted

shortcomings in production infrastructure

that were caused by a legacy storage

solution they had previously deployed. "Our

previous production storage simply couldn't

keep up with new demands," said Stefan

Hammerlund, CTO, Kanal 75. "Our

storage was tiered, which made video

capture, editing and broadcast

unpredictable and caused a number of

production problems due to fluctuating

storage latency issues."

These latency issues

significantly impacted Kanal 75's

ability to broadcast live video,

forcing Hammerlund and his team to

add buffers to account for the delayed

output. "For every second worth of buffers we

had to add, our broadcast schedule became

less and less 'live'," Hammerlund recalls.

Kanal 75 chose VAST's Universal Storage

architecture to overcome these challenges and

prime itself to cater to a new and growing live

audience. "After a lengthy evaluation period in

which we looked into alternative tiered storage

and very expensive all-flash solutions from

others, we were impressed by the simplicity and

cost efficiency of VAST's solution, coupled with

the capability of the support team," added

Hammerlund. "In contrast to our previous

setup, VAST's solution has allowed us to provide

consistently-predictable broadcast performance

and is delivering additional savings in the form

of data reduction by efficient deduplication on

our video assets."

When asked about its overall experience with

VAST so far: "It's performed extremely well. No

tuning whatsoever. No latency issues. It's helped

us overcome the limitations of our previous

solution, but its benefits don't stop there," added

Hammerlund. Previously, Kanal 75 had over

seven different SAN and NAS systems

supporting its production

environment, and is now working

to reduce that to one. From a

technical standpoint, VAST has

significantly reduced Kanal 75's storage

complexity and has brought about huge

reductions in the usual costs associated with

storage management and development.

Before experiencing VAST's 'simplicity at

scale', Kanal 75, like most media

companies, had to manage huge amounts

of data without dedicated storage

administrators. The out of the box software

tools for capacity planning and performance

management - combined with VAST's

popular customer success Co-Pilot program

- allowed Kanal 75 to focus on creating and

broadcasting great content without the

pressures of managing storage at scale.

"Latency issues are simply not tolerable in a

real-time environment like Kanal 75's, lest it

loses its 'real-time' live aspect and the interest

of its audience," commented Peter Gadd, Vice

President, International at VAST Data. "Kanal

75's dedication to its viewers and the

production standards it holds itself to are

admirable. We are thrilled that our Universal

Storage can help them produce and broadcast

buffer-free, real-time racing events with ease."

More info: www.vastdata.com


@STMagAndAwards


MAGAZINE

S3 Bridge between Hard Disk

and Tape Technology

OFFLINE

AIR-GAP

SOLUTION

SUSTAINABLE

DATA STORAGE

PROTECTION

AGAINST RANSOMWARE

& CYBER ATTACKS

SCALABLE

AND ADAPTABLE

• Large capacity • No vendor lock-in • Reduction in storage costs

INTERNET

CLOUD

PROVIDERS

NETWORK AGGREGATION

1 ST COPY

DATA

WAREHOUSE

HEADQUARTERS

REGIONAL

OFFICES

2 ND COPY

S3 COMPATIBLE API

S3/S3GLACIER

Disk Storage

YOUR PLATFORM

Tape System

Object Archive is an archive software that makes managing

long-term cold data simple, secure and cost effective. It

leverages the S3-compatible API to integrate with your

storage system and offers a scalable performance with no

vendor lock-in.

By utilising the advantages of tape technology, including

the air gap, your data is protected against ransomware

and cyber-attacks, and can be readable up to 2072 with

the latest tape technology.

This solution is suitable for all kinds of industries and has

been designed with openness and fl exibility in mind; as a

result, it operates with multiple brands of tape hardware.

Please contact us to fi nd out more information about Object

Archive and the benefi ts it could bring to your organisation.

Richard Alderson: 07500 796708, Richard.alderson@fujifilm.com | Sarah Taylor: 07785 505992, Sarah.taylor@fujifilm.com

COMPANY UPDATE: INFINIDAT UPDATE:

WHAT'S IN A GUARANTEE?

RICHARD BRADBURY, SVP FOR EMEA & APJ AT INFINIDAT, EXPLAINS HOW THE COMPANY'S LATEST

EXTENDED CLIENT PROMISE LOOKS SET TO SHAKE UP THE ENTIRE ENTERPRISE STORAGE INDUSTRY

Many enterprise storage vendors offer

guarantee programs - they are

invaluable and incredibly reassuring

for buyers and they help providers to

differentiate in what is becoming an

increasingly crowded marketplace. As one of

the most important infrastructure investments a

business will make, it is important for

enterprise storage buyers to appreciate exactly

what they are getting and how these

programmes can drive value in their own

environments. It means they can make more

informed enterprise storage purchase

decisions.

The fact remains that there are some big

differences between the various enterprise

storage guarantee programmes among

vendors. Which program facets offer real

differentiating value and which are just

marketing hype, pledging baseline capabilities

that are already widely available? We are

proud to offer the former to our clients.

Infinidat already offers a 100% availability

guarantee across all its storage platforms

and now, the company's existing

guaranteed Service Level Agreement

(SLA) program has been extended, with

the industry's first cyber storage

guarantee for recovery on primary

storage - the InfiniSafe Cyber Storage

guarantee. Described by IDC vice

president of Storage research, Eric

Burgener, as 'groundbreaking', this

enhanced guarantee ensures that

enterprises and service providers can

recover and restore all their data - from

primary storage - at near-instantaneous

speeds in the wake of a cyberattack. This is

achieved by using a guaranteed immutable

snapshot dataset with a guaranteed recovery

time of one minute or less. In tandem,

Infinidat also offers a new performance

guarantee across its InfiniBox

platforms, which further

enhances the company's

existing 100% availability

guarantee, originally

announced in 2019.

In offering these

unique guarantees,

Infinidat sets out to

deliver unmatched enterprise SLAs and a

highly differentiated customer experience

that also exemplifies our unconventional

approach to enterprise storage. It means

true peace of mind, because assured SLAs

now span across availability, performance,

and recovery operations to meet the most

demanding data centre requirements. Most

significantly, it demonstrates that customers

are always at the heart of our decision

making.

Whilst guarantees in the storage industry

have been added onto platforms to improve

the enterprise storage ownership experience,

system performance and data recovery times

are typically excluded. Yet, cyber resilient

storage is one of the most important and

frequently requested requirements of

enterprises. IDC research found that 87% of

organisations impacted by ransomware in

the past year had to pay a ransom to

recover their data: through this guarantee

extension, Infinidat helps organisations to

not only avoid having to pay the ransom,

but still retrieve their data, uncompromised

and intact, through rapid cyber recovery.

All four of the Infinidat SLA guarantees are

available across all Infinidat's consumption

models: FLX (Infinidat's storage-as-a-service

offering), Elastic Pricing, and traditional

purchasing options. Feedback from

customers and channel partners about this

newly enhanced SLA guarantee program

has been extremely positive and we are

proud to be setting a new standard for the

industry. Our enterprise customers want

watertight solution sets, especially in storage

- where all their corporate data is stored -

and they get that when they engage with

Infinidat.

