Thailand floods have NetApp treading water

Thailand has recently had it's worst flooding in decades. This flooding is slowing the production of hard drives and storage at an alarming rate. They are producing about a fifth of what they should have been at and by this time. Thailand produces about 45% of the entire worlds HDD supplies by companies like Seagate, Toshiba, and Western Digital. Shortages are expected to continue on into 2012. The shortages of hard drives will affect everyone. Because of the shortages in the early of 2012 the production of laptops and smaller drives will be mostly affected according to TechTarget.com. I think that is obvious now and a no-brainer that half of the entire worlds supplies for ANYTHING should not be in one single location. If not for any other reason then just because of the simple fact that stuff happens. No one could have envisioned and impact this large due to flooding. Even if they had then who says there is anything that could have been done about it. The operations need to be split up into different geographic locations. I am sure that one of the reasons they are remaining there in Thailand is because of low costs but something has to give. We are at a place in the technology world that things are changing at a rapid pace. If anything slows down then it can and will have an enormous impact on how fast technology as a whole can and will grow. In the last 10 years alone Apple has gone from simple little Macs in classrooms that students hated for everything but simple games. To the new standard for premium computing. If one of the Apple manufacturers was to go through something and halt the production of iPods when they first blew up Apple would have lost a lot of money. A TON! of money. All in all at the end of the day they should not have half of anything that big in any single location.




Here is a link to the article that I read for this Blog http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/storage-soup/thailand-floods-have-netapp-treading-water/

Network/Storage Virtualization

 
In Network Virtualization many of the client/server based services are put onto the same network. With Network Virtualization as many parts of a network are made “Virtual”as possible. This means that many services are automated and others are made to be controlled remotely. Cisco is the big fish in this department with 3Com coming in second place when it comes to size. Cisco uses switches and routers to perform services like security, storage, VoIP, mobility, and application delivery. All of these services are very important to large businesses and small businesses as well. Network Virtualization minimizes the work that must be done by people. This in turn also reduces the number of people that service companies like Cisco needs to hire for this particular position. Network Virtualization is an all around money saver and it is also more efficient.

When it comes to Storage Virtualization the easiest way to understand it would be if there were 7 cranes at a construction site and the cranes represented storage devices. Storage virtualization would be the equivalent to having one main control center that could operate all 7 cranes simultaneously. This control center would be able to perform the tasks of backup, archiving, and recovery more easily and faster than if they used different programs or methods of doing each. EMC offers Network-based storage virtualization and that features Dynamic volume mobility, Centralized volume management, processing power, Streamlined operation, and Heterogeneous point-in-time copies(clones). As a whole the benefits of EMC Invista are that they move volumes across heterogenous storage, without disruption, allocate and reallocate storage resources from one interface, they allow you to use EMC Invista to perform I/O redirection and other virtualization tasks at wire speed, they simplify volume presentation and management and storage allocation in your heterogenous SANs and they reduce the cost and complexity of creating point-in-time copies across different storage arrays.(http://www.emc.com/products/detail/software/invista.htm)

Backup and Recovery

Backup and Recovery are 2 very important aspects of companies that require data storage. At the EMC sites in North Carolina they went in depth about their services. EMC has very cost effective resources and provides both services to their customers. Backup is very important when it comes to businesses because they need to make sure that their data and information is always in existence. If something happens on site at a company, let's say Company A for example then they need that data to be backed up at another location. If Company A catches on fire and everything is lost in the fire companies like EMC make sure that the data is safe and intact at one of their many backup locations. Ok so back to the analogy, say the place goes up in flames and all is lost. The first move will be to either rebuild there or find a new location. After that is done they will need that information to be recovered. This is where the recovery part of Backup and Recovery comes in. Company A has already spent time rebuilding and basically preparing to continue their business and now they need their data to be recovered. The data storage company, in this case EMC can send the data to Company A wirelessly and at a very high speed. This ensures that the company can get their data without wasting time and money. Everyday people like myself don’t need a huge company like EMC to help me back up my data. In comparison to these bigger companies I have very little data anyway. In my own life I use external hard drives. These can run anywhere from $50-$200 depending on the size of hard drive and it’s features. Personally I don’t like external hard drives that need to be plugged into the wall as well as your computer. How do I know this you might ask? The answer is because I have one. I use my Western Digital external hard drive more often because I do not have to plug it into the wall. As far as backup and recovery goes in my case. I can back up my entire computer to an external hard drive and mail it home to NY. Should anything happen to my laptop I could send for that hard drive and restore all of my data. When it comes to backing up my things daily. That would prove to be a little more difficult. Actually I’ll be honest, anything short of getting a membership to some website I haven’t the slightest clue.

Here are a couple links that can and will provide more knowledge on this subject.

