Business News Holding

Category: storage

  • Samsung Reveals the First 32 Gigabyte DDR3 Memory Module, for Low-Power Server Operations


    Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced memory technology, has announced that it has developed the world’s first 32 Gigabyte (GB) DDR3 module – for use in server systems. The new module operates at 1.35-volts, in support of the global trend to cut power usage in mass storage computing environments.

    “Compared to the 8GB memory modules used in today’s servers, our new module packs an eco-sensitive wallop with four times the density at significantly reduced power levels and no increase in the overall footprint,” said Jim Elliott, vice president, memory marketing, Samsung Semiconductor, Inc. “For data centers, it’s a powerhouse in energy efficiency and performance,” he added.

    Based on Samsung’s 50 nanometer (nm)-class 4 Gigabit (Gb) DDR3, the 1.35V DDR3 DRAM improves throughput by 20 percent over a 1.5V DDR3. Its lower power consumption levels are in line with the pressing concern for more energy-efficient “green” systems and components. The development of low-power 4Gb DDR3 will be viewed as critical in reducing data center costs, improving server time management and increasing overall operational efficiency at higher densities.

    For the new generation of green servers, the 4Gb DDR3’s high density combined with its lower level of power consumption will not only reduce electricity bills, but also allow for a cutback on installment fees, maintenance fees and repair fees involving power suppliers and heat-emitting equipment.

    The new 32GB registered dual inline memory module (RDIMM) consists of 72 4Gb DDR3 chip dies produced using Samsung’s 50-nanometer class DRAM production technology. A row of nine quad-die package (QDP) 16Gb DDR3s are mounted on each side of the printed circuit board for a collective 32GB, highly compact configuration.

    According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), a market research and analysis firm, the worldwide DDR3 DRAM market will account for 29 percent of the total DRAM market in 2009 and 75 percent in 2011. In addition, IDC estimates that 2Gb-or-higher DDR3 DRAM will make up three percent of the total DRAM market in 2009 and 33 percent in 2011 (units in bits).

  • DataSlide Announces Oracle's Embedded Berkeley Database Partnership


    DataSlide, the massively parallel green storage company, has announced their embedded architecture and Partnership Network agreement with Oracle.

    Oracle’s Berkeley Database embedded onto the DataSlide storage drive enables 3rd party developers the ability to implement next generation Business Intelligence right onto the storage system. This is a significant step for DataSlide as they move towards productizing Hard Rectangular Drives(TM) HRD(TM).

    DataSlide’s Hard DB fits Oracle’s Embedded Global Business Units OEM Charter by incorporating BerkeleyDB into the actual storage device itself (essentially a low energy, cool running, high performance, shock resistant hard drive) to make a ‘smart’ storage device.

    The potential applications are many and varied. Examples are TCP/IP based systems and video applications requiring multiple concurrent streams, media indexing, fast positioning, forward, back, skip, scene/track will have significant performance improvements with this winning architecture.

    "DataSlide’s Massively Parallel architecture with 64 heads per surface could saturate a 32 lane PCI express bus," said Charles Barnes, CEO of DataSlide. "The Hard Rectangular Drive(TM) HRD(TM) has the industry reliability and cost advantages of Hard Disk Drives with superior performance and lower power then Solid State Drives.

    The HRD(TM) is over 60% lower power then HDD and during idle the media has zero power dissipation making it the GREEN storage winner."

    Hard Rectangular Drives(TM) HRD(TM) Architecture

    DataSlide capitalizes on standard base process technologies to dramatically change how Hard Disk Drives are made. Leveraging mature cost-effective LCD and HDD processes to create an ultra thin massive 2D head array which enables symmetric read and write performance of 160,000 random R/W IOPS with transfer rate of 500MB/s.

    DataSlide’s revolutionary storage media architecture provides the performance, capacity, cost, power and reliability that Hard Disk Drives and Solid State Drives are striving to achieve. DataSlide’s HRD(TM) sets a new standard for IOPS/Watt.

