Business News Holding

Category: storage

  • Symantec Enhances Veritas Storage Foundation

    Symantec announced enhancements to Veritas Storage Foundation, Veritas Cluster File System and Veritas Cluster Server, the heterogeneous storage management and high availability solutions for UNIX, Linux and Windows environments.

    According to the company, this release enables organizations to capitalize on new storage technology, such as solid state drives and thin provisioning, “while continuing to reduce costs and complexity through improved performance and scalability.”

    Additionally, near instantaneous recovery of applications is now possible with Veritas Cluster File System through tight integration with Oracle, Sybase and IBM DB2 –allowing for “fast failover of structured information and near linear scalability.”

    “With this launch, Symantec is providing customers with the ability to effectively utilize the latest storage innovations—from SSDs to thin provisioned hardware and even virtual environments including Hyper-V—while also providing capabilities needed to optimize any storage or server platform,” said Josh Kahn, vice president of Product Management, Storage and Availability Management Group, Symantec.

    Storage Foundation automatically optimizes heterogeneous storage environments, including those that contain both SSDs and traditional disk storage. Symantec claims Storage Foundation is the only storage management solution that can automatically discover SSD devices from leading array and server vendors and optimize data placement on SSD devices transparently.

    The firm also claims its Veristas File System is the only cross platform, thin-friendly file system in the industry. It enables improved storage utilization by integrating with the thin provisioning ecosystem.

    Announced last year, the Veritas Thin Reclamation API enables automated space reclamation for thin provisioning storage arrays and is now fully supported by Symantec partners IBM, 3PAR and Hitachi Data Systems.

    Storage Foundation’s SmartMove technology together with Veritas Volume Replicator makes it easy for enterprises to migrate from thick to thin storage over any distance, as Symantec claims.

    Only the storage that is being used by the application is moved, making data and array migrations fast and efficient even across wide areas.

    With this release, Symantec also adds enhancements to Cluster File System and Cluster Server, providing improved availability of Oracle environments.

    “In contrast to traditional failover approaches, which require both application and storage to move to an alternate server, Cluster File System and Cluster Server provide concurrent access to information and require only the application to be moved,” said Kahn.

    As a result, organizations can now failover applications running single-instance Oracle or single-instance IBM DB2 “in seconds.”

  • Micron First To Deliver Native SATA 6Gb/s SSD

    Micron claims it has raised the performance bar for SSDs with the launch of its RealSSD C300 SSD, the industry’s fastest for notebook and desktop PCs.

    While benchmark tests have shown that the C300 SSD is the fastest PC SSD leveraging the industry standard SATA 3Gb/s interface, the SSD performance is further boosted by natively supporting the next generation high-speed interface – SATA 6Gb/s, according to Micron.

    “While some drive architectures require a trade-off between throughput-sensitive and IOPS-sensitive data streams, Micron’s core design and higher speed interface provides advantages for both,” the company says.

    The C300 SSD leverages the SATA 6Gb/s interface to achieve a read throughput speed of up to 355MB/s and a write throughput speed of up to 215MB/s. Using the common PC Mark Vantage scoring system, the C300 SSD turns in a score of 45,000 from the HDD Suite.

    “Hard drives gain little performance advantage when using SATA 6Gb/s because of mechanical limitations,” said Dean Klein, vice president of memory system development at Micron.

    “As a developer of leading-edge NAND technology, along with our sophisticated controller and firmware innovations, Micron is well positioned to tune our drives to take full advantage of the faster speeds achieved using the SATA 6Gb/s interface. The combination of these technology advancements has enabled the RealSSD C300 drive to far outshine the competition,” he added.

    The RealSSD C300 drive was designed using micron’s established 34nm MLC NAND flash memory. Bringing another first to SSDs, Micron’s 34nm MLC NAND supports the high-speed ONFI 2.1 standard and it’s expected to ensure the NAND performance keeps pace with the faster SATA 6Gb/s interface.