More info: www.infinidat.com


@STMagAndAwards


MAGAZINE

Cost-effective 10GbE-ready QuTS hero NAS

TS-h1886XU-RP R2

Designed for virtualization and data-intensive

enterprise applications

ECC memory forestalls data corruption to assure reliability

Dual 10GbE / 2.5GbE connectivity optimizes virtualization performance

Empower tiered storage with a hybrid infrastructure

Expand NAS functionality with multiple PCIe slots

Copyright © 2022 QNAP Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

STRATEGY:

STRATEGY: MANAGED SERVICE PROVIDERS

EFFICIENT OPERATIONS KEY

FOR MSP SUCCESS

MIKE PUGLIA, CHIEF SECURITY OFFICER & GM OF SECURITY

PRODUCTS AT KASEYA, DESCRIBES HOW MSPS CAN DRIVE

EFFICIENCIES THROUGH 2022 AND BEYOND

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a

significant effect on the activities of

managed service providers (MSPs)

the world over. It created opportunities

for them as SMBs had to go remote and

depend on MSPs to stay in business. That

reliance has carried on into the post

pandemic world and will continue,

creating ongoing opportunities for MSPs.

For many though, the opportunities

have dominated. As the pandemic

tightened its grip, companies upgraded

their IT infrastructure by adopting cloudbased

and digital tools to stay

competitive. Often this meant turning to

outside resources, particularly for IT

support. Accordingly, many MSPs have

seen their business grow.

More than half (51%) of the

respondents to Kaseya's 2022 MSP

Benchmark Survey, which polled more

than 1,200 MSPs across the globe said

COVID-19 enabled them to increase

their ability to expand services within

their client base, while 62% said it led to

an increase in their overall monthly

recurring revenue (MRR). Nearly half of

the MSP respondents reported monthly

recurring revenue growth above 10%

because of these favourable factors.

SECURITY REIGNS SUPREME

Top of mind for many MSPs as we stand

on the cusp of post-pandemic age is the

cyber-security landscape. According to

the survey, 50% said their business is

more at risk from cyber-crime compared

to one year ago, which is an 11%

increase from 2021's data. But this

challenge is also an opportunity. Over

95% of respondents told Kaseya their

clients turned to them for advice on

cyber-security plans and best practices in

2021.

These figures are unsurprising. Cybersecurity

is an increasingly urgent concern

for those small to medium-sized

businesses (SMBs) that make up the lion's

share of most MSP clients lists. The

remote and hybrid work environment has

made it easier for cyber-criminals of all

stripes to exploit vulnerable companies.

SMBs make an attractive target

because they lack a solid security


@STMagAndAwards


MAGAZINE

STRATEGY:

STRATEGY: MANAGED SERVICE PROVIDERS

"MSPs can win more customers by offering strong

cybersecurity and compliance services as well as

impressive customer support. As MSPs onboard more

clients, they must streamline their operations to drive

operational efficiency while also lowering costs.

Integration between critical business tools, such as

remote monitoring and management, PSA solutions and

IT documentation, will help them accomplish this."

framework and often do not have the

right resources and knowledge in place

to build one. Furthermore, their

technicians often experience burnout due

to working longer hours monitoring for

incidents on top of handling the usual IT

tasks.

All the evidence suggests that cybersecurity

will continue to be a grim topic

for the SMB community moving forward.

Among the MSP respondents surveyed,

73% said up to 20% of their clients

experienced at least one cyber-attack in

the past 12 months. This trend is

consistent with 2021 survey responses.

It is evident though that cyber-crime is

hitting more businesses. The percentage

of respondents who said between 21%

and 40% of their clients had experienced

at least one cyber-attack jumped from

13% to 21%.

SPOTLIGHT ON BCDR

Business continuity and disaster recovery

(BCDR) is another key focus. Due to the

increasing complexity of IT environments

and the cyber-threat landscape, IT

professionals are instructed to test their

disaster recovery capabilities regularly.

Kaseya's 2022 survey found 30% of MSPs

simulate disaster recovery capabilities

quarterly, 25% test annually and 9% test

monthly - with 15% admitting that they

never test at all.

Remote work has also provided a

wealth of opportunities for MSPs to look

to capitalise on. That's because it is seen

as a significant pain point for MSPs'

customers, with 36% of respondents

selecting it as one of the top three IT

problems for clients in 2022.

INTEGRATION & EFFICIENCY

ARE KEY

The topics outlined above are

increasingly areas of focus for MSPs and

their customers. MSPs are therefore

increasingly offering these services to

their customers in a bid to drive revenue

growth. It is a trend likely to continue

through 2022 and beyond.

In delivering these services, efficiency

will remain key. According to the Kaseya

research, it continues to be a top priority

for MSPs, with 96% of respondents

agreeing that integrating core

technologies improves operational

efficiency. Ultimately, the challenges and

opportunities outlined above can best be

addressed through IT solutions and

services that deliver application

integration and operational efficiencies.

MSPs can win more customers by

offering strong cybersecurity and

compliance services as well as impressive

customer support. As MSPs onboard

more clients, they must streamline their

operations to drive operational efficiency

while also lowering costs.

Integration between critical business

tools, such as remote monitoring and

management, PSA solutions and IT

documentation, will help them

accomplish this. As a whole, the state of

the MSP market remains strong and the

outlook looks promising. With careful

planning and foresight, MSPs can

overcome obstacles and carve out a

niche for themselves through the

remainder of 2022 and beyond.

More info: www.kaseya.com



STORAGE

MAGAZINE

13

CASE STUDY: SYSTEM STUDY:

FORCE I.T.

MAKING THE SWITCH TO RELIABLE BACKUP

GLOUCESTERSHIRE COMPANY

SYSTEM FORCE I.T. IS ABLE TO

COMPLETE ITS CLIENT

BACKUPS SUCCESSFULLY AND

SMOOTHLY, WHILE SAVING

HOURS ON DATA PROTECTION

ADMINISTRATION

System Force IT is an IT support

company based in Gloucestershire,

providing 24/7 network support, IT

solutions and services. Their aim is to work

with customers to develop their IT

infrastructure, ensuring uptime, control and

security. The company develops and installs

cloud solutions, server and network

solutions, CCTV, and site-to-site links,

among other services. System Force IT also

provides internet connections, as well as

domain and hosting services

The company's two main data centres host

servers, cloud servers and customer servers.

In total, there are 30 physical servers and

around 120 virtual machines. Each virtual

machine is different not only for System

Force IT but also for each of their customers.

Some virtual machines run different versions

of Linux, others run Server 2008, Server

2012, Server 2016 or Server 2019. The

functionality of each virtual machine ranges

from file services and Microsoft Exchange

email to private web storage.

Fast and reliable backup, the ability to

replicate backup data to a different location,

and the ability to recover that data easily are

of utmost importance for the company.

Previously, System Force IT relied on

various products, both paid and free, for

protecting their environment. Backup jobs

constantly failed and full backups took too

long to complete. As System Force IT ran

multiple backup jobs, administration of these

backup jobs could take up to half a working

day. Recoveries also failed for securityrelated

reasons or were too slow.


