Business News Holding

Category: storage

  • Powerfile Launches Fixed Content Storage Platform


    PowerFile has announced its new enterprise-class Hybrid Storage Appliance optimized for long-term storage of fixed content.

    The storage provider said the purpose-built platform delivers "the performance of disk, the economy of tape, and superior reliability and data integrity".

    The PowerFile HSA offers petabyte-class scalability and virtualization of the underlying storage technologies to create an integrated appliance.

    PowerFile said that by combining intelligent storage management software and sophisticated file management with cost-effective, robust hardware, the HSA could significantly lower both CAPEX and OPEX.

    Leading analysts estimate that up to 80 per cent of enterprise data is fixed content and organizations are holding onto that data for longer retention periods based on corporate policies for litigation support and regulatory compliance.

    Relocating this data from Tier 1 or Tier 2 disk to a PowerFile HSA can provide a huge advantage in driving down the cost of enterprise storage, eliminating the cost of unnecessary data migration operations every three to five years.

    Kirk Dunn, CEO at PowerFile, said there is no debate that using hard disk-based solutions for long-term storage of fixed content data is an unsustainable strategy for enterprises, given the crushing capital and ongoing operations expenses.

    "PowerFile’s hybrid storage approach breaks with convention by creating a new storage platform that provides performance when you need it, economy when you don’t and in the process eliminates most of the costs associated with the storage tax resulting in up to a 10x cost advantage over disk-based storage,’ he said.

    The new PowerFile Hybrid Storage Appliance has a data center-optimized design with up to 500 terabytes of capacity in a standard 42u rack.

    The energy-efficient design consumes 5 watts per TB, approximately 5 to 10 per cent of the energy usage compared to spinning disk, delivering substantial OPEX cost savings.

    It significantly reduces energy requirements for data centers that are nearing the limits of available energy capacity.

    The HSA is composed of three scalable units: the HSA System controller, utilizing dual quad-core processors to power the HybridOS operating system at enterprise speeds, the HSA Cache Array, a 12 to 48TB RAID array that provides sustained data ingestion to the HSA, and the HSA Library, a 4u enclosure with 25 TB of removable, Blu-ray-based capacity and up to 12 industry-standard Blu-ray drives.

    Up to 24 library modules can be added to a single HSA for a total system capacity of 1.2 petabytes. HSA components are connected via a high-speed, high-availability switched Ethernet backbone with Gigabit and 10 Gigabit options to precisely match the customer’s cost and performance requirements.

  • Service Offers To Double iPod Capacity To 240GB


    A US Company has started an iPod upgrading service that can expand an iPod to 240GB – or 48,000 tracks.

    Apple’s largest iPod is the 120GB classic which allows up to 24,000 tracks to be stored.

    While this would seems sufficient for most users, it seems it’s not enough for everyone.

    Rapid Repair offers to remove the old, "small" Apple HDD and replace it with a more advanced but same-sized 1.8" Toshiba 240GB storage unit.

    The operation also invalidates the Apple guarantee, according to SmallBusiness.

    To double the MP3 player’s capacity will cost USD $300 plus postage.

    Rapid Repairs says it is looking to extend its services to Zunes and other MP3 machines.

  • IBM Expands Midmarket Express Advantage Line


    IBM has broadened its lineup of Express Advantage products for midmarket with the launch of BladeCenter Express servers, a new data protection hardware/software package.

    It also unveiled the LotusLive Meetings hosted Web conferencing service.

    Express Advantage products and services are largely sold through IBM channel partners and are frequently offered with financing packages.

    Topping the list of the new products are the BladeCenter JS23 and JS43 Express servers, which are based on the Power6 processor technology and run on AIX, IBM i and Linux operating systems.

    IBM said the servers are ideal for midsize organizations undergoing infrastructure consolidation or running applications that require scalable performance and high memory capacity.

    A new hardware/software package that IBM is calling a "comprehensive data protection solution" includes the Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack software bundled with the DS3000, DS4000 and DS5000 Express series disk systems, and the System x 3550 server.

    IBM said the package offers a complete data storage and data recovery system.

    Many companies are increasingly using Web conferencing as they impose travel restrictions to cut costs.

    The Express Advantage services now include LotusLive Meetings, a Web conferencing service added to the LotusLive online services IBM unveiled earlier this year.