    Hard Rectangular Drives(TM) HRD(TM) Availability

    DataSlide is currently in discussion with a number of Storage and System OEMs and can provide more details under a non disclosure agreement. DataSlide will be holding private meetings at the Santa Clara Hyatt Regency from June 22nd through 25th during the Memcon 2009 conference.

    DataSlide is focused on revolutionizing the storage industry. Bringing together innovation, using standards based mature manufacturing process technologies from LCD, HDD, and semiconductors, the company is developing ultra low power green storage drives with unmatched performance, capacity, reliability, and significant power reduction over traditional disk drive technologies.

    DataSlide has a seasoned management team from companies like Seagate, Connor, Quantum, Maxtor and HP. DataSlide is a privately held company with locations in United Kingdom, France and United States. DataSlide has affiliations with academia from Carnegie Mellon University/DSSC, Universities of Cambridge, Exeter, Sussex, Sheffield and Brighton in the UK and Paris-Sud in France, and is backed by Angel Investors.

  • DTM Systems Achieves HP Virtualization Solutions Elite Partner Status for Advanced Virtualization Expertise


    DTM Systems Corporation has achieved HP Virtualization Solutions Elite Partner status for Advanced Virtualization Expertise.

    To be selected as an HP Virtualization Elite Partner, companies must provide expert service and support and offer clients complete virtualization solutions – from capacity planning assessments to design, installation, configuration, data migration, training, and post-installation services.

    DTM Systems is also a HP Storage Elite Partner, HP ProCurve Elite Partner and the #1 HP Enterprise Partner in B.C.

    Virtualization technology has quickly become the primary focus for many businesses; it not only provides consolidation for x86 servers but has now moved into every aspect of I.T., from servers and storage to desktops and applications. Virtualization lays the foundation for Cloud Computing and will continue to be the most important development in I.T. for the next decade.

    As Hewlett Packard continues to remain at the forefront of Virtualization solutions, they recognize the role of partnerships, like DTM Systems in bringing this concept to life to address real-world technology issues.

    As businesses increasingly demand adaptive, efficient I.T. infrastructures, HP remains our most important strategic partner," says Ted Smith, Vice President of Sales & Marketing for DTM Systems. "We’re honoured to be recognized for our virtualization expertise and our ability to build virtualization solutions around HP’s broad portfolio of technology offerings."

    In addition to being a HP Virtualization Solutions Elite Partner, DTM Systems is a VMware Enterprise, VIP Partner, Citrix Gold Partner and Microsoft Gold Partner with certifications and expertise with the three leading providers of Virtualization technology.

    DTM Systems has been in the technology industry for 30 years and has always been at the leading edge of its evolution.

    We design and implement solutions to help organizations adapt and thrive in the face of an ever changing economy and we pride ourselves on forming the best partnerships with companies that follow our core values of competency, integrity and trust.

  • Storage Class Memories – Changing the Face of Storage and Computing


    Vijay Karamcheti, CTO, Virident Systems to give Luncheon Address on the "Real World Challenges and Opportunities of Storage Class Memory in the Data Center" at 2009 NVM Conference

    Storage Class Memories (SCM) have been touted as the memory of the future – blending the high performance of DRAM with the persistence, high capacity, and low cost of solid state storage.

    Systems, sub-systems and software for these new memory hierarchies are just now coming to market using enterprise class Flash, and in the near future, new memory types like Phase Change Memory.

    The internet data center may represent an attractive new market for these new technologies.

    These new systems and memory approaches are clearly a very exciting development for the industry, but like all new technical innovation, it comes with a unique adoption curve that is a function of software, systems, semiconductors and customer requirements and expectations.

    At the 2009 NVM Conference, ‘Beyond Flash – Defining SCM’,  Karamcheti, also  Associate Professor of Computer Science at NYU has been invited to give a special luncheon keynote speech on the real world challenges of implementing Storage Class Memories now and for the future. Dr. Karamcheti will share key lessons from Virident’s experience building systems and software using the first generation of newly emerging storage class memory technologies, and highlight future challenges and untapped opportunities.

    The 2009 NVM Conference will also have two panel discussions. Session 4, the first panel is on the memory components for Storage Class Memories (SCM) either RAM-based or cross point storage-based components and what applications they can serve.