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MAGAZINE

CASE STUDY: STUDY:

SYSTEM FORCE I.T.

"NAKIVO Backup & Replication is probably one of the best backup solutions

around currently. I like the sheer flexibility of the product, as the software can

be configured on anything and is able to back up any machine. We no longer

have any backup concerns as we did in the past with long backup time and

too much time spent on backup administration."

Since the previous solutions relied on backup

policies, there were difficulties with

troubleshooting issues. That is why System

Force IT decided to look once again for a new

backup solution that could provide reliable

backup, fast recovery and offsite replication.

experiences was that one of our servers was

updated. The server then failed to boot after

that update was completed. Then, 45 minutes

later, the whole server had been restored to

another virtual host, and we just powered it on

and all was working as usual," says Ross.

FLEXIBILITY IS KEY

"NAKIVO Backup and Replication was not the

first product that we tried. And the solution was

not the only product that looked perfect on

paper," says Ross Butler, IT Support Director at

System Force IT. "However, NAKIVO was the

only company out of six to reach out to us and

answer all our questions while we were testing

the product. As our needs were not simple,

NAKIVO was flexible with our trial."

NAKIVO Backup & Replication prides itself on

ease of use and flexibility. "We enjoy the

product's flexibility with multiple installation

options, especially deployment on Windows,

Linux and NAS devices. The configuration

process is also easy and makes sense," says

Ross. "Our current installation takes advantage

of the multi-tenant option. We have a server

that has a tenant setup for us and our

customers. We have several storage devices,

including QNAP, FreeNAS and Open-E. The

whole network is 10GbE and is dedicated to

the backup system. Each VM is backed up to

any one of the NAS devices. These backups

are in turn replicated offsite."

"We run full backups every weekend and

incremental ones during the week. I love the

fact that nearly 95% of all backups complete

successfully every day. Probably one of the best

"We use backup copy functionality to move

the backup copy to an external location. This

functionality helps with disaster recovery," says

Ross. "We can now be at ease knowing that

our data and our customers' data are stored in

multiple locations. The network acceleration

feature also helped with the backup copy. We

use network acceleration, as the copy is offsite

through a site-to-site link. Network

acceleration helps when backing up to remote

locations."

ULTIMATE RECOMMENDATION

"NAKIVO Backup & Replication is fantastic. I

cannot recommend the product enough. The

cost is reasonable and manageable when

compared with similar products available on

the market. NAKIVO Backup & Replication is

probably one of the best backup solutions

around currently. I like the sheer flexibility of the

product, as the software can be configured on

anything and is able to back up any machine.

We no longer have any backup concerns as

we did in the past with long backup time and

too much time spent on backup

administration," says Ross. "NAKIVO Backup &

Replication saved us hours and hours. We

would lose at least 6 to 8 hours every week

during which the IT team had to fix issues with

the last backup solution."

More info: www.nakivo.com



STORAGE

MAGAZINE

15

RESEARCH:

RESEARCH: DATA SOVEREIGNTY

THE RISE OF HYBRID CLOUD

SOVEREIGNTY

AS NEW RESEARCH SHOWS THAT DATA SOVEREIGNTY STRATEGIES

ARE EMBRACED BY 98% OF IT DECISION MAKERS IN EUROPE AND US,

ALMOST HALF OF THOSE SURVEYED SAY THEY ARE USING HYBRID

CLOUD OR LOCAL CLOUD SERVICE PROVIDERS AS AN ALTERNATIVE

TO AWS, AZURE, AND GOOGLE CLOUD TO MEET SOVEREIGNTY

REQUIREMENTS

Scality has shared the results of an

independent survey of IT decision

makers across France, Germany, the

UK, and the US about their data

sovereignty strategies. 98% of

organisations already have policies in

place or have plans to implement them.

To achieve data sovereignty, 49% of IT

decision makers are using hybrid cloud or

regional cloud service providers as an

alternative to the public cloud.

137 out of 194 countries in the world

have data protection and privacy

legislation in place. As a result,

organisations must adhere to the data

residency guidance and local regulations

required for data collection and

processing.

According to the survey - conducted by

global technology market research firm

Vanson Bourne - the vast majority of

organisations across all four countries

either have sovereignty regulations or

policies in place to keep their data in

specific locations (80%) or have plans to

do so (18%). The report reveals minimal

differences between France (where 81%

of respondents have policies in place),

Germany (79%), UK (82%), and US

(78%). Just 2% of respondents worldwide

said they neither have sovereignty

policies in place, nor plans to implement

them.

Cloud technologies will benefit from this

trend, with IT teams employing a number

of data storage strategies to achieve

sovereignty. Across the four geographies,

of the organisations that have sovereignty

policies or plans:

40% primarily (will) store their data on

a large public cloud, such as regional

offerings by AWS, Azure, or Google

Cloud

36% of respondents (will) deploy a

combined on-premises/public cloud

solution, i.e. hybrid cloud

13% (will) store their data with a

regional cloud service provider

11% (will) use an on-premises data

centre.

While some large public cloud providers

offer options to store data in specific

regions, this isn't suitable for many

organisations that own highly sensitive

data, or who wish to avoid vendor lock in

and high data access or egress fees.


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MAGAZINE

RESEARCH:

RESEARCH: DATA SOVEREIGNTY

"It's extremely encouraging to see that such a high number of organisations in the US

as well as Europe are taking data sovereignty seriously and have plans in place,

including a significant shift toward hybrid cloud strategies. This can certainly help

organisations prevent cloud lock-in and provide safety in having data stored locally or

in multiple locations."

HYBRID CLOUD BREAKS THROUGH

36% of respondents opted for a solution

that combines on-premises or private

cloud/s with public cloud/s. This hybrid

cloud approach provides the flexibility

and control to store data locally for data

residency and sovereignty while providing

the freedom to easily migrate data to a

different platform at any time.

Paul Speciale (pictured), chief marketing

officer, Scality said: "It's extremely

encouraging to see that such a high

number of organisations in the US as well

as Europe are taking data sovereignty

seriously and have plans in place,

including a significant shift toward hybrid

cloud strategies. This can certainly help

organisations prevent cloud lock-in and

provide safety in having data stored

locally or in multiple locations. The

surprisingly high results in the US could

be due to growing concerns regarding

China's strength in technology

development."

In the survey, IT decision makers from

several industries including

manufacturing, telecom, professional

services, financial services, and retail,

were asked: "To what extent does your

organisation have sovereignty regulations

or policies in place to keep your data in

specific locations (e.g., local, in specific

countries or regions)?" Respondents that

currently have or are planning sovereignty

regulations to keep data in specific

locations were asked: "How are you

primarily storing or planning to store the

data?"