    The drives will be available in 1.8-inch and 2.5-inch form factors, with both drives supporting 128GB and 256GB capacities. The company informed they are currently sampling the C300 SSD in limited quantities and expects to enter production in the first quarter of 2010.

  • Samsung Begins Volume Production of 30-nm-class, 3-bit MLC NAND Flash Chips

    Samsung announced that it commenced the industry’s first volume production of 3-bit, multi-level-cell NAND flash chips using 30-nm-class process technology at the end of November.

    The chips will be used in NAND flash modules accompanied by Samsung 3-bit NAND controllers to initially produce 8 GB microSD cards.

    According to Samsung, three-bit MLC NAND increases the efficiency of NAND data storage by 50 percent over today’s pervasive 2-bit MLC NAND chips and provides consumers with effective NAND-based storage that can be applied to USB flash drives in addition to a range of micro SD cards.

    The company claims mass production of 30nm 3-bit NAND will significantly raise the portion of NAND flash memory production devoted to high densities (32Gb and above), designed to accommodate increased video usage.

    Samsung also announced other NAND advancements – the industry’s first mass production of its 30-nm-class, 32 Gb, MLC NAND memory with an asynchronous DDR interface.

    The company said it began shipping initial production of its DDR NAND to major OEMs at the end of November.

    DDR NAND is expected to raise the read performance of mobile devices requiring high-speeds and large amounts of storage space. Samsung’s new DDR MLC NAND chip, which reads at 133 Mbps would replace single data rate MLC NAND, which has an overall read performance of 40Mbps.

    Use of 30nm-class DDR NAND enables premium memory cards to register 60Mbps read speeds, at least a 300 percent performance gain compared to SDR NAND-based memory cards with an average 17Mbps read speed.

    According to market research firm Gartner Dataquest, the global NAND flash memory market is forecast to be worth US$13.8 billion in 2009 and reach US$23.6 billion by 2012.

  • Nitty-Gritty of Cloud Storage: Interview with Robert Peglar, Xiotech

    Xiotech has been leading the way in redefining the value of storage since 1995 and stands as the world’s largest privately held storage company.

    The storage industry has been a hot bed for innovation and debate with discussion on local storage versus cloud storage, and the pros and cons of each.

    Xiotech offers a wide array of services that tend to cater to the small and mid-tier businesses where they have made a name for themselves. Just recently they have expanded their services to larger enterprises, and have recorded the same successes they’ve seen with their smaller partners.

    VP of Technology for Xiotech, Robert Peglar states that "Xiotech has been a pioneer of virtualization and have done innovative work in the space." Robert Peglar serves a dual role, working externally with customers and industry professional.

    The other role is the internal role, working to get product out the door, and plan a road map of the future with the technology trends that they should be taking advantage of.

    Robert shares that many things separate them from their competition to include: ease of use (through virtualization), intuitive user interfaces and web services.

    Robert Peglar

    "There’s not a real need to know all the nitty gritty of the storage equipment, web services give you what you need and you’re done," Peglar comments.

    Many companies find it hard to understand storage and for some the learning curve is too high. Xiotech provides simplicity in accessing and integrating into their own company’s growth.

    "The staff and training required is greatly different from competitors and much less rigorous. Anyone can access their storage systems. Storage should just work with automatic processes such as self healing and self checking processes without the need of constant hands on," Robert says regarding how easy it is for people to access their systems.

    Patented ISE Technology

    Xiotech is known for having patented the Intelligent Storage Element (ISE) back in 2007, offering improved performance, advanced capabilities, and improved system telemetry.

    "In typical RAID arrays the more drives you add the more the performance begins to degrade, but with the ISE in place, you see consistent and reliable performance no matter how many drives you install. This allows us to put a 5 year guarantee on their ISE products because we know it’s going to work, we put our confidence in it," Robert explains.

    The ISE offers scalability to grow with the company from 1TB to 1 PB, without seeing a single drop is performance.

