Category: Upcoming work

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Computer Weekly: storage features, November 2023

I am currently researching the following features. Deadlines for suggested interviews or contributions inline.

The all-flash datacentre: Has its time come?

Deadline: Thursday, 26 October, 1200hrs.

This piece will look at the idea of an all-flaws datacentre, and examine why it might, or might not, happen. It will:

  • Set out to define the all-flash datacentre
  • Map out a timescale for its arrival
  • Set out counter arguments – in which cases are non-flash storage media still more appropriate?
  • What types of organisations can benefit from the all-flash datacentre and which workloads can benefit from continued use of hard drive storage
  • Will it be cost that eventually signals a move to all-flash? Or are there other factors at play?

Storage for ERP systems

Deadline: Monday 30 October, 1700hrs

What are the data storage requirements for modern ERP systems?

ERP systems have developed significantly over the last decade, especially with the widespread move to the cloud. But what does an IT department need to do, to make sure the business has the right infrastructure to support its ERP systems over the next 5-10 years?

This will include:

  • What does ERP do? 
  • What are ERP’s storage I/O requirements? 
  • How do on-site and cloud ERP deployments fit together?
  • What is needed to support ERP’s databases?
  • What storage technologies does that translate to, on premises or or in the cloud?
  • Are there other developments in the field of ERP that will affect data storage requirements?

Please email your submissions in the first instance. I will be looking to complete interviews within a week of the submission deadlines.

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Upcoming articles: Computer Weekly, October 2023

Please see outlines below for features I am currently researching.

Disaster Recovery in the cloud:

This piece will look at at the rapidly-developing market for cloud-based disaster recovery services. The piece aims to cover:

  • What is DRaaS?
  • What variants exist?
  • Who can use it and what are the use cases?
  • What does it cost compared to in house DR?
  • Who offers DRaaS services?

Deadline for leads/case studies etc: Tuesday 26th Sept

When to move to cloud, and when not?

What are the use cases for cloud storage, and when is it better to keep storage on premises (or in your own datacentre)?

It will cover:

  • The benefits of cloud storage
  • Why on-site storage often significantly cheaper than cloud
  • What are the benefits and drawbacks of use of cloud storage for different workloads?
  • What are the different ways an organisation can leverage cloud storage?
  • Where is use of cloud storage heading, possibly including cloud native apps, bursting to cloud, containerisation)

Deadline for leads/case studies etc: Tuesday 17th Oct.

Please email your submissions in the first instance.

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Upcoming articles: Computer Weekly, September 2023

I am currently researching the following articles, deadlines in line:

SME disaster recovery

Deadline for submissions: Tuesday 22 August

This article is an overview of SME disaster recovery, with a particular emphasis on cloud DR due to its suitability for SMEs.

We will cover:

  • What DR requirements do SMEs have?
  • What is the key infrastructure needed for SME DR? (including policy, planning, training, testing)
  • What can you do in-house in terms of SME DR? 
  • Benefits and drawbacks /limitations of in-house SME DR
  • Benefits does the cloud offer for SME DR
  • Key providers and the type of services offered

Cloud NAS – what is it good for 

Deadline for submissions/completing interviews: Monday 04 September

This piece will cover:

  • What is NAS? How has NAS been delivered in the past (pre-cloud)
  • What are the use cases and benefits of NAS?
  • What is cloud NAS?
  • What kind of cloud NAS services are offered?
  • What is cloud NAS good for? Pros and cons

Ransomware: Where storage and backup fit in brief 

Deadline: Monday 04 September

This piece will show where storage and backup fit into the battle against ransomware, and in particular via the functionality vendors include in products.

  • How does storage and backup fit in when it comes to ransomware
  • What functionality are vendors including in products that can help?
  • Vendor warranty offers
  • Air gapping and cloud repositories

This will likely be organised by headings related to anti ransomware functionality.

Please email your submissions in the first instance.

Although deadlines are above, early submissions would be very much appreciated. As ever, case studies or end user perspectives always welcome.

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Upcoming articles: ransomware, and integrating SaaS

I am currently researching two features for Computer Weekly, details below:

Integrating SaaS

The popularity of some enterprise SaaS products means that the world of enterprise software is now more complex than ever, with data not only residing across different enterprise systems – but, increasingly, data is held in different cloud-based systems.

In this piece we will speak to organisations that use more than one SaaS product or suite, and look at why and how they chose different systems, how they connect them, how they manage date across suites and how their businesses benefit.

Deadline for leads: 1700hrs, 21 July. Deadline for interviews: 1700hrs, 27th July.

Anti-ransomware functionality in storage products

In this piece we will look at what storage vendors are doing to build ransomware protection into their offerings.

This includes tools such as immutable backups or snapshots, as well as ransomware prevention through techniques such as anomaly detection.

Note that this article is focused on the capabilities for the leading 7 vendors in the market, (see this list), though independent analyst comment is welcome.

Deadline for all input, for leads: 1700hrs, 26 July.

Please email with your suggestions/leads, keeping in mind the different deadlines. Also, it will be a great help to keep pitches for the two pieces separate.

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Upcoming articles: Compliance, data storage and generative AI

The first of two articles will look at how data is handled by generative AI applications, such as chatGPT or Bard.