Key findings from the UK include:

82% of UK respondents have already

adopted data sovereignty policies, and

13% have plans to do so; 5% do not

plan to implement them, and are most

likely to come from a smaller sized

organisation (1,000-2,999 employees)

In the UK, organisations from the IT,

technology, and telecoms sector

(92%), the business and professional

services sector (90%), and the

financial services sector (88%) are

most likely to already have policies in

place

Manufacturing organisations are

significantly behind the UK average of

82%, with 62% having policies in

place, while 31% have plans to

implement them

To implement data sovereignty

policies, 33% of UK respondents (will)

use a large public cloud service, 42%

a hybrid cloud, 14% a regional service

provider, and 12% an on-premises

data centre

UK respondents from smaller

organisations (1,000-2,999

employees) compared to larger

organisations (3,000+ employees) are

significantly more likely to select a

public cloud service (45% vs 25%),

and less likely to select a hybrid cloud

(32% vs 49%).

More info: www.scality.com



STORAGE

MAGAZINE

17

ANALYSIS: LTO

LTO: MORE RELEVANT THAN EVER

STORAGE MAGAZINE TAKES A CLOSER LOOK AT THE LATEST ROADMAP ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM THE LTO

PROGRAM REGARDING THE FUTURE OF TAPE STORAGE

The LTO Program Technology

Provider Companies (TPCs), HPE,

IBM, and Quantum, recently

released an updated LTO tape

technology roadmap that extends the

LTO Ultrium standard through 14

generations. The roadmap calls for tape

capacities to double with each new

generation, with LTO-14 delivering up to

1,440 TB (1.44 PB) per tape. Once

introduced, LTO-14 will surpass the

capacity of current LTO-9 cartridges by

32 times.

"LTO tape is more relevant than ever as

low-cost, sustainable storage for longterm

data archiving, and as a secure

data storage option for strengthening

cybersecurity," commented Sam Werner,

VP, Storage Product Management at IBM.

"With specifications now defined through

generation 14, LTO tape is poised to

support rapid and accelerating data

growth. It offers organisations a

sustainable, reliable, and low-cost

solution to protect and store their critical

business data."

The group's latest technology roadmap

details specifications for up to fourteen

generations of tape technology. The LTO

Program first released its LTO Ultrium

standard in 2000 with a capacity of 200

GB per cartridge compressed. Two

decades later, the LTO Program released

LTO generation 9, which supports tape

cartridge storage compressed capacity of

up to 45 TB and tape drive data transfer

rates of up to 1,000 MB/second.

medium of choice for long-term data

archiving both on-premises and in

the cloud.

"According to IDC data, the magnetic

tape market grew at robust 10.5% in

2021, driven by the needs to defend

against ransomware, store large volumes

of data at low-cost, as well as data

centres pivoting to 'green' technologies,"

said Phil Goodwin, Research Vice

President, IDC. "Moreover, data volumes

continue to double every two to three

years. Multi-petabyte implementations

have become commonplace. This LTO

roadmap, out to Generation 14 with

more than 1 PB of compressed capacity

per cartridge, illustrates how LTO

technology will continue advancing to

meet organisations' large capacity

storage needs for years to come."

HIGHER CAPACITY, LOWER COST

While storage managers grapple with

exponential data growth, fending off

cyberattacks and reducing carbon

footprints, the LTO Program has

developed the right solution to address

their needs. The most recently available

generation, LTO generation 9, builds on

more than two decades of data

protection and storage innovation to offer

increased tape cartridge storage capacity

of up to 45 TB (compressed).

It provides full backward read and write

compatibility with LTO-8 cartridges, and

supports many previously introduced

features, including enhanced security via

hardware-based encryption, WORM

(Write-Once, Read-Many) functionality

and ease of data movement via the

Linear Tape File System (LTFS).

At less than $0.01 per gigabyte, LTO

has established itself as the storage


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MAGAZINE

ANALYSIS: LTO

"LTO tape is more relevant than ever as low-cost, sustainable storage for long-term

data archiving, and as a secure data storage option for strengthening cybersecurity.

With specifications now defined through generation 14, LTO tape is poised to support

rapid and accelerating data growth. It offers organisations a sustainable, reliable, and

low-cost solution to protect and store their critical business data."

The record-breaking LTO media

capacity shipments of 2021 highlight how

LTO tape has seen renewed adoption and

interest among organisations due to its

many attributes, including: the airgapped

protection it offers against

ransomware, the benefits it brings to

organisations' Environmental,

Sustainability and Governance (ESG)

initiatives, and its reliability and low cost

as compared with other data

storage options.

ABOUT THE LTO ROADMAP

The LTO Ultrium format is a powerful, scalable,

adaptable open tape format developed and

continuously enhanced by technology providers

HPE, IBM and Quantum (and their

predecessors) to help address the growing

demands of data protection in the midrange to

enterprise-class server environments.

This ultra-high capacity generation of tape

storage products is designed to deliver

outstanding performance, capacity and

reliability combining the advantages of linear

multi-channel, bi-directional formats with

enhancements in servo technology, data

compression, track layout, and error correction.

With this newest extended roadmap, LTO tape

continues to show how it is optimised to support

rapid data growth year over year by offering

industries a sustainable, reliable, cost-effective

way to protect and secure their short- and longterm

data storage archives.

More info: www.lto.org

SAFE & SECURE OFFLINE STORAGE

Magnetic recording capacities are a function of areal density and recording surface area. LTO-9 achieves 18 TB native capacity with 12

Gbit/in2 areal density whereas a Hard Disk Drive (HDD) with the same capacity requires 84X higher density with 1,014 Gbit/in2. In this

instance, the higher number is not 'better' because it means that HDD manufacturers need to use much smaller bits to store the same

amount of information. As the bits become smaller, it is more technically challenging to maintain magnetic stability and thus the reliability of

the recording process.

Also, even compared to the latest 9-platter HDD products, LTO's magnetic surface area is still substantially larger due to the use of

Kilometer long tape medium, providing vast, low cost, green, ransomware resilient and highly durable magnetic recording surface area. This

means LTO has far more headroom before it runs into the same challenges faced by HDD manufacturers today. These are the fundamental

reasons why LTO can continue to enjoy a robust capacity road map over the next decade by doubling every generation.

Recent tape technology demos published by IBM independently showed the feasibility of 317 and 400 Gbit/in2 areal densities translating

to greater than 600 TB LTO capacities even at current tape lengths.

The potential of higher areal densities with larger magnetic recording area will translate to continued support of doubling capacities over

the next decade and more. It's important to note that similar futuristic capacities may be extremely difficult if not impossible with current HDD

technologies since it will require areal densities well above 30,000 Gbit/in2.



STORAGE

MAGAZINE

19

TECHNOLOGY FOCUS: HARD DISK DRIVES FOCUS:

THE HEAT IS ON

RAINER W. KAESE OF TOSHIBA ELECTRONICS EUROPE EXPLAINS THE IMPORTANCE OF HDD TEMPERATURE

CONTROL

The internal temperature of a hard drive is

an important factor not only in its correct

functioning but also when it comes to the

reliability and lifetime of a storage system. The

mechanical components of the hard disk drive,

especially the fluid-dynamic bearing of the

platter-stack spindle, wear out faster at higher

temperatures as the fluid oil leaks out at a faster

rate.

So, controlling the temperature of hard drives

in storage systems is necessary to ensure

optimal functionality and high reliability.