  • Consumer Storage Demand Continues To Soar


    Digital content in the average US household could reach 12 terabytes by 2014, according to researchers.

    A joint report by Coughlin Associates and Objective Analysis includes DVD libraries, which accounts for a large chunk of the 12TB total.

    Tom Coughlin, president of Coughlin Associates, estimates that half of the data is commercial content, like DVDs.

    Making up the remaining content is user generated data, such as photos, music, and videos, and downloaded material such as video on demand.

    It’s not surprising that since increasing numbers of people are downloading HD content from the likes of Netflix and iTunes this requires even greater storage capacity.

    Coughlin said that the trend was also for more physical media, like DVDs and music CDs, to end up being stored on disk.

    The reports suggest that key differentiators for storage vendors looking to service the home include:

    • remote storage access
    • privacy protection
    • disaster recovery
    • automatic backup
    • metadata
    • automated metadata generation of content

  • Verbatim Launches Encrypted Products at Infosecurity


    Verbatim has introduced its new range of hardware encrypted USB drives, solid state drives (SSD) portable drives and software encrypted DVD discs at this year’s Infosecurity Show.

    The storage media specialist said its new products will be aimed at anyone carrying sensitive material since the encryption prevents unauthorised accessing of the contents of the storage device.

    Hans Christoph Kaiser, business development manager for Flash Memory, Verbatim EUMEA, said: "There have been many embarrassing instances in recent years of USB drives or other storage products being mislaid or lost, and the confidential data contained within them compromised."

    "It is crucial that confidential information remains confidential, especially if it falls into the wrong hands.

    "Encrypted storage devices have become an essential part of life to huge numbers of people who need to keep their sensitive data private, this includes government officials, hospital staff and lawyers to name just a few.

    "Verbatim offers a comprehensive range that provides a solution to any storage problem requiring confidentiality."

    The new range includes:

    • Executive Secure USB Drive – with a 256-bit AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) hardware encryption coupled with integrated password protection
    • ExpressCard SSD Secure – Verbatim is launching a range of Secure SSD ExpressCards that guarantee the safety of the stored data if accidentally lost or mislaid
    • Encrypted Hard Disk Drive – Verbatim’s 128-bit hardware encrypted 2.5" hard disk drive offers real-time full disk encrypted storage without performance loss during data transfer
    • SecureSaveDVD – protects files for up to 100 years using AES 256-bit encryption

  • Vembu Launches Online Backup on Amazon Web Services


    Vembu Technologies has made available for production StoreGrid Cloud AMI, an online backup "virtual appliance" on Amazon Web Services.

    The company says that with the StoreGrid Cloud AMI and the Amazon Web Services infrastructure, it is now possible for service providers to offer a scalable, secure and highly redundant online backup service to their small and medium business (SMB) customers without any upfront capital investment in a data center.

    Online backup service providers can now configure the StoreGrid Cloud AMI virtual appliance to run as a backup server in the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2).

    StoreGrid Cloud AMI will use the Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) to store backup data from client machines at remote locations.

    The StoreGrid Cloud AMI virtual appliance also leverages Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) to store meta-data information in the MySQL relational database.

    Steve Rabuchin, director of Developer Relations and Business Development for Amazon Web Services, said AWS is designed to help alleviate for its customers, the cost and effort associated with building, operating and scaling technology infrastructure.

    "We are pleased that the StoreGrid Cloud AMI is able to leverage Amazon Web Services to extend this service to their customers," he said.

    Even service providers who want to keep backup data in their own data centers can use the StoreGrid Cloud AMI virtual appliance as a replication server. This deployment would enable them to replicate the backup data into the Amazon S3 storage cloud, thus offering more redundancy to the data.

    Sekar Vembu, CEO, Vembu Technologies

    Sekar Vembu, CEO, Vembu Technologies, said that investing, managing and scaling server and storage infrastructure is one of the most complex tasks for any online backup service provider.

    "StoreGrid Cloud AMI for Amazon Web Services eliminates this complexity by virtualizing the computing and storage infrastructure in a cloud," he said.

    Vembu released the Beta version of StoreGrid Cloud AMI in December 2008, and since then more than 50 service providers have been testing it.

    This production release incorporates feedback from these Beta partners, including the enhancement to use Amazon EBS as a temporary cache before uploading backup data to Amazon S3.

