• NextAdvisor picks its top cloud storage services for consumers

  Consumer and small business product review site NextAdvisor.com this month launched a new category , with reviews and comparisons of the best cloudstorage services.

• Google's GDrive reportedly to launch as Dropbox-rival 'Drive'

  Google's long-rumored GDrive that would let you upload and store files to its servers and be able to access them from anywhere you have an Internet connection may finally be close to launching in the coming weeks as a more cheaply priced Dropbox rival.

• Hitachi releases first 25nm SLC SSDs for storage arrays

  Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (GST) Wednesday unveiled what it calls the first enterprise-class, single-level cell NAND flash solid-state drive (SSD) that uses 25 nanometer technology.

• Why one insurance company ditched its own hardware- for a cloud -based SAN

  Why do some enterprise managers decide to brave their way into the new and unknown of cloud-based services? Sometimes it's simply because the old technology just isn't working out that well anymore.

• IBM boosts flagship array speeds by 3X with SSD caching

  IBM Tuesday unveiled several upgrade options for the flagship grid-based XIV Storage System, including the ability to use solid-state drives (SSDs) as cache to increase performance by up to three times.

• Open source FreeOTFE encrypts disks handily

  FreeOTFE may sound like a political bumper sticker, but it stands for "Free On The Fly Encryption." The "Free" part is self-explanatory; "On The Fly Encryption" refers to the encrypting/decrypting of data as it is written to or read from your hard disk.

• How to pick NAS for any business

  Network-attached storage (NAS) can make your business easier to run and more efficient in multiple ways.

• Creating a live USB drive from a live CD image

  Although live CDs have a lot of advantages, they don't fit in your pocket easily, which means you may not always have one around when you need it. Fortunately, most live CD images can be installed onto a USB flash drive, giving you most of the benefits of a live CD.

• Disaster-proof your PC: image your drive

  Last week I told you how to make a new computer hassle-free; to wit, I described how to create a system-repair disc, dump the junkware, and set up security. Now that you've got your PC just the way you want it, it's time to perform what I consider to be the ultimate hassle-prevention steps: imaging your hard drive and setting up a backup routine.

• Restore data after motherboard death

  Peter's motherboard died. How can he retrieve the data on his hard drive?

• 2012: The year storage becomes a celebrity

  While data storage has always been a necessary building block for technology, it's rarely garnered as much attention as it has in the past two years. The reason: Corporate and retail consumers are being forced to store greater amounts of data and they need to make that data more useful - and accessible.

• The evolution of hard disk drives

  A punched card was once the basis for digital information used for computer programs and data storage. They were widely used throughout the first half of the 20th century in processing machines to input data and to store it. Punch cards could be fed into the first commercial computer, IBM 305 system, which then stored the data on hard disks

• Delorean hard drive is perfect for time machine

  Attention all Back To The Future fans: If you're in the market for a new hard drive, then the folks over at Flash Rods have something just for you. Flash Rods latest, known as the Delorean Time Machine Hard Drive, contains a 500GB Seagate drive within the chassis of the much-loved Delorean from the Back To The Future trilogy.

• Burning questions: Virtualisation

  Virtualizing x86 infrastructure isn't just a one-step process -- as servers change, the whole data center must change as well. While server hypervisors such as VMware's ESX, Microsoft's Hyper-V and Xen can make IT more efficient and cost-effective, many of the virtualization advantages can be canceled out when data centers rely on technology and processes that haven't been updated for the virtualization age.

• NASs for the masses

  Either because server disks are full or because virtualization is a natural growth path, organizations large and small are moving toward shared storage. For large enterprises, high-capacity storage-area networks make sense, but what about small or mid-sized enterprises new to shared storage?

Whitepapers about storage

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  A Governance Guide for Hybrid SharePoint Migrations

  Cloud-based computing represents a powerful new option for managing enterprise content, offering increased flexibility, efficiency, and reduced cost for IT infrastructure, data storage, and applications. However, for a variety of business and technical reasons, most organisations will take a phased approach to adopting cloud-based services, which will require them to continue to maintain their on-premises SharePoint environments during the transition. This white paper, written by Chris Beckett from SharePoint Bits, discusses some of the benefits and risks of hybrid SharePoint deployments, and presents governance considerations that are essential for ensuring a successful migration.

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  Managing Trust - Data protection and compliance for financial services

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  Secure File Sharing in the Cloud: Maximizing the Benefits

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  8 Critical Requirements for Secure Mobile File Sharing