    Session 4 Panelists are:

    • IBM – Richard Freitas
    • Industry Memory and Storage Executive – Steffen Hellmold
    • Intel – Al Fazio
    • Numonyx – Sean Eilert
    • Qs Semiconductor – Bob Goodman
    • Unity Semiconductor – Darrell Rinerson

    Session 7, the second panel is on ‘Emerging Architectures for SSDs’ that illustrates new ways SSDs can be developed and architectured within the new storage hierarchy that uses SCM or further enhancements on NAND Flash.

    Session 7 Panelists are:

    • Fusion-io – David Flynn
    • IBM – Andy Walls
    • Intel – Sanjay Talreja
    • SandForce – Radoslav Danilak
    • STEC – Scott Stetzer
    • Virident – Vijay Karamcheti

    Attendees will be able to glean how to improve the design of their memory components whether it is Flash, DRAM, PCM, RRAM, or other technologies and to enhance their cache and SSD products.

    These issues with SCM and their likely candidates are being examined at the 2009 NVM Conference ‘Beyond Flash – Defining Storage Class Memories’ put on by Web-Feet Research and Denali Software.

    The 2009 NVM Conference will be held during Denali’s MemCon event on Wednesday, June 24th at the Santa Clara Hyatt.

  • Aress Launches Unlimited Online Data Backup Service


    Aress Software has launched an online backup solution which gives 1GB of free space and also comes with an unlimited storage option.

    Called BackupandShare.com, the service is aimed at business and individual users, and has an ability to schedule backup for PCs and Macs.

    The India-based company said the solution offers 128 bit AES encryption for secure data storage.

    At USD $49.95 for and Individual plan and $150 USD for Business plan annually, the service provides unlimited capacity to securely store files and media collections remotely and automatically.

    Aress said data is stored in an architecture that’s isolated, multi-tiered and gated in a secure data center. It also provides 24/7 customer support.

    Other features include sharing files, photo album, maintaining playlists, remote access and mobile access.

    The BackupandShare desktop application is also available for downloading to PCs.

  • INSIGHT: External IT's Joseph Stedler on the Advantages of Storage Virtualization in Private Clouds


    DataCore Software has announced that hosted IT-as-a-service company External IT has standardized on its SANsymphony storage virtualization software to serve as their storage area network (SAN).

    With VMware virtual servers, Citrix XenApp and DataCore storage virtualization, it allows External IT to deliver a complete virtualization infrastructure.

    Joseph Stedler, senior engineer and Dallas data center manager, External IT, said this is in the form of private computing "clouds", tailored individually to a specific client’s needs.

    He said he had worked with traditional SANs for eight years and has had firsthand experience with every major hardware SAN – including EMC, HP and NetApp.

    "There are various, major drawbacks to hardware SANs. One is the fact that there is a single point of failure at the disk level," he said.

    "This is particularly the case when doing, for example, firmware upgrades – on the controllers, on the disks, on the shelves – whereby you have to take the SAN down to perform that task.

    "The second most irksome characteristic of hardware SANs is their cost. These EMC SANs, these HP EVAs are inherently expensive, particularly during upgrade time."

    Stedler said there are capabilities that DataCore brings to the table that he "absolutely loves".

    "The concept of having two SANs as your one SAN environment is just elegantly simple," he said. "You have an ‘A’ side and a ‘B’ side."

    Stedler said the beauty of this is that if you need to do hardware maintenance or firmware upgrades, an administrator can actually take down half of the SAN and still have the other half serving production traffic – completely uninterrupted.

    "The second, major benefit of DataCore for External IT has to do with performance," he said.

    "With DataCore, you will experience enormous performance gains. The performance that DataCore delivers is nothing short of awesome."

    Other benefits that make up the "DataCore Difference" for External IT include Seamless Maintenance, Disaster Recovery (through asynchronous replication) and the Flexibility to create your own SANs.

  • HP's Consumer PC to Come With Symantec Backup Storage


    Symantec has announced an agreement to distribute Norton Online Backup on HP consumer desktop and notebook PCs worldwide.