    StoreGrid Cloud AMI is available for purchase now and is priced as an annual subscription per StoreGrid backup client, with USD $30 for desktops and USD $60 for servers.

  • Oracle Readies Take-Over As Sun's Loss Grows


    As Oracle prepares its USD $7.4bn acquistion of Sun Microsystem, figures have emerged about the server and software maker’s latest quarter losses.

    Sun announced on Tuesday that it lost USD $201 million in the three months ended March 29. A year ago, Sun lost USD $34 million.

    The surprise deal, announced last week, takes Oracle into a whole new area – hardware, writes Samantha Sai for storage.biz-news.

    In a letter to partners and customers Oracle president, Charles Phillips, wrote: "Our customers have been asking us to step up to a broader role to reduce complexity, risk and cost by delivering a highly-optimized standards-based product stack.

    "Oracle plans to deliver these benefits by offering a broad range of products, including servers and storage, with all the integrated pieces: hardware operating system, database, middleware and applications."

    The general opinion in the market, however, is that IBM was a better fit for Sun than Oracle. IBM was already in the storage business.

    Wedbush Morgan’s analyst, Kaushik Roy, said Oracle is getting into totally new markets in which they have no expertise or history.

    "I am skeptical. Oracle is more likely to hold on to the entire storage business," he said.

    "Sun bought StorageTek and destroyed the company because of poor execution. But Oracle has been much better in execution, and it is very likely that the current storage group within Sun will have a better opportunity to grow."

    Oracle president, Charles Phillips

    The impact on other storage players and their relationship with Oracle will be determined in time.

    EMC–Oracle had a good relationship. Now they will be competitors.

    Kaushik Roy said: "But now with Oracle and Sun selling HDS at the high end, it would compete with EMC.

    "We will wait to see how those relationships pan out."

    As a result of this merger, Oracle is likely to wind up Sun’s storage hardware business in the long term.

    However, for the present the operation may continue.

    Illuminata analyst John Webster said that he is going on the assumption that Oracle runs Sun as Sun for a while before it starts restructuring.

    Also unknown as yet, is the positon of Sun-NetApp and the patent dispute over the ZFS file system.

    Stifel Nicolaus analyst Aaron Rakers said that Sun’s Open storage may also hit a question mark.

    "We have often been intrigued by some of Sun’s storage technologies," he wrote in a research note.

    "However, we have continued to see limited traction from an execution standpoint."

    It is expected that the presence of Oracle in the storage market will enliven the scenario. NetApp, EMC or 3PAR must be feeling the heat.

  • IDC: External Storage Cost Efficiency Assumptions Must Change


    While economies of scale have helped reduce power and cooling costs, other costs related to external storage prove to be more expensive than the storage itself, writes Samantha Sai for storage.biz-news.

    A recent IDC report estimates that the total cost to manage the world’s installed base of external storage is around 60 per cent of all storage related spending.

    This includes software, power, cooling, administration, personnel and services and excludes the cost of acquisition of the storage.

    David Reinsel, group vice president, IDC Storage and Semiconductors research, said that power and cooling costs are not the only costs associated with external storage.

    "In fact, in the grand scheme of things, the cost to power and cool external storage pales in comparison with the cost to acquire and manage storage, including the costs for storage software and storage administrators," he said.

    In the context of the economic meltdown IDC’s study comes as a stark reminder that the costs to power, cool and manage enterprise storage must be scrutinized in detail.

    It is also important to calculate the total cost of managing the world’s installed base of external storage.

    It is a fact that for every dollar spent on storage hardware, managers will spend three dollars for managing the stored information.

    There is an urgent and growing pressure to change assumptions around the adoption of more efficient storage technologies.

    The report asserts that the focus on energy reduction technologies is a must and firms must recognize the full extent of firms’ overheads.

    Storage management must be recognized as the key issue in today’s exploding data environment.

    Hundred terabyte and even petabyte sites are not uncommon and managers must look beyond the traditional methods of storing and securing critical corporate information.

    They should appreciate that deduplication, compression and thin provisioning have low penetration but high costs in terms of power and cooling.

    Advances in storage hardware and software have made solutions, like Hierarchical Storage management, archiving and disk grooming and automation, attractive.

