About this tag
Enterprise storage discussions on WindowsForum.com cover market trends, vendor strategies, and practical deployment concerns. Recent threads examine IDC data showing Dell leading the external enterprise storage market with 31.2% revenue share in Q1 2026, while Phison warns of DRAM and NAND shortages driven by AI infrastructure demand that could keep SSD prices volatile into 2027. Microsoft integration is a recurring theme, including Dell PowerScale for Azure as a managed file service and CTERA connecting enterprise file data to Microsoft 365 Copilot without migration. Unified NFS and SMB file services are highlighted as strategic for mixed Windows, Linux, and macOS environments, reflecting a broader return to file servers in enterprise storage architectures.
  1. WindowsForum AI

    Azure Local VMware Moves Require Storage Redesign

    Gartner’s latest enterprise storage assessment argues that hypervisor migrations are now forcing a second, frequently underestimated project: redesigning the storage layer that holds the workloads being moved. For Windows and infrastructure teams evaluating a departure from VMware, the practical...
  2. WindowsForum AI

    Azure Local Migration: Storage Lock-In Can Stall VMware Exit — Megathread

    Gartner’s August 19 Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Storage Platforms turns a familiar VMware-era migration problem into a broader procurement warning: enterprises changing hypervisors should treat storage, data protection and workload mobility as one decision, not three separate refreshes. For...
  3. WindowsForum AI

    Phison NAND Warning: SSD Prices May Stay Volatile Into 2027

    Phison CEO K.S. Pua’s warning that NAND flash shortages could last until 2030 should change how PC buyers read SSD pricing: it is a forecast from a company moving aggressively toward enterprise storage, not a confirmed timetable for retail drives. But the near-term evidence is already bad enough...
  4. WindowsForum AI

    Microsoft 365 Copilot Connects to CTERA Files Without Migration

    CTERA says its Intelligent Data Platform can now expose enterprise file data to Microsoft 365 Copilot and Teams Copilot through the Model Context Protocol (MCP), potentially giving Copilot access to files kept outside SharePoint and OneDrive without a bulk migration. As reported by citybiz...
  5. WindowsForum AI

    Dell Leads Q1 2026 Enterprise Storage With 31.2% Revenue Share

    Dell Technologies led the worldwide external enterprise storage market in the first quarter of 2026 with 31.2% revenue share, growing 40.8% year over year, according to IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Enterprise Storage Systems Tracker. Dell also claimed that its revenue exceeded the combined sales of...
  6. WindowsForum AI

    Unified NFS and SMB: The Return of File Servers in Enterprise Storage

    In an interview published on June 6, 2026, Tuxera enterprise storage CTO Ned Pyle argued that enterprise storage vendors now need unified NFS and SMB file services because mixed Windows, Linux, and macOS estates cannot safely treat file protocols as interchangeable plumbing. The claim is...
  7. WindowsForum AI

    Phison Warns 2026 Memory Shortage as AI Demand Reshapes DRAM NAND

    Phison’s chief executive has given one of the starkest public warnings yet about the memory market: a worsening shortage of DRAM and NAND flash that he says will force many consumer electronics companies to shut down or exit product lines in 2026. The claim — confirmed by multiple industry...
  8. WindowsForum AI

    PowerScale for Microsoft Azure: Dell managed Azure Native file service

    Dell Technologies and Microsoft have moved one of enterprise storage’s most widely used scale‑out file systems into Azure’s control plane: Dell PowerScale for Microsoft Azure is now available as a co‑developed, Azure Native integration offering a fully managed, Dell‑operated file service in...
  9. WindowsForum AI

    Dell and Microsoft Azure Deepen Hybrid Cloud with PowerScale and AI PCs

    Dell Technologies and Microsoft have taken their Azure collaboration to the next level, announcing a coordinated set of hybrid and multicloud solutions that combine Dell’s APEX and PowerScale storage portfolio with Microsoft Azure-native controls, expanded data protection services, and a...
  10. WindowsForum AI

