Tag: Computer Weekly

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Upcoming article for Computer Weekly: disaster recovery for small businesses

In this piece, we will look at best practice for SMEs when it comes to disaster recovery.

The piece will look at the importance of an initial plan, how to assess risks and create a relevant RTO and RPO for the organisation, the DR options offered by cloud storage and applications, and the growing role played by disaster recovery as a service.

Contacts and supporting information needs to reach me by Friday 23rd July. If you can help, please submit any ideas or content by email .

I am especially interested in hearing from SMEs about how their DR planning works.

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Upcoming feature: NVMe over Fabric: the latest state of play

For Computer Weekly, I am writing an explainer on NVM over fabrics.

The piece will cover:

  • what’s driving IT departments to deploy NVMe over fabrics
  • what are they
  • how and why are they used
  • what are their benefits and downsides
  • an overview of who makes what (including point NVMe over fabrics manufacturers, array makers etc.)

I am looking for background information, use cases, case studies and overviews of the market. I am happy to consider vendor information, but can’t promise to use direct quotes.

The deadline for submissions is 12 noon London time, Thursday 24 June.

Please submit any ideas or content by email .

Many thanks

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Upcoming article: Real Time Analytics

I am currently researching a feature on real time analytics for Computer Weekly. This will form the introduction to an eBook, to appear in a few weeks’ time.

The piece will cover current trends in real time analytics. What is driving their use, which technologies are involved, how are they deployed, and above all, what are the business benefits?

The piece will establish what real time means, in terms of analytics, and how organisations structure their data collection, analysis and management processes, around the idea of a constant stream of data. And it will also examine the barriers that need to be overcome, to make all this work.

I am keen to hear from potential contributors — analysts, integrators and consultants, and potentially vendors (at the chief data scientist/CIO/CTO level – no sales people please) and from organisations using real time data.

If you have a suggested interviewee, please drop me an email with a few bullet points setting out their points of view, and availability for interviews from June 1st.

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Upcoming data storage articles for Computer Weekly

I am looking for input for two upcoming articles for the data storage section of Computer Weekly.Article 1: How has backup changed, post the pandemic?

In this article we will look at how the changes in working patterns during the pandemic, including home working, have changed backup requirements, practices, and technology.

Areas we will look at include:

  • Backing up remote and employee-owned devices
  • Backing up SaaS applications and cloud instances
  • The impact on maintenance of IT, especially data centres
  • How remote / home working impacts restore and recovery processes

This is not an exhaustive list, and I am open to other suggestions, as well as examples.

The deadline for leads or information is 1700hrs, Friday 14th May.

Article 2: Storage metrics explained

What are the main storage metrics used in the industry? What do they mean, and how do we use them? This explainer piece will set out the most important terminology. We are also interested in new and emerging metrics, maybe those driven by new types of storage technology.

The deadline for leads or information is 1700hrs, Tuesday 18th May.

To submit information or interview leads for each article please use these links to send an email:

Pandemic and backup tech

Storage metrics

Many thanks.

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Upcoming article: Computational storage: One year on

For Computer Weekly, I will be taking another look at computational storage.

Just over a year ago, I wrote this piece setting out some of the basics of the technology.

For this follow up article, we will revisit the advantages of computational storage, the technologies it draws on, and the reasons organisations might use it.

We are particularly interested in any trends around the technology. Is take up or acceptance increasing? Have the drivers and use cases changed? And how has the market matured – have new vendors emerged, or existing vendors, expanded their offerings?

In addition to information about vendor offerings, and commentary from consultants or analysts, I’m keen to see any real-world case studies of computational storage deployments that have gone live within the last year. Ideally, these should be UK based, or internationally known organisations.

The deadline for submitting leads is 1700 London time on Thursday 15 April. As ever, the best format submissions is by email

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Upcoming article: the benefits of hyper-converged infrastructure

For Computer Weekly, I’m looking at how hyper-converged systems benefit their users.

The piece will break down the main reasons organisations invest in HCI. These could include ease of deployment, resource utilisation, lower demand on skills than conventional architectures, scalability, and their usefulness to SMEs or remote offices.

I am interested in examples of successful HCI deployments, and commentary from industry analysts. Note we cannot quote vendors, although vendor-backed research can be used.

As ever, the best way to contact me is by email, no later than Thursday 12th March,

with a brief introduction to yourself or your client.

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Upcoming article: why use tape storage today?

For Computer Weekly I am writing a feature on tape.

As a data storage medium, tape has been on the verge of obsolescence for decades. But the format endures. Why are IT and data managers continuing to choose tape?

The piece will look at:

  • The limitations and benefits of tape in today’s data centric environments
  • New and emerging tape formats and technology enhancements, such as software defined tape
  • How tape works with other storage media, including the cloud
  • Key use cases for the various tape technologies currently on the market.

The deadline to suggest interviewees or to share research is Wednesday, 5th August at 1700 BST. Initial submissions by email please.

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Upcoming feature: Storage for AI, ML and analytics

For Computer Weekly my next feature will look at the specific demands placed on storage architecture by artificial intelligence, machine learning, and analytics.

The piece will ask:

What different approaches to providing storage are there for these technologies? 

What limits, performance considerations and bottlenecks exist with the different approaches?

What ways of providing storage for analytics are we likely to see in future?

The article will cover both on-premises and cloud-based storage, where relevant. I’m keen to include some real-world use cases if possible.

I am open to comment from industry professionals, consultants, analysts and CIOs working with AI. ML and analytics.

Deadline for leads: 1700hrs BST, Tuesday 23 June. As ever, please email in the first instance.

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Upcoming articles: Compliance and Object Storage

I am writing two articles for Computer Weekly’s storage section, one on storage and data compliance for the enterprise, and the other on the growing field of high-performance object storage.

Data compliance

This piece will look at the top 5 UK compliance concerns in 2020.

What are the five key laws/regulations that must be adhered to by UK organisations in 2020, including both current and upcoming legislation. For each we will look at the implications of the law/reg for storage, backup, and archiving.

This could, for example, include legal search and e-discovery, or the Right to be Forgotten under GDPR.

We will also look at how the cloud fits in.

High performance object storage

Object storage has been known as a good way of storing lots of unstructured data, but with less emphasis on performance.

But AI and analytics workloads are prompting storage architects to look at performance too. The feature will cover:

  • Where object storage is heading in performance terms and what’s driving it.
  • Which performance metrics matter
  • How have object storage vendors improved performance?
  • Who are the key object storage vendors that are tackling the challenge of better performance and what do they offer?

The deadline for leads for both articles is Friday 20th March, please contact me by email if you can help.
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Upcoming commission: computational storage

For Computer Weekly, I am investigating this emerging technology.

The piece will cover:

  • What is computational storage?
  • What is the architecture/key features of computational storage?
  • What use cases is it aimed at?
  • What are the pros and cons for those that might deploy it?
  • Who are the vendors and what products do they have?

I am looking for expert views – ideally independent — and real-world use cases or case studies. Deadline for leads: Wednesday 4th March, 1700 GMT. Drop me an emailif you can help.