    Allowing users to make adjustments to the ISE is one of their key selling points as well because Xiotech has truly focused on making their products customer centric with ease of use.

    "Standardized web services have streamlined the process which is easier for the end user to log in access, conduct business, and leave," comments Peglar.

    Cloud Storage

    Xiotech offers both virtualization and cloud storage. Some use the terms synonymously, but there is a distinct difference when looked at more closely. Virtualization would be a first step to cloud storage, but it still requires on-site equipment and man power to maintain, but simply localizes all software, applications and user information in one spot while allowing other computers to route through in order to gain access.

    Cloud storage is completely off-site, requires no equipment or manpower and simply offers you a place to store data, access software applications, share information and communications. Physical storage is slowly becoming a thing of the past, cloud computing is the way of the future.

    Currently the real drive for cloud interest is economic. The sheer cost of maintaining on-site equipment is becoming outrageously expensive considering the maintenance and manpower required to do it.

    A downside to cloud storage is the perceived security risks, perceived latency issues, and reliability issues. Robert states that "industry professionals across the globe are working on to boost the waning confidence in cloud computing due to these perceptions." There is no doubt that progress is being made everyday and that soon more and more companies will move towards the cloud as a way to manage their storage and data.

    Robert made sure to note that the same issues exist with local storage, but some put more emphasis on the cloud due to perceived lack of control. It’s easier for people to manage downtime and other issues when they feel like they have control on internal equipment, but putting that same faith on equipment that you can’t see or touch is another thing.

    When asked about how companies are balancing what needs to be physically at the location and in the cloud, Robert says, "I believe most company will end up using a combination of both, physical on premise and cloud."

    Cash for Disk Clunkers

    One of the more eco-friendly marketing efforts to assist companies around the globe was the start of the Cash for Disk Clunkers. Xiotech is once again taking the lead in encouraging companies to turn in their old arrays that are now too inefficient and less powerful to be of any use.

    "Some of the older systems require reinforced floors just to store. It’s an interesting marketing ploy, playing off the federal initiative for the cash for clunkers program. There’s been a huge user response for this to the point where they go to the offices to inquire on the process. It’s an effort to promote efficiency, getting rid of the old one which is costing a lot to maintain, to include some of their own older models," states Peglar.

    It’s definitely an interesting economic incentive for those interested in participating and a bonus with regards to their efforts to protect the environment from improper disposal of old equipment.

    Most recently Xiotech made an appearance at the SC09 Conference (Computing for a Changing World) and Interop New York where they focused on helping provide knowledge and insight to help IT and corporate decision-makers achieve business success.

  • Will Chrome OS Lead Consumers into Cloud Computing?

    "Chrome OS is ideal for ‘smartbooks’ and will lead consumers further into cloud computing," says Canalys in its recent Notebook Pulse Report.

    Google unveiled its Chrome operating system, making the source code available to developers and enabling them to assist in the project a year before Chrome OS is due for public release.

    “Speculation about Chrome OS and its impact on the PC industry has been rife since Google first announced it was working on the project in July. The announcement goes some way to address some of the questions that have since surrounded the OS,” says Canalys.

    Google has provided information on its initial use cases for devices running Chrome OS in documentation released on the platform. Canalys thinks it suggests that Chrome will suit secondary devices for ‘couch computing’, devices that are shared among family members, and those used in coffee shops.

    “To all intents and purposes, Chrome OS is an expansion of Google’s Chrome browser. All applications running on Chrome OS will be web applications that run from within a browser window.”

    But there are additional features that extend the functionality beyond that of a standard web browser. The addition of persistent windows, called ‘panels’, enables developers to create simple applications that can float on top of the browser window or be minimised when not needed.

    Two usage cases of panels that Google has so far demonstrated were an instant messaging client and a window for playing media. According to the analysts, another aspect of Chrome OS that Google is keen to promote is its security.