HOW TO MEASURE HDD TEMPERATURE

Modern hard drives have a built-in internal

temperature sensor, which can be read via the

S.M.A.R.T parameter, by tools within the

operating system, or by the management tools

of the host bus adapter or RAID controller.

Open-E JovianDSS GUI provides access to

management tools of Broadcom and

Microchip-Adaptec management tools:

In the case of Microchip-Adaptec: :8443,

login with aac,

password raid

In the case of Broadcom: :9000,

login with root, password

admin

By expanding controller-, enclosure-, and portview,

the connected hard disk drives are listed

and temperature is displayed.

On the operating system level, smart values

can be read out with "smartmontools", a

common freeware tool available for Windows

and Linux.

HOW HOT IS TOO HOT?

The manufacturer specifies the correct

functionality of a hard disk drive within a certain

range. When specifically looking at Enterprise

HDDs, a controlled data centre-type of cooling

is assumed, hence they are usually specified to

operate from 5 to 60° C, with an ambient

temperature of max. 55° C. NAS drives are

specified from 5 to 65° C and surveillancespecific

models from 0-70° C (this is because

surveillance systems may operate in less stable

environments).

TEMPERATURE & RELIABILITY

The average hard drive temperature has a

direct impact on its reliability. The reliability of a

hard drive, measured in Mean Time To Failure

(MTTF), will only be achieved if the average

hard drive temperature stays below 40° C.

'Average' here means that periods with more

than 40° C will need to be compensated by

periods with less than 40° C. In data centre

environments with active cooling, the user

should ensure that the temperature of 40° C is

never exceeded.

A typical enterprise hard drive is rated with an

MTTF of 2 Mio. hours. MTTF can be translated


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TECHNOLOGY FOCUS: HARD DISK DRIVES FOCUS:

"For a hard drive operating beyond these limits, AFR (annual failure rate) would slowly

increase, depending on the level of the violation. The same can be applied when

considering a hard drive usage after 5 years of warranted service lifetime - a massive

fail should not necessarily be expected, but over time, higher yearly failure rates

exceeding a level of 4-5 parts out of 1000 could be experienced outside of the first 5

years… As a rough indication, each 5° C over 40° C could increase the failure rate by

around 30%. At 55° C continual or sustained hard drive temperature, the failure rate is

expected to double."

into an "annualised failure rate" (AFR) using the

following formula:

This exponential formula assumes that the

already failed drives have to be considered

when calculating the failure rate for the

remaining drives. With low failure rates, the

formula can be simplified as follows:

An MTTF of 2 Mio hours would result in an

AFR of 0.438 %. So, within 1000 drives in

operation, 4-5 parts would be expected to fail

throughout a year of operation.

But this MTTF/AFR commitment of the HDD

manufacturer is restricted to certain conditions,

which are:

Valid only within the warranty period (typically

5 years),

Valid only when not exceeding excessive

workload (less than 550TB/year reading

and writing),

Valid only when not exceeding the maximum

power on hours per period (only for non-

24/7 models),

Valid only when not exceeding the average

temperature of 40° C.

If any of these conditions are violated, the hard

drive may not fail straight away. Specifically, the

workload limitation is not meant in the same

way as endurance when referring to SSD write

endurance (where a violation would always

result in a failure of a component). For a hard

drive operating beyond these limits, AFR (annual

failure rate) would slowly increase, depending

on the level of the violation.

The same can be applied when considering a

hard drive usage after 5 years of warranted

service lifetime - a massive fail should not

necessarily be expected, but over time, higher

yearly failure rates exceeding a level of 4-5 parts

out of 1000 could be experienced outside of

the first 5 years.

After exceeding an average temperature of

40° C, the AFR of 0.438% increases. As a

rough indication, each 5° C over 40° C could

increase the failure rate by around 30%. At 55°

C continual or sustained hard drive

temperature, the failure rate is expected to

double.

Keeping the average hard drive temperature

below 40° C shouldn't be a problem in any

well-designed thermal system with appropriate

airflow. However, operating without proper

airflow and a set of fans will not facilitate the

service and support for the thermal

requirements for the 24/7 continuous operation

of enterprise drives. In case of operation at

room temperature, high room temperatures of

>30° C may result in hard drive temperatures

of over 40° C, but these could be offset with

periods of lower temperatures as previously

explained.

As for installation in data centres, welldesigned

thermal servers and JBODs keep the

hard drive at a maximum of 10-15° C over air

inlet temperature. So, air inlet temperatures

lower than 20° C will support proper hard drive

operations, even if stacked in a rear position of

a large 4U top-loader JBOD or server.

In such cases where there is a sustained higher

HDD temperature of 15° C over ambient/airinlet

temperature, something is fundamentally

wrong in the thermal design of the system. You

should check the airflow/fan operation and

analyse the system for potential blockages of the

airflow.

OBSERVE AND REACT

For correct functioning and the highest possible

reliability, it is important to observe the

temperature of the hard disk drive in operation.

Maximum temperatures of 60° C and more

should be avoided by all means, and the

average temperature should ideally not exceed

40° C.

More info: toshiba.semiconstorage.com/eu/storage


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MAGAZINE

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MANAGEMENT: HIGH AVAILABILITY

TRADITIONAL 'ACTIVE-PASSIVE' HIGH

AVAILABILITY PRACTICES ARE DEAD

TODAY'S ALWAYS-ON BUSINESSES REQUIRE TRUE ACTIVE-ACTIVE CAPABILITIES TO KEEP UP WITH MODERN

REAL-TIME DATA DEMANDS, ARGUES WASIMA KHAN, DIRECTOR OF TECHNICAL PROGRAMME

MANAGEMENT AT PEER SOFTWARE

In the modern on-demand, always-on

economy of today, data availability has

become a vital component of business

IT strategies. Data must always be both

accessible and available, no matter what

is happening behind the scenes. Users

expect immediate access to relevant data

from wherever they are and on whatever

device they are using.

In this context, high availability will, at

the very least, protect companies from

revenue losses when access to their data

resources is disrupted. But in sectors such

as autonomous driving or healthcare,

people's lives depend on systems being

available and functioning at all times. For

example, a failure on the operating

system of an autonomous vehicle would

potentially cause an accident,

endangering the passengers, and even

other cars and pedestrians. Enterprises

serve as data stewards who help navigate

information and provide value as

everybody's physical and digital lives

merge.

Most systems today rely on traditional

active-passive High Availability (HA)

technologies to maintain data availability

and failover. What this means is a

configuration consisting of at least two

nodes that will be active in turn. For

example, if the first node is active, the

second one will be on standby, therefore

passive.

STRUGGLING TO KEEP UP

In the active-passive type of setup, the

primary systems handle the workload,

while a backup system remains on

standby, ready to take over if the primary

server is disconnected or unavailable. But

while this has been sufficient in the past,

it no longer keeps up with today's pace of

business. Indeed, this failover

configuration requires time and manual

intervention, and thus downtime.

