The Holy Grail of Data Storage Management

Toigo's grasp of the storage industry's current players and technology is strong and thoughtful. He walks up from techniques in managing disks to strategic initiatives by major vendors, which is not something many people can do well enough to write it all down. Nice job. I was put off by the title. I suspect many readers like me wanted some killer techniques. I didn't like the thin "techniques" section that came down to, for example, a single high-level diagram per problem domain, and a checklist of generic questions. The impressive bibliographies that end each chapter suggest what the book is really about. The author has steeped himself in the industry literature, conducted a variety of interviews, and taken some useful field trips into data centers. He's learned from the work, and a lot of that learning makes it to print with credible insight and analysis. Still, this book only establishes the boundaries of managing data storage. It sometimes offers a thorough outline in place of a penetrating answer. For people starting in this area, this book is a fine one-stop resource. For people who have heard Project Managers authoritatively get all sorts of "trivial" details wrong in technical sales meetings, this book will sound familiar.

This has good high level explanations of many data storage techniques and technologies, but lacks in the low level blood and guts. I was hoping to see a few more charts or formulas or tables. Then again, it does list where to find white papers that it refers to at the end of each chapter, which is a nice thing.

This book allows readers that interested in data storage to delve into the various areas of the industry. Not only does the book go into the history of data-storage, but it discusses data storage today and what will likely happen to the industry in the future. Not only would this book be a great help to Network Adminstrators and Storage Managers, but to investors who are serious about investing in data storage stocks.

Despite the attention-grabbing title, this guide offers detailed information about the current state of commercial storage, and where the research is headed. Toigo names vendors, products and technologies and discusses their suitability for various environments. There is a web site that acts as an online appendix to the book with news updates.

The author does a great job of showing the history of storage and of how storage management is always changing. He does not lean towards one vendor or technology but explains it all on even ground. Particularly interesting was the evolution of data and the technology associated with it. A person of any computer literacy level will find this book extremely useful.