    “If the OS has been compromised, it is able to repair itself using its verified boot process. If the OS detects any changes to the system on start-up it will automatically initiate a recovery process that will replace the OS with the latest available version,” the report says.

    As Chrome users cannot install native applications, Chrome will not require additional security software. “Instead, Google will take responsibility for securing Chrome OS, possibly extending protection technologies from the Postini acquisition to protect Chrome users before threats reach the devices.”

    Chrome OS stores all of a user’s personal data in the cloud, so that if a chrome OS device is lost or stolen, personal data is not compromised and remains permanently backed up.

    Canalys says, as usual, concerns will remain regarding the storage of personal data with an advertising company. “A further concern is that Chrome’s lack of local data storage and limited offline functionality will make it largely unusable without an Internet connection.”

    Canalys therefore expects that devices running chrome OS will be bundled with mobile data contracts, and support for ARM-based processors will make it an ideal ‘smartbook’ OS.

    Analysts say the fact that the OS is not intended for offline use comes as no great surprise. “After all, unconnected users cannot access Google’s services or be reached by Google’s advertising.”

    “Though much could change between now and Chrome’s release in 2010, it is clear that, at present, the OS is not intended as a replacement for Windows or any other fully functional OS.”

    According to the report, one thing is clear: “However, Chrome OS will be the next step in bringing consumers further into the world of cloud computing, a world where Google provides many applications and most of which are free.”

  • DroboElite Brings BeyondRAID Technology to SMBs

    Data Robotics announced DroboElite, the first iSCSI SAN storage that manages itself.

    DroboElite is a business class data storage solution that brings the company’s BeyondRAID technology to small and medium businesses.

    According to Data Robotics, DroboElite, the fastest Drobo to date, features a new hardware architecture that includes an enhanced processing engine and dual high-speed iSCSI interfaces for 150 percent of the performance of previous Drobo models.

    “True multi-host support with LUN affinity allows small and medium businesses with limited IT resources to simplify management and reduce costs by consolidating storage across multiple servers,” the company says.

    DroboElite delivers automated capacity expansion and one-click single- or dual-drive redundancy for data protection for Windows, Mac and Linux machines.

    The new system extends the number of Smart Volumes – Data Robotics’ unique thin provisioning that pulls storage from a common pool of drives – so that users can now create up to 255 virtual storage volumes.

    “Smart Volumes allow companies to create new volumes in seconds and manage them over time by pulling storage from a common pool rather than a specific physical drive allocation. Smart Volumes are also file system aware which allows deleted data blocks to be immediately returned to the pool for future use,” the firm says.

    The new Drobo features multi-host support that enables the companies with multiple servers to add or consolidate storage by connecting the DroboElite into their existing TCP/IP network and utilizing the industry-standard iSCSI protocol.

    The Elite also comes with VMware-ready features: with dual iSCSI ports and the ability to create up to 255 Smart Volumes, it can support VMware environments and advanced functionality including VMotion, Storage VMotion, snapshots, and high availability.

    DroboElite features multiple stream optimization, dual Gigabit Ethernet interfaces for high-speed iSCSI and 8-drive capacity with instant capacity expansion to 16TB and beyond.

    With simplified dual-drive redundancy companies are protected against the simultaneous failure of up to two hard drives without losing access to their data.

    “Our products are exceedingly simple and straightforward to use while providing all of the features that SMBs need to keep their data safe and accessible,” said Dr. Geoff Barrall, CEO and founder of Data Robotics.

    He claims Data Robotics can deliver cost savings up to 90 percent compared to other iSCSI solutions by combining cost-effective hardware with robust iSCSI features.

    DroboElite is currently available starting at a price of $3,499 MSRP, with multiple configurations to $5,899 for a 16TB (8x 2TB) solution.

    The company also introduced Drobo S, a professional-class storage solution.