In contrast, active-active systems

distribute their workloads across multiple,

active servers as well as multiple sites,

through load balancing. When one node

fails, users are automatically rerouted to

the next active node without any manual


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MAGAZINE

MANAGEMENT: HIGH AVAILABILITY

"Ultimately, the main difference between the active-passive and active-active

architectures is performance. By distributing the workload across several nodes, the

active-active cluster allows you to access the resources of all your servers whereas an

active-passive cluster will only activate the backup server in times of failover. Engines

such as NetApp SnapMirror, Dell EMC SyncIQ and Nutanix Smart DR are examples of

active-passive technologies. Data gets duplicated either within the same data centre,

from one system to another, or between separate, asynchronous sites. While

technically solid, the passive nature of the backup copy and the manual intervention

required to make it live is less than ideal."

or IT administrator intervention. This

allows the user to experience continued

productivity without interruption.

An active-active cluster is usually made

up of at least two nodes, both actively

running simultaneously, which helps to

achieve load balancing. And because

the workload is distributed across all

nodes, it prevents any single node from

getting overloaded. This configuration

will also deliver faster throughput and

response times, as there are more nodes

available to serve.

THE PERFORMANCE DIFFERENCE

Ultimately, the main difference between

the active-passive and active-active

architectures is performance. By

distributing the workload across several

nodes, the active-active cluster allows

you to access the resources of all your

servers whereas an active-passive cluster

will only activate the backup server in

times of failover.

Engines such as NetApp SnapMirror,

Dell EMC SyncIQ and Nutanix Smart DR

are examples of active-passive

technologies. Data gets duplicated either

within the same data centre, from one

system to another, or between separate,

asynchronous sites. While technically

solid, the passive nature of the backup

copy and the manual intervention

required to make it live is less than

ideal.

Traditional active-passive technologies

have certainly evolved and there is a

current trend towards true active-active

systems to provide what today's users

expect. The main reason for this is the

fact that consumers are addicted to realtime

data. Indeed, according to an IDC

whitepaper ('The digitisation of the world

from edge to core', 2018), "today, more

than 5 billion consumers interact with

data every day - by 2025, that number

will be 6 billion, or 75% of the world's

population. In 2025, each connected

person will have at least one data

interaction every 18 seconds."

But let's take a step back and look at

the macro picture: today's economy

relies hugely on data, and this will

increase as companies collect and

analyse every step of their production

and supply chains. Consumers are living

in a digital world, creating content

through nearly every aspect of their lives.

The on-demand expectations will put a

great deal of emphasis on the edge and

the core being able to produce the data

that consumers require in real-time, and

therefore the active-active model is of

the utmost importance.

DON'T GET LEFT BEHIND

The global datasphere is growing fast

and companies need to guarantee they

are not left behind when it comes to

collecting, analysing, and processing

data in real-time, to respond to the

expectations of today's economy. In this

context, and to meet the opportunities of

the always on world, it's important for

organisations to ensure that data is

actionable wherever it resides (activeactive),

is as close as possible to the

end-user for performance reasons, and

that the load of data processing is

spread across all compute and storage

nodes whether it be at the edge, in the

data centre, or in the cloud.

More info: www.peersoftware.com



STORAGE

MAGAZINE

25

INTERVIEW: FUJIFILM

OBJECT ARCHIVE SOFTWARE

- THE INSIDE STORY

FUJIFILM RECENTLY LAUNCHED OBJECT ARCHIVE, DESCRIBED AS

'AN S3-COMPATIBLE TAPE STORAGE SYSTEM FOR LONG-TERM DATA

PRESERVATION AND DATA PROTECTION'. STORAGE MAGAZINE

FINDS OUT MORE FROM RICHARD ALDERSON,THE COMPANY'S

HEAD OF RECORDING MEDIA - UK, IRELAND AND SCANDINAVIA

Storage Magazine: tell us more about

Object Archive and how it differs

from other solutions and what

advantages you feel it might offer.

Richard Alderson: Object Archive is an

archive solution which creates a synergy

between hard disk and tape technology

by acting as an S3 bridge between hard

disk and tape. The main differences to

other solutions are:

Object Archive has been developed in

house by FUJIFILM and we developed

our own tape writing format, which

is an open format called 'OTformat'

that is specifically designed for saving

objects on tape

It has a free-and-easy exit strategy,

with no vendor lock-in, and offers a

scalable performance for users in all

industries, such as the government

administration, managed service

providers, financial and scientific

sectors

It works with most brands of tape

hardware, giving freedom of choice

to the end user.

ST: In these straitened times, costs are

always on the minds of organisations

when deploying solutions. Object Archive

is said to reduce recurring storage fees

and expensive egress fees of cloud

storage. Exactly how does it achieve this,

and can these savings be monitored and

validated by users in real time?

RA: As mentioned, there is no vendor

lock-in and therefore no exit fee. Also, all

data is stored on tape, which is the most

cost-effective method for the long-term

storage of archived data.

ST: Object Archive uses S3-compatible

APIs for data operations to enable

what is said to be "easy and seamless

integration" with existing object storage

platforms and data applications. Can

you explain how that works - and is

anything ever really seamless?

RA: Object Archive works with hard disk,

other object storage solutions, including

Cloudian, Datacore and Netapp, and

can also be used with other solutions,

such as Ceph and Dell ECS, when using

a datamover. For most day-to-day data

usage, it is possible to manage data

stored in tape through the object

storage GUI.

ST: The solution that you've launched is

also said to 'create an air-gap' between

archived data and your network, in order

to enforce security. How does that work in

practice and what are the biggest

paybacks?

RA: Tape technology is the most secure

way to store long-term data and naturally

creates an air gap solution, because it is

removable. By removing tape, your data

is isolated from any other device and

therefore it minimises the vulnerability to

cyber-attacks or hacking. Furthermore,

with LTO9 tape media data can be

archived for up to 50 years, so your data

will still be readable up to 2072.

ST: Computational science relies on

enormous banks of data to solve

challenging problems with the power

of computer analytics. So our wrap-up

question for this Q&A is: In what ways will

Object Archive help that cause?

RA: As well as data security and the air

gap, Object Archive has an impact cost

Savings, as it gives the ability to reduce

the amount of hard disk required, which

can help users to reduce their energy

consumption.

What we really need to ask is: are we

on the edge of a new era? As costs

continue to dramatically increase,

businesses need to ensure their data is

protected against cyber-attacks and

disasters, is stored in a sustainable way

and that it is accessible for years to

come. Object Archive addresses all of

these concerns and is a big step forward

in the world of data archiving.

More info: datastoragena.fujifilm.com/object-archive/


@STMagAndAwards


MAGAZINE

ANALYSIS:

ANALYSIS: LEGACY INFRASTRUCTURE

OUTDATED INFRASTRUCTURE PUTS

ORGANISATIONS AT RISK

A RELIANCE ON LEGACY BACKUP AND RECOVERY TECHNOLOGIES - SOME DATING BACK TO THE

1990S - IS UNDERMINING HOW UK ORGANISATIONS RESPOND TO RANSOMWARE

New research commissioned by

Cohesity has revealed that half of

respondents in the UK say their

company depends on outdated, legacy

backup and recovery infrastructure to manage

and protect their data. In some cases, this

technology is more than 20 years old and was

designed long before today's multicloud era

and onslaught of sophisticated cyberattacks

plaguing enterprises globally.