  • 3PAR Launches Fastest Midrange Single-System Storage Array


    The global utility storage provider 3PAR has announced the launch of its InServ F400 Storage Server, writes Samanatha Sai for storage.biz-news.

    The company says it is the fastest single-system midrange storage array based on the results of the audit and peer review SPC-1 submitted to the Storage Performance Council (SPC) – a vendor neutral standards company.

    The storage array also is reported to provide one of the best price-to-performance ratios that have been submitted to the SPC so far.

    Brian Garrett, technical director of Enterprise Strategy Group Lab, said the latest round of SPC-1 Results proves that the Mesh-Active 3PAR architecture delivers industry-leading levels of performance across both high-end and midrange Fibre Channel arrays.

    "The advanced features of the 3PAR InServ F400 eliminate the performance and scalability compromises that typically accompany midrange storage," he said.

    "This is particularly crucial in this economy, where organizations are pressed to do more with less and are looking for low-cost, high-performance alternatives."

    The array uses a quad controller and is the only midrange array with this architecture in the market today.

    The quad controller is Mesh Active and was designed to overcome the technical limitations that were bothersome facts of traditional midrange arrays.

    The features and benefits associated with mid range arrays are all available at a price that is targeted to the midrange storage market.

    The results show that it has achieved a total of 93,050.06 SPC-1 IOPS, an 8.85-millisecond average response time, a total ASU capacity of 27,046.695 gigabytes, at a cost of USD $5.89/SPC-1 IOPS.

    Significantly there is 96 per cent capacity utilization right out of the box. Complex configuration or performance tuning such as "short stroking" is also not required to achieve these results.

    The F400 scales up to four clustered, Mesh-Active controller nodes powered by the 3PAR Gen3 ASIC with Thin BuiltIn.

    Moreover, each volume can be active on any mesh unlike the traditional midrange controller architectures where only one volume can be active on one Mesh.
    This results in the delivery of a robust, load balanced performance with mixed workloads.

    The Gen3 ASIC is also designed to process data and metadata independently in different processors or memory subsystems within the controller.

    This delivers high performance for mixed workloads. It also avoids the limitation that encourages legacy array sprawl and maintains performance integrity without having to deploy separate midrange array for each workload.

    David Scott, 3PAR CEO

    David Scott, 3PAR president and CEO, said the new F-Class delivers an efficient and simple midrange storage system that scales not only in capacity but also in performance and connectivity.

    "InServ F-Class arrays were designed to eliminate the scalability, efficiency, and management sacrifices typical with traditional midrange systems, and this SPC-1 Result proves that we have been able to do this while delivering performance and price-performance leadership," he said.

  • Nirvanix Strengthens Cloud Storage Team With Three Appointments


    Cloud Storage service provider Nirvanix has announced three new appointments to its management team.

    Stephen Foskett joins the company as Director of Consulting, Arvind Gidwani as Director of Solutions Services and Brian Schwarzentruber as Solutions Architect.

    Jim Zierick, President & CEO of Nirvanix, said the new additions will be focused on educating the market in general on how to leverage the benefits of Cloud Storage while meeting or exceeding their existing storage SLAs.

    Foskett has 15 years of experience consulting with leading companies to optimize their storage strategies, as well as serving as a writer, speaker, and blogger in the storage industry.

    A Microsoft File System Storage MVP, he will continue his public writing, speaking, and storage community activities. He previously managed enterprise IT strategy consulting services at Contoural, GlassHouse Technologies, and StorageNetworks.

    Gidwani brings in-depth expertise in infrastructure areas including storage, networking, backup/recovery, disaster recovery, security and data center design, among others.

    In his nearly two-decade career, he has held IT management and system architect positions at Drivecam Inc., Qualcomm, Cisco Systems and Applied Materials Inc.

    Most recently he was at Stratoform Technologies where he worked with leading enterprise customers on IT strategy and the enabling of Cloud Computing for the Oracle E-Business Suite.

    Schwarzentruber brings 20 years of experience in management at startup and public companies to Nirvanix. He most recently served Senior Engineer at Continuity Software Inc., implementing software and service solutions to a market that included enterprise and Fortune 500 accounts.

    He served as a senior consultant in the strategy practice at GlassHouse Technologies, providing storage and backup technology optimization, reference architecture and remediation consultation to businesses seeking storage technology implementations to match their business requirements.