    “With the introduction of eSATA and a fifth drive bay, as well as enhancements to FireWire 800 throughput, the Drobo S offers 150 percent of the performance of the current four-bay Drobo, making it an ideal storage solution for creative professionals, small offices, and home office users,” according to press release.

  • iSuppli: Cloud Computing Can Effectively Leverage Blade Servers and Virtualization

    Although global shipments of blade servers are set to decline in 2009, the market is expected to return to robust double-digit growth during the following years as global economic conditions improve, according to iSuppli.

    Blade server shipments will amount to 1.04 million units in 2009, down 9 percent from 1.14 million in 2008. This contrasts sharply with the 31.1 percent increase in 2008.

    “In its short history, the blade server market has been able to slash through whatever obstacles the global economy and technology business have placed in front of it. However, in 2009, the blade servers couldn’t cut through the global economic downturn, causing shipments to decline for the first time ever,” said Peter Lin, the iSuppli analyst.

    iSuppli has been continually reducing its shipment forecast throughout the year. According to them, the main factor impacting the market is conservative corporate Information Technology spending at the end of 2008 and in 2009 resulting from the recession.

    Analysts expect that the blade server market will regain its edge somewhat in 2010, when the worldwide economy improves. By 2013, the market will more than double from its 2008 level to more than 2 million units.

    During the period from 2008 to 2013, the blade server market will expand at a CAGR of 13.9 percent, 10 times higher than the server market as a whole. By 2013, blades will account for 23.1 percent of all server shipments, up from 12.9 percent in 2008.

    “This clearly indicates that the blade segment will be the fastest-growing and most important segment of the server industry through 2013,” Lin said.

    Although iSuppli has reduced the total server shipment forecast due to the worldwide economic recession, the company retains its belief that virtualization offers a number of benefits in the consolidation of server infrastructure.

    “Virtualization provides a more efficient server roll-out strategy, which will accelerate enterprise adoption. Therefore, iSuppli’s virtualization forecast is a mid-to-high penetration scenario, where we believe virtualization server penetration of total server shipments will rise at a CAGR of 18.8 percent during the period from 2008 to 2013,” iSuppli states.

    The research group also believes that cloud computing can effectively leverage blade servers and virtualization. “Seeing the potential for cloud computing, there is a race among the main players, which iSuppli believes will become increasingly fierce as the demand for cloud computing keeps growing,” they say.

    According to iSuppli, cloud computing will have a negative effect on server shipments. However, they say, there will be more applications released and users will demand better service levels. Therefore, the demand from the cloud computing service providers will keep increasing, which will offset the negative effect, as they claim.

  • Biz-News.com “Product of the Year Award 2009”

    2009 is coming to a close, a difficult year for many and an opportunity for others.

    With a recession lurching over world economic growth we have seen some companies that have continued betting on innovation and development and have launched some amazing products into the market.

    Last year Biz-News.com celebrated the “Product of the Year Awards 2008”. Nominations where received from all parts of the globe. First hand users explained their experiences and recommended best practices for the most innovative products out there.

    Honouring those who have fought to make the most of this year, Biz-News.com again wishes to call upon its readers to nominate their favourite product of the year.

    Nominations will begin on November 19th and will close on February 15th 2010. Runner ups will be featured in our editorial and winners will have an exclusive interview complete with user reviews and photographic backup published on Biz-News.com.

    To make your vote on the Product of the Year for 2009 please fill in the following form.

    Product of the Year Winners in 2008

    VoIP.biz-news.com
    – MyGlobalTalk by i2Telecom
    – IPsmarx

    Storage.biz-news.com
    – RestorePoint by Tadasoft

    Smartphone.biz-news.com
    – AmAze

  • Research: Bringing Cloud into the Datacenter Transformation

    “Datacenter transformation is a stark reality facing most customers in the Asia/Pacific region,” says IDC.

    Based on its recent datacenter research, the ageing and somewhat inefficient datacenters that were built seven-ten years ago are struggling to keep up with the current technology – leading to high operational costs, poor utilization levels and increasing complexity.