Challenges pertaining to outdated

infrastructure could easily be compounded by

the fact that many IT and security teams don't

seem to have a plan in place to mobilise if

and when a cyber attack occurs. More than 6

in 10 (62%) respondents in the UK expressed

some level of concern that their IT and security

teams would be able to mobilise efficiently to

respond to the attack.

"IT and security teams should raise the alarm

bell if their organisation continues to use

antiquated technology to manage and secure

their most critical digital asset - their data,"

said Brian Spanswick (pictured), chief

information security officer, Cohesity. "Cyber

criminals are actively preying on this outdated

infrastructure as they know it was not built for

today's dispersed, multicloud environments,

nor was it built to help companies protect and

rapidly recover from sophisticated

cyberattacks."

ARCHAIC INFRASTRUCTURE

Fifty percent (49.4%) of respondents in the UK

said that their organisation relies on primary

backup and recovery infrastructure that was

designed in, or before, 2010. Among that

group, 27 percent claim to utilise technology

that was either designed between 2000-

2005, or in fact, before the new millennium in

the 1990s.

Enterprises are utilising this legacy

technology despite the fact that managing

and securing data environments has become

much more complex, not just because of the

exponential growth in structured and

unstructured data, but because of the vast

array of locations where that data is stored. In

the UK, 38% percent of respondents stated

that they store data on-premises, 39% rely on

public cloud storage, 50% utilise a private

cloud, and 41% have adopted a hybrid model

(some respondents are using more than one

option).

"In 2022, the fact that any organisation is

using technology to manage their data that

was designed in the 1990s is frightening

given that data can be

compromised, exfiltrated,

held hostage, and it can

create massive compliance

issues for organisations," said Spanswick. "In

this survey, we easily found respondents who

said their organisations are relying on very

outdated data infrastructure, and this raises

the question, how many other businesses are

in the same situation around the world?"

KEEPING I.T. & SECOPS UP AT NIGHT

Respondents in the UK highlighted what they

believe would be their biggest barriers to

getting their organisation back up and

running after a successful ransomware attack.

The findings are as follows (respondents were

asked to check all that apply):

integration between IT and security systems

(41%);

lack of coordination between IT and

Security (37%);

lack of an automated disaster recovery

system (34%);

lack of and timely detailed alerts (31%)

antiquated backup and recovery systems

(29%);

lack of a recent, clean, immutable copy of

data (24%);

"Both IT decision-makers and SecOps should

co-own the cyber resilience outcomes, and

this includes an evaluation of all infrastructure

used in accordance with the NIST framework

for data identification, protection, detection,

response, and recovery. Also, both teams

need to have a comprehensive understanding

of the potential attack surface," said

Spanswick. "Next-gen data management

platforms can close the technology gap,

improve data visibility, help IT and SecOps

teams sleep better at night, and stay one step

ahead of bad actors who take great delight in

exfiltrating data from legacy systems that can't

be recovered."

More info: www.cohesity.com


@STMagAndAwards


MAGAZINE

EVENT:

EVENT: DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION EXPO

KEEPING AHEAD OF THE GAME

EUROPE'S NUMBER ONE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION EVENT RETURNS TO LONDON IN OCTOBER -

FIND OUT ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW RIGHT HERE

Digital Transformation EXPO (DTX)

is Europe's #1 digital

transformation event. The event

showcases the latest 'must have'

technologies, insights and use cases from

the world's top brands and leading

experts. Over the two event days you'll get

right into the what, why and how of digital

transformation, connecting your business

with the essential tools and knowledge

you need to meet today's evolving

demands and prepare for what's ahead.

Curious about the new technologies that

are changing the way businesses operate?

Looking for case studies to develop your

organisation's digital transformation

strategy?

Building apps and services in the cloud?

Planning for the day that your business gets

hacked?

Orchestrating data to drive business

strategy?

Then DTX is the right place for you!

With a focus on cloud transformation, cyber

security, DevOps, unified communications,

future networks, data and AI, DTX Europe

empowers IT and digital innovation

professionals to build and execute a world-class

digital transformation strategy, matching

technology with specific business needs and

desired outcomes.

No matter where you're at in your digital

transformation journey, the curated and

comprehensive experience has something for

everyone, including CTOs/CIOs and those

involved in IT, infrastructure, cyber security,

architecture, networks, cloud, system

engineering, software development, data

management, unified communications and

collaboration, and business transformation.

Speakers planned for this year include Formula

1 legend Jenson Button and investigative

journalist Carole Cadwalladr, as well as

luminaries from across the sector, including

BooHoo, Kelloggs, Ocado, LLoyds, the Ministry

of Justice, ITV, Lego and the Met Office.

What's even better is for 2022, three of the

biggest tech shows come together as we will

be continuing our co-location with our sister

event UC EXPO (UCX), the UK's most

comprehensive event for unified

communications, collaboration and the future

digital workplace. Plus, Internet Retailing Expo,

the event for the digital heroes who are

transforming retail, will also be co-located with

DTX this year.

Opening times:

Wednesday 12 October, 09:30 - 17:30

Thursday 13 October, 09:30 - 16:30

Venue details:

ExCeL London

Royal Victoria Dock

1 Western Gateway

London, E16 1XL

Storage magazine readers can register for a

free pass using this URL:

https://bit.ly/3RNXiMG

More info:

dtxevents.io/europe/en/page/dtx-europe


@STMagAndAwards


MAGAZINE

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© 2022 Microchip Technology Inc. All rights reserved.

MEC2446A-UK-09-22

CASE STUDY: INET STUDY:

RELIEVING THE BACKUP BURDEN

INET COMPUTER SOLUTIONS IS HELPING ITS CLIENTS SAFEGUARD BUSINESS CONTINUITY WITH THE HELP

OF ARCSERVE

Significant downtime costs, negative

publicity, penalty fines, unhappy

customers - the implications of data loss

or a ransomware attack can be devastating

for organisations, regardless of their size.

INET Computer Solutions helps its clients

safeguard their systems and data with

Arcserve solutions, including the new SaaS

Backup to protect Microsoft 365 data. With

INET and Arcserve solutions, client

organisations can have confidence in their

ability to restore data after an incident or

ransomware attack, safeguarding customer

services, employee productivity and

compliance with regulations.

INET has been helping clients across Ireland

and the UK to deliver real business

transformation through smarter IT solutions

since 2004. From its offices in County

Westmeath, Newry and Newcastle, it partners

with customers across a range of sectors,

including Construction, Manufacturing,

Healthcare, Agriculture and Retail, to help

them streamline processes and achieve their

business goals.

The company's specialist areas include IT

Managed Services, IT Security, Cloud

Backup, Email Management, Remote

Working Solutions and VoIP Telephone

Systems. INET is a strategic trusted partner to

its clients, helping them maximise efficiency

and improve profitability with solutions that

enable greater automation and reduce

business risk.