I am looking for analysts or other industry experts who can address the following points:

  • When you use a chatbot or generative AI tool, where does all the generated content go, in terms of physical storage?
  • What are the compliance implications of using a chat tool? 
  • Does a user’s data go into the training pool for AI learning?
  • How is chat-like content backed up? How do I backup chat content in the enterprise.
  • If my company wants to train and offer chat-like functionality, what are the storage (and compute) requirements?

Note the deadline for input for this first article is Wednesday 7th June, 1700 London time.

The second part will look at how generative AI could be (or even is) being used to manage data storage and compliance.

  • Can it be used for storage configuration, setting up backups, checking compliance etc?
  • Can chat tools be used to streamline reporting back to users?
  • Can they be used to categorise data?
  • Can they be used to protect data against ransomware or other threats?

The deadline for input for this article is Wednesday 14th June, 1700 London time.

Please email with your suggestions/leads.

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Upcoming articles: software-defined storage

I am researching two, linked articles on software-defined storage.

The first sets out to define software-defined storage and set out its benefits to enterprise users.

The second aims to take the pulse of the market and outline some of the key products and what they do.

I am currently looking for technical or white papers on the sector, as well as analyst research. The deadline for submissions is Tues, 9th May. Please email with your suggestions.

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Upcoming article for Computer Weekly: data classification tools

This piece – for the Storage section of Computer Weekly – will provide an overview of data classification tools. We will also look at how analytics tools and data classification overlap (and indeed, how analytics is hard to do without data classification). So I am open to hearing from vendors and end users in the storage, data science and business analytics camps.

We aim to cover:

  • What is data classification and why do we need it?
  • What kinds of tools can help with data classification?
  • What do they do? Are there different categories of tools
  • Who are the key provider, including those in the cloud?

I don’t anticipate using direct vendor quotes but I am open to vendors sending a brief summary of their capabilities in this space, along with any end user examples or case studies.

The deadline for leads is Tuesday, 21 March, 1700hrs London time.

Please email me in the first instance.

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Computer Weekly: storage articles for January 2023

My next articles for Computer Weekly’s storage section will look at storage egress charges, and backup maintenance.

Cloud egress charges

What are cloud storage egress charges and what you can do to reduce them?

The piece will cover:

What are cloud egress charges?

How do they compare to others charges made for cloud storage?

What are the risks to organisations from unchecked egress charges?

What can you do to manage and mitigate over-burdensome egress charges?

Deadline for leads: Monday 19 December

Backup maintenance

Why does backup need maintenance, what does it consist of and how do we do it?

Why can’t you just leave backups to run without some kind of maintenance programme?What can go wrong if you just set and forget?What is involved in maintaining backup systems?

How does use of the cloud change this? We will look at backing up to the cloud as well as cloud to cloud back up.

What tools can you use to help maintain backups?

What innovations in backup might make all this easier?

Deadline for leads: 07 January.

For either of these articles, please contact me by email in the first instance.

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Computer Weekly articles for November 2022

I am working on a couple of storage-related articles to appear in the last quarter of the year.

These are:

Indefinite storage

How long do we need data? And which technologies are available now, or being developed, that can extend data storage life? In some industries the projected retention period for critical data is now over 100 years, so can storage keep up?

The piece will cover:

  • What is indefinite storage?
  • How does it contrast with less lengthy periods of data retention?
  • Where might indefinite storage be required?
  • What regulations / laws might dictate it?
  • What industries, or particular data within companies, might it affect?
  • What are the technical requirements for indefinite storage?

Deadline for leads: Monday, 14th November

IT ( storage) hardware shortages and how to ameliorate them

Some critical IT components are becoming harder to source, and that is having an knock-on effect on computer hardware, including storage; potentially shortages could also ipacrt the cloud. In this piece we will look at:

  • The big picture in terms of the shortages and how long are hardware supply issues likely to last?
  • What storage hardware is affected?
  • Some evidence of the effects?
  • What are the underlying causes?
  • What are the key effects on storage hardware procurement?
  • What can IT departments do to ameliorate the effects?

Deadline for leads: Monday, 21st November

<p>For either of these articles, please contact me by <a href=”mailto:journalism@stephenpritchard.com?Subject=CW: November 2022 features”>email</a> in the first instance.</p>

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Upcoming articles: Computer Weekly, October 2022

I am currently researching the following articles for Computer Weekly.

How enterprise backup products will change in the next decade 

What are the key areas of functionality in enterprise backup that we are likely to see in the coming decade?

This piece will look at developments in automation, cloud, containers, the edge and how backup technologies are adapting — or will need to adapt — to encompass them. But I am open to other suggestions around emerging backup technologies, beyond those listed above.

Deadline for leads: Monday 17th October

Ransomware, storage and backup: Techniques and limits

This article will explain the technologies and techniques in storage and backup, that are available to defend against and recover from ransomware. 

But it will also spell out the limits of the abilities of storage and backup against a threat that is possibly best countered elsewhere.

This is a slightly longer article, so I also aim to cover:

  • What is the mechanism of a ransomware attack? 
  • What are the areas of storage and backup that a ransomware attack may impact?
  • What are the key techniques and technologies in storage and backup that can help to defend against or recover from a ransomware attack?
  • What are the limits of storage and backup technologies and techniques when it comes to dealing with ransomware? 

Deadline for leads: Monday 24th October

For either of these articles, please contact me by email in the first instance.