    “However – the report says – the current economic environment has led many CxOs to mandate CAPEX restrictions, which has forced CIOs to look for ways they can do more with the same.”

    Datacenter transformation is a broader discussion than cost and capacity, and one which aims at building an IT architecture that is more agile and adaptive for the business. IDC states that this need is driven by the increasing pervasiveness of IT, which is driving businesses to use the same or even more IT than before- even when the IT budgets are not expanding.

    “This has caused a dilemma for the CIO, and they are forced to think about new ways to build their IT fabric such that its more elastic, flexible and agile,” the company says.

    IDC says it has discussed this type of IT within the scope of what we called as the dynamic IT infrastructure.

    However, transforming the current IT complexities to reduce the rigidity has been an arduous task for most IT heads, and one that they have continued to battle with over the past few years. The arrival of cloud computing has revived the hopes of CIOs to consider a new way of attacking this old problem, as IDC claims.

    IDC believes that over the next few years, we will see increasing interest in cloud computing from organizations. But these organizations will have to start planning on building a more dynamic IT framework as a precursor.

    According to the research, this is especially true for enterprises that are considering to build their own private or internal clouds. The current chaotic IT environment with its complexities and redundancies will pose a huge challenge in migration, and indeed this has left many CIOs stumped about where to even start.

    "There is a lot of pent-up demand for revamping and building new datacenters that have been postponed due to the ongoing recession" says Avneesh Saxena, Group Vice President for Domain Research at IDC Asia/Pacific.

    "Meanwhile the demand for IT has not gone down and CIOs worry about coping with the turnaround as and when it comes through. This has to lead to the emergence of a adaptive and elastic IT framework – whether inside or outside the organization," he added.

  • ParaScale Launches Open Private Cloud Storage Platform

    ParaScale introduced ParaScale Cloud Storage software R2.0 – version 2 of its PCS clustered NAS system. The new release targets enterprise storage administrators who must economically scale capacity and performance, and service providers who want to offer a variety of storage cloud services.

    ParaScale’s open solution leverages any commodity hardware running Red Hat Enterprise Linux OS or CentOS, and can integrate applications directly onto storage nodes. PCS R2.0 also provides integration capabilities into virtualized environments and web services.

    This latest release of ParaScale Cloud Storage software reflects the growing realization by global customers that existing approaches to managing their stored data assets prevent them from rapidly delivering a pool of storage that easily scales capacity and performance independently and economically.

    The company claims PCS R2.0 removes these obstacles as a software-only solution that can be downloaded from the web and applied to any standard Linux platform to enable hundreds of commodity servers to be clustered together as a file repository, as a storage cloud with massive capacity and parallel throughput, or as a disaster recovery option for virtualized environments.

    One of the key features of PCS R2.0 enables ParaScale to function as a back-up for virtual machines and their respective data. In the event of a failure, the virtual machines can be booted directly from ParaScale and be up and running in seconds without having to move around VM images.

    According to Arun Taneja, principal, Taneja Group, the power and scale of cloud compute and storage begins to make sense in an open and interoperable environment where resources can be provisioned as needed, any commodity hardware can be added to grow the cloud including repurposed servers, and new applications can be leveraged to create a virtualized data center.

    “ParaScale provides a unique open alternative to other cloud storage platforms and is developing an ecosystem of partners to integrate applications like back-up and disaster recovery, content management, and data migration on its storage servers,” he said.

    “Storage teams in 2010 are going to face the issue of getting ready for growth with budgets and headcount frozen at 2009 levels. How are they going to pull off this magic? By going outside the box, by looking at technologies that the innovators are using and not old workhorse NAS technologies from 1990,” said Sajai Krishnan, CEO, ParaScale.

    “Release 2.0 represents a significant step to provide our customers with a simple solution to store and manipulate any type of Tier II file data on higher-performance, more scalable, more accessible, and cheaper storage,” he added.