Thanks For Reading!

http://www.emc.com/collateral/analyst-reports/11530-idc-ww-pbba-2011-2015-forecast.pdf

http://www.emc.com/products/category/backup-recovery.htm

http://www.barraguard.com/Network-Backup-Servers.asp?source=google&keyword=backup-and-recovery&gclid=COqMgpDeo6wCFYxV7AodEHbJKA

EMC Storage Technology Company

On Friday October 28th, 2011 I went to EMC with a few professors and some other students. While at EMC we were able to tour their kind of storage facility of their personal warehouse and  in a way their factory. After that we went to see their functioning storage facility and testing facility. They have an entire facility/room designated solely to testing. They spend tons of money daily to continuously test their equipment and make sure that it works and is backward compatible. By doing this they can maintain their level of professionalism and credibility. EMC has 25% of their target market and their closest competitor only has 15% so they are far ahead of the pack when it comes to their industry. EMC is located in North Carolina about an hour from North Carolina A&T State University. The faculty and staff were extremely knowledgable about everything happening around them and were really on top of everything. In the warehouse there were people working there that were not actual employees of EMC but they were contracted through another company so that EMC could have exactly as many employees as necessary at any given time rather than having a lot on payroll and wasting money. When we toured the facilities they went in depth as to why they did certain things. For instance their floors are 3 feet off the actual ground to allow cooled air to flow through the floors and keep the equipment cool and running at the best possible pace and rate. A lot goes into making sure that the facility is in peak condition to maintain the hardware. When clients come to EMC they can tour the facility and see where their information will be stored, what kind of security there is on the building and things like that. Overall the experience was phenomenal and I am extremely glad that I went.

Thurgood Marshall College Fund

I am currently in New York City with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund for the annual Thurgood Marshall Leadership Conference. Here I am learning a lot about what it will take for me to become successful after college and in my field of IT as well. I have used this time and opportunity to talk and network with various company representatives and actually asked them what would be expected of me if I were to obtain a job with their company in my field. They had very good answers and were very educational as well. The main thing that employers of IT employees focus on is your technical skills. Not how you are dressed, not what you look like, but if you can do your job. That is it in a nut shell. When it comes to other jobs like sales and other things like if you are going to be the face of the company then soft skills are very necessary but in my case I wont be reporting to work in a suit or even slacks. Some people even told me that they come to work in jeans and sneakers sometimes. This leadership conference has been extremely educational for me and I am extremely privileged to be here. I think that if there were any justifiable reasons to miss class then this is definitely one of them. Tomorrow morning will be a job fair where I will get another chance to talk and network with employers and I am extremely excited about that. These employers are among the top in the world. They include Wal-Mart, AT&T, Atria and 30+ others. The employers are extremely receptive and interested in talking to us as students and that is mind blowing and so exciting to be around so many big name people and among all black students. I am having an excellent time and learning a lot.

Open Source Licensing

Open Source Licensing is basically when someone is granted permission to alter existing software. The easiest way to explain it would be to a drivers license. If you learn how to drive a car(code programs) that is fine and no one can stop you from learning that. If you want to drive a government approved car on public roads however(alter existing software) then you need a license from the government(the author of that software) to do so. A great deal of open source licenses give you the ability to alter the software for personal use, however a few big name ones actually let you alter them and actually assist them with feedback. Mozilla Firefox and Linux are notorious for this. Acquiring an open source license can be beneficial to you if you are new to coding. If you have just begun and aren’t familiar with exactly how to do various things like start the code, then acquiring an existing and functioning one can be extremely beneficial. As students in our current generation we are a lot more technologically advanced than a lot of older people. This can actually make us an asset to them when it comes to their software. Personally I am very proficient at Adobe Photoshop and I have never taken a single class teaching me anything about Photoshop. I have been using it along with tutorials myself and learned from friends. This is an example of how formal education or age can be irrelevant when it comes to technology. Open source licensing makes it easier and legal for people like you and I to learn or assist existing programming teams all over the world, often for free. Open source licensing is often unrestricted access to the software code as well, this allows it to be altered and changed around without limits at little to no cost to whoever wants to do it.

The Cloud...again

I have a previous blog that is geared completely toward "The Cloud." This one is going to be a little different. I am gearing this one toward cloud security. First and foremost, some things should not be uploaded to the internet under any circumstances. There is no absolute fool proof mechanism when it comes to protecting your data. If you happen to leave your account logged into a computer and walk away then anyone in the vicinity could easily download or email themselves some or all of your files. Cloud security really comes down to you as an individual. You have to be very careful when it comes to sharing your data as well. If you upload a file to the cloud and send someone a link to retrieve it themselves then that is fine. One thing to remember is that anyone with that direct link to your file can usually download it. So if you choose to upload a file for a purpose it would be a good idea to delete it and remove it from the internet as soon as possible after it's purpose has been served. Personally I have my resume on a few of my cloud networks and that's pretty much it. On other various sites I have pictures I have created in photoshop so that I can always access my work and show people what I have done. These things aren't too bad if they fall into the wrong hands. Other things like digital copies of your ID or your social security number should not be uploaded to any cloud anywhere, EVER. When files or information is uploaded to the cloud another issue is that your data can be hacked from anywhere. If you have a safe in your house then for someone to get what's inside at least they have to first gain access to your house. With the cloud hackers can work day and night on gaining access to your information. There are just a few aspects to cloud technology as far as security goes, I hope it was helpful to everyone.