data storage and management

This is a good book for someone who does not know anything about storage and wants to get a clue. But if you are an expert this is not the book for you. I found the book lacking in many areas. The book only establishes the boundaries of managing data storage.

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.