    The move is part of Symantec’s plans to expand its consumer business beyond its line of Norton security products.

    The 30-day trial offer of Norton Online Backup will come preinstalled and will provide five gigabytes (5GB) of secured online storage. It will be followed by an annual subscription for USD $50.

    While nearly half of consumers report having lost files in the past, less than a third regularly back up.

    By providing the online backup solution, Symantec is hoping to benefit from its ease of use and HP’s market strength.

    The cloud backup service is one of various new products Symantec has launched in the last 12 months to drive sales.

    However, analysts suggest it may take some time for the backup product to substantially boost sales.

    Symantec already has a PC distribution agreement with HP, through which it sells Norton Internet Security, a suite of programs to fight hackers and other threats.

  • IDC Reports Storage Software Sales Decline


    Storage software revenue has experienced its first quarterly year-over-year decline in more than five years, according to IDC.

    The analysts’ Worldwide Quarterly Storage Software Tracker showed that the device management, replication and infrastructure categories had the biggest declines.

    Symantec was the only vendor to grow revenue year-over-year, increasing 2.5 per cent. Hewlett-Packard’s 21.5 per cent drop was the biggest fall, while market leader EMC slipped 14.5 per cent.

    Michael Margossian, research analyst, storage software at IDC, said the combination of the normally slow first quarter for most companies with the continued economic climate was displayed in the first quarter’s results.

    "A majority of companies displayed either negative or very low year-over-year growth," he said.

  • 2TB Memory Cards By 2010?


    Storage of consumer electronics could be boosted by as much as 2TB with the arrival of a new generation of memory cards.

    That’s the expectation of the SD Association, which suggest Secure Digital memory cards based on the new SDXC (extended capacity) specification could be out as early as next year.

    Initially they would offer a capacity of 64GB but this is expected to climb quickly to 2TB.

    The SDA announced the SDXC specification at the start of the year without being able to specify when products would become available.

    However, companies such as Panasonic have already announced plans to develop memory cards based on the new specification.

    The SD Association has about 1,100 member companies, including Toshiba and SanDisk, involved in the design, manufacture and sale of products using SD technology.

    Joseph Unsworth, research director, NAND Flash Semiconductors, at Gartner, said SDXC combines a higher capacity roadmap with faster transfer speeds as a means to exploit NAND flash memory technology.

    He said it makes a compelling choice for portable memory storage and interoperability.

    "With industry support, SDXC presents manufacturers with the opportunity to kindle consumer demand for more advanced handset features and functionality in consumer electronics behind the ubiquitous SD interface," he said.

    SD cards can be slotted into consumer electronics devices to store images, video or other data.

    The new specification will replace SD slots and media based on the older SDHC specification commonly used in devices.

    The SDXC specification upgrades the storage capacity and cuts the data-transfer bottlenecks that plagued earlier specifications.

    Shigeto Kanda, general manager at Canon, said SDXC is a large-capacity card that can store more than 4,000 RAW images, which is the uncompressed mode professionals use.

    He said that capacity, combined with the exFAT file system, increases movie recording time and reduces starting time to improve photocapturing opportunities.

    "Improvements in interface speed allow further increases in continuous shooting speed and higher resolution movie recordings," he said.

    "As a memory card well suited to small-sized user-friendly digital cameras, the SDXC specification will help consumers realize the full potential of our cameras."

    The new slots will be backward compatible and support older SD media. However, older SD slots will not support new media.

  • HDD Not Threatened by Virtualisation, Claims Western Digital


    Western Digital has dismissed the growing trend of virtualisation among enterprises as a possible threat – and instead emphasised the indispensable value of internal hard drives in businesses.

    Noel Timbol, business development manager at WD, said recent virtualisation efforts undertaken by companies have not made any dent on the sales of their Enterprise models.

    Speaking at the launch of WD’s new line of internal HDD (hard disk drive) products at Computerworld Philippines, he told TechWorld that "even if companies are migrating their data centre operations abroad, they’d still need hard drives for simple internal operations".

    WD is currently the second-largest hard drive manufacturer in the world, and currently leads the market for portable hard drives.