READY FOR THE WORST

INET's clients need reliable backup and

disaster recovery capabilities to protect


@STMagAndAwards


MAGAZINE

CASE CASE STUDY: INET

"Arcserve SaaS Backup is swift and simple to set up, making it very easy to rapidly

onboard new clients. Once onboarded, we can recover individual emails or whole

mailboxes for clients quickly and efficiently using the search functionality, even if they're

several years old. It's such a vital capability that we're planning to make it a default part

of our data protection service."

business continuity and simplify compliance.

Data loss could not only impact an

organisation's ability to serve its customers or

patients, but a leak of sensitive or confidential

information could severely impact their

reputation, and even incur financial penalties.

For example, legislation such as GDPR

(General Data Protection Regulation)

stipulates how customer data must be

protected, and organisations can be fined

heavily if they fail to meet requirements.

Security is also a growing concern for INET's

clients. "There's an increasing awareness of

cybercrime and ransomware among our

clients," comments Ronan McNamara,

Founder at INET. "They're looking for

solutions that will protect their network

systems and data and enable a rapid

recovery should the worst happen."

With the move to cloud-based infrastructure

and applications, disaster recovery

requirements can become even more

complex. For example, Microsoft 365 offers a

default retention time of just 30 days for

mailboxes, so organisations must have a

supplementary backup solution in place.

"Many organisations need to retain archived

emails for up to 10 years to comply with

regulations," explains McNamara. "For

example, a client of ours was in court recently

and the court requested relevant emails

going back up to 10 years. If the right back

up was not in place for 'Archived' emails - this

could have been very damaging for the client

both financially and to their reputation."

EXTENDING BACKUP CAPABILITIES

INET has worked with Arcserve for over 10

years to provide its clients with seamless

backup and recovery services. The company

uses Arcserve ShadowProtect to protect data

for a large number of clients. Featuring

HeadStart Restore, the solution enables INET

to recover systems and data for its clients in

the event of an incident in the time it takes to

reboot a server. INET also uses the solution to

safeguard its own systems and data.

In 2016, INET also introduced Arcserve

Cloud Services, which provides additional

offsite backup and failover to Arcserve

datacentres for its clients. INET further

extended its backup capabilities in March

2022 with Arcserve SaaS Backup. INET uses

the service to protect live and archived

Microsoft 365 mailboxes for its clients, as

well as Exchange Online, Teams, Groups,

SharePoint, OneDrive and Public Folder.

"Arcserve SaaS Backup is swift and simple to

set up, making it very easy to rapidly onboard

new clients," explains McNamara. "Once

onboarded, we can recover individual emails

or whole mailboxes for clients quickly and

efficiently using the search functionality, even

if they're several years old. It's such a vital

capability that we're planning to make it a

default part of our data protection service."

With Arcserve's automated recovery testing

capabilities, INET can verify that data

recovery is fast and reliable for its clients. And

in the event of an issue, it can rely on

Arcserve to provide assistance. "We have a

great partnership with Arcserve and it offers

excellent support services," comments

McNamara. "Whether we need advice or

hands-on expertise, the team is always quick

to respond."

SAFEGUARDING BUSINESS

CONTINUITY

INET and its clients can safeguard against

data loss and business disruption in the event

of an incident such as fire or flood, hardware

failure, human error, or even a ransomware

attack. "With reliable, efficient and secure

backup in place, we can help our clients

safeguard business continuity, employee

productivity and customer services. We can

also simplify compliance with regulations

such as GDPR". says McNamara.

With Arcserve solutions, INET can restore

individual files and folders for its clients in

seconds and whole servers in minutes. For

example, when one of INET's clients recently

experienced a server failure, INET were in a

position to restore services within a few

minutes with no disruption to customers using

Arcserve ShadowProtect.

For INET, the ability to offer comprehensive

backup and disaster recovery solutions

enables it to meet client demands and boost

competitive advantage. "Our clients don't

want to have to worry about backup and

disaster recovery - they just want to focus on

their business," says McNamara. "We take the

burden from them, and with Arcserve, we

know we can rely on backups when it counts."

More info: www.arcserve.com



STORAGE

MAGAZINE

33

RESEARCH:

RESEARCH: RANSOMWARE PROTECTION

MOST BUSINESSES 'UNPREPARED' AGAINST

RANSOMWARE

NEW RESEARCH FINDINGS FROM DRUVA AND IDC HIGHLIGHT THE FACT THAT THE VAST MAJORITY OF

ORGANISATIONS APPEAR TO BE WOEFULLY UNPREPARED FOR THE INCREASINGLY INEVITABLE FACT OF

A RANSOMWARE ATTACK

With the number of

ransomware

attacks doubling in

the UK in the past year and

the average cost of

ransomware remediation for

UK businesses reaching

almost $2 million in 2021

(according to Sophos), it is

now more important than

ever for businesses to

reassess their ransomware

readiness.

Addressing this theme,

Druva has released the

findings of a joint survey

with IDC of over 500 IT

leaders which highlights the

unpreparedness of

businesses against the threat

of ransomware, despite the

confidence in their tools.

The research, featured in Druva's blog

'Analyst Research Says Most Aren't

Prepared For Ransomware - Are You?' and

in IDC's White Paper 'You Think You're

Ready for Ransomware? Think Again' (see

URL below), shows that while 92% of

respondents stated that their data resiliency

tools were efficient or highly efficient, 67%

of those hit by ransomware were forced to

pay the ransom, and nearly 50%

experienced data loss.

93% of respondents also claimed to be

using automated tools to find the ideal

recovery point yet the inability to find the

correct recovery point was cited as the

number one reason for data loss.

W. Curtis Preston, Chief Technology

Evangelist at Druva, commented on the

research findings: "When data is spread

across hybrid, cloud, and edge

environments, data resiliency becomes

much more complicated. While IT leaders

think they have checked all the boxes, our

new survey data reveals the contradictions

of hopes versus reality."

This research highlights the hard truth that

business and IT leaders who think they are

protected must face as despite 85% of

respondents claiming to have a

ransomware playbook, 46% of

organisations were successfully attacked in

the last 3 years.

The research also highlights

the five top concerns for IT

leaders after an attack:

Inability to recover encrypted

or deleted data without paying

a ransom

Loss of data

Inability to recover in a

timely manner

Inadequate data protection

and recovery capabilities

Loss of productivity or

revenue

To address these concerns

effectively the report advises

against "go-it-alone"

approaches and recommends

expanding cloud usage to save

time, costs and accelerate recovery. This is a

sentiment echoed by organisations with 50%

saying that cloud will play a major role in

future backup/recovery strategies.

Preston concluded: "The only way we can

begin to fight cyber attacks and data loss is by

relying on products that leverage increasingly

intelligent machine learning and automation

enable IT leaders to react faster, mitigate the

impact of attacks, and increase overall

business resilience. In building automated

systems, nothing matches the cloud's pure

scale and compute capability." The full report

can be accessed here: content.druva.com/

white-paper/wp-idc-ransomware-think-again.

More info: www.druva.com


@STMagAndAwards


MAGAZINE

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