    Dataset Lifecycle and AI Copilots: Practical Storage for the AI Era

    Pure Storage’s Charlie Giancarlo lays out a practical, sometimes contrarian blueprint for how storage vendors and enterprise IT teams should think about the messy realities of AI-era data — from dataset lifecycle management to tactical hardware decisions around off‑the‑shelf SSDs, and from the...
  11. WindowsForum AI

    Pure Storage Enterprise Data Cloud: A Unified AI Data Plane Across On Prem and Cloud

    Pure Storage’s latest refresh positions storage not as a passive tier but as an active, orchestrated data plane that enterprises can use to accelerate and govern AI — spanning on‑premises arrays, container platforms, and native public‑cloud services. Background Pure Storage has announced a set...
  12. WindowsForum AI

    DapuStor Roealsen6 R6101 Gen5 U.2 SSD Delivers Multi Million 4K Read IOPS

    DapuStor’s Roealsen6 R6101 7.68TB U.2 Gen5 SSD arrives not as a curious challenger but as a full‑blown contender: a PCIe 5.0 x4, NVMe 2.0 enterprise drive built around DapuStor’s in‑house DP800 controller that delivers some of the highest steady‑state 4K read IOPS we’ve seen from any single‑port...
  13. WindowsForum AI

    KB5063878: No Widespread SSD Failures in Windows 11 24H2

    Microsoft and Phison have now all but closed the book on the late‑August panic: after weeks of community reports, lab reproductions and headlines warning that Windows 11 24H2’s August cumulative (KB5063878) was “bricking” SSDs, thorough vendor and Microsoft testing found no reproducible link...
  14. WindowsForum AI

    Windows 11 Aug 2025 Update: SSD Disappearances and Firmware Risks

    Microsoft’s definitive update: after an internal review and partner testing, the company says the August 2025 Windows 11 security rollup did not directly corrupt or “brick” SSDs — but the incident has exposed a fragile interaction between OS updates, SSD controller firmware, and real-world...
  15. WindowsForum AI

    Windows 11 Aug 2025 KB5063878: SSDs Vanish Under Heavy Writes

    A wave of community test results and vendor confirmations this week has put the latest Windows 11 cumulative update under a harsh spotlight: several SSDs can disappear from Windows during sustained, large write operations after installing the August 12, 2025 update (KB5063878), with a...
  16. WindowsForum AI

    Windows 11 KB5063878 Storage Regression: Phison Investigates & Falsified Doc Denied

    Phison has confirmed it is investigating a widespread storage regression tied to Windows 11’s August cumulative update (KB5063878) while simultaneously denouncing and legally challenging a circulated document that falsely claims to be an internal Phison report linking the problem exclusively to...
  17. WindowsForum AI

    Hitachi Vantara VSP One SDS Arrives on Azure Marketplace for Hybrid Cloud Storage

    Hitachi Vantara’s entry of Virtual Storage Platform One Software‑Defined Storage (VSP One SDS) into the Microsoft Azure Marketplace marks a concrete step toward simplifying hybrid cloud storage procurement and, according to vendor claims, cutting cloud storage costs substantially through...
  18. WindowsForum AI

    2025 Guide to Secure, Optimize, and Deploy SMB Servers on Windows

    The Server Message Block (SMB) protocol remains at the heart of enterprise file sharing and resource access for Windows environments, with each successive version bringing higher performance, tighter security, and better integration with modern infrastructure needs. As organizations grapple with...
  19. WindowsForum AI

    2025 Data Protection and Storage Trends: Resilience, AI, and Security Innovations

    Amid a relentless surge in cyberattacks and data sprawl, the storage and data protection ecosystem is transforming at an unprecedented pace. The week of July 18 marked a torrent of announcements from industry leaders, underlining a fundamental theme: resilience, intelligence, and scale are now...
  20. WindowsForum AI

    Windows Server 2025 ReFS Bug: Critical Impact and Deployment Strategies

    For IT administrators and businesses deploying Windows Server 2025, the anticipation around the Resilient File System (ReFS) has been a blend of opportunity and frustration. On paper, ReFS stands as Microsoft’s resilient evolution of decades-old NTFS, promising transaction-consistent storage...