MinIO vs Ceph vs Scality: matching host hardware to each SDS platform (UK 2026)
MinIO, Ceph and Scality are three of the software-defined storage platforms UK teams reach for when they want to own their storage, and choosing betwe…
JBOD expansion shelves explained: adding capacity without adding servers (UK 2026)
When a storage server fills up, the instinct is to buy another server. Often that is the wrong, expensive answer. A JBOD, a just-a-bunch-of-disks expa…
Object storage server hardware: speccing nodes for S3-compatible workloads (UK 2026)
On-prem S3-compatible object storage has gone from niche to mainstream, driven by backup targets, data lakes, application object stores and the simple…
Hardware RAID vs software RAID vs HBA passthrough: the 2026 decision (UK)
The storage controller is one of the quietest decisions in a server build and one of the easiest to get wrong, because the right answer flipped in the…
Cold archive and compliance retention storage: building a low-cost WORM tier on-prem (UK 2026)
Every organisation accumulates data it must keep but rarely touches: records held for years to meet regulation, finished projects, logs and evidence t…
Designing a one-petabyte storage server in 2026: a UK reference architecture
A petabyte used to be a data-centre's worth of storage; in 2026 it is a design exercise that fits in a few rack units if you get the architecture righ…
Data lake and lakehouse storage nodes: on-prem hardware for analytics at scale (UK 2026)
The modern data lake is built on object storage, and a lakehouse layers table formats and query engines on top so analytics can run directly against t…
Dell PowerStore vs Pure FlashArray vs NetApp AFF 2026: UK all-flash storage buyer's guide
Dell PowerStore, Pure Storage FlashArray, and NetApp AFF dominate UK enterprise all-flash storage RFPs. All three deliver end-to-end NVMe, mature data…
HPE Apollo as a Ceph and scale-out SDS node: a hardware selection guide (UK 2026)
Ceph and other scale-out software-defined storage platforms turn ordinary servers into a single, resilient pool, but the cluster is only ever as good …
HPC scratch storage: designing a fast parallel tier for compute clusters (UK 2026)
An HPC cluster is only as fast as the storage that feeds it, and the storage that feeds it is not the same storage that keeps it. Scratch is the fast,…
CCTV and VMS surveillance storage: sizing servers for continuous-write video retention (UK 2026)
Surveillance storage breaks the rules other storage lives by. A video management system never stops writing: every camera streams continuously, all da…
Storage servers for media and entertainment: spec'ing for 4K and 8K video editing (UK 2026)
Post-production storage is a bandwidth problem wearing a capacity problem's clothing. A 4K or 8K edit suite does not just need somewhere to keep enorm…
vSAN ready nodes in 2026: certified hardware, disk groups and sizing after Broadcom (UK)
A vSAN cluster is only as supportable as the hardware underneath it, and vSAN is unusually fussy about that hardware. Buy a server that merely looks a…
HDD vs QLC vs TLC: choosing and tiering storage media in 2026 (UK)
Storage media is not a single choice any more, it is a portfolio. Spinning disk, QLC flash and TLC flash each occupy a different point on the cost, sp…
Add a JBOD or buy another server? A decision framework for storage growth (UK 2026)
You are out of disk. The instinct is to buy another server, but that is often the expensive answer to the wrong question. If the existing host still h…
JBOF and NVMe flash enclosures: when all-flash disaggregation makes sense (UK 2026)
A JBOF, a just-a-bunch-of-flash enclosure, is the all-NVMe answer to a question that storage architects have asked for years: why should fast drives b…
NVMe-oF in the data centre: disaggregating flash from compute (UK 2026)
For years the fastest storage in a server lived inside that server, bolted to its PCIe bus, stranded the moment the box was busy or idle. NVMe over Fa…
Scale-out vs scale-up storage: choosing an architecture before you buy hardware (UK 2026)
Before you compare arrays or price drives, there is a more fundamental fork in the road: do you grow storage by making one system bigger, or by adding…