Business News Holding

Category: storage

  • Will HP and Dell Follow Xyratex And Support Savvio's SFF HDDs?


    Xyratex recently announced support for Seagate’s Savvio 15K.2 and Savvio 10K.3 Small Form Factor (SFF) enterprise hard disk drives.

    As a result, Seagate’s Savvio 2.5 inch hard drives have been completely incorporated into Xyratex’s OneStor SP1224s, 2U 24 drive storage system, writes Samantha Sai for storage.biz-news.

    Currently, this is the only fully integrated external storage subsystem to convey the high-performing, energy resourceful drives for enterprise storage systems.

    Xyratex says that when compared to the standard 3.5-inch drives, these SFF drives burn up less power with twice the functioning density.

    The company says this makes the OneStor SP1224s perfect for transaction-intensive use, allowing consumers to get enhanced time to data devoid of any penalties with decreased capacity or higher electric bills.

    IDC is anticipating that 2.5-inch drive consignments will overtake 3.5-inch ones later this year – largely because of their improved performance and lesser power profile.

    This raises the prospect of both HP and Dell coming out with storage products using the 15K.2 Savvios.

    Both companies provided supporting quotes in the Seagate release.

    The 2.5-inch Seagate Savvio 10K.2 enterprise hard drive offers up to 146-GB capacity and has the premier consistency rating in the world.

    Savvio 10K.2 drives are 70 per cent smaller than 3.5-inch drives, enabling more drives per system for improved performance per U (vertical usable space) and optimized performance per watt.

    The Savvio drive also uses less power and enables more airflow to cool faster processors.

    Carla Kennedy, vice president of enterprise PLM at Seagate, said Xyratex and Seagate were committed to meeting the key data center requirements of reduced power consumption and improved system performance with Small Form Factor hard drives.

    "In addition to delivering the highest performance and largest capacity SFF drives in the industry, these new drives enable new levels in system efficiency when the market needs it most," she said.

    The Xyratex OneStor SP1224s is the SFF companion of the company’s highly flexible OneStor Extensible Storage Platform family. The SP1224s is a 2U, 24-drive storage system supported on 2.5-inch drives and make available eighty-five percent proficient power translation.

    While no set time for the shipment has been planned, both the 15K.2 and 10K.3 drives may be ready to go out sometime in December.

    However, the self-encrypting versions won’t be released at least until the beginning of 2010.

  • Kroll Survey: Employees Are "Wildcard" In Data Storage Practices


    While implementing data storage policies that mandate where company files are to be stored is a popular data-protection measure, employees are not necessarily complying.

    This is leaving organizations vulnerable to data loss, according to a survey.

    Kroll Ontrack found that 40 per cent of individuals surveyed said their companies had a policy regarding where data should be stored.

    However, the survey results also revealed that 61 per cent of respondents "usually" save to a local drive instead of a company network.

    While the risks associated with saving to a local drive could be minimized with an external backup drive or backup software, 44 per cent of respondents said that their preferred storage location was not backed up.

    Jeff Pederson, manager of operations for Ontrack Data Recovery, said saving to a local hard drive on a desktop or laptop more often than not contradicts data storage policies.

    He said regulations usually require employees to save to a network folder.

    "With the majority of employees saving to unprotected, local drives, companies could be at risk for losing anything from project plans and spreadsheets to customer data and financial information," he said.

    Pederson added that having guidelines to save documents to a network better ensures employee data is regularly backed up in accordance with company data retention procedures – and reduces the chance of data loss.

    Brian Lapidus, chief operating officer of Kroll’s Fraud Solutions, a practice of the Background Screening division, said the survey results confirmed its findings.

    "Employees are the wild cards in policies and procedures, he said.

    "Companies must ensure that employees receive ongoing education to understand the risk of actions that do not follow the plan."

    To help businesses avoid losing critical data, Ontrack Data Recovery specialists recommend that companies have a clear, well communicated data storage policy in place for their employees.

    Companies should also ensure that data recovery is included in their overall disaster recovery or business continuity plan.

    To this end, they should identify and partner with a data recovery provider that is able to quickly respond to any type of data loss scenario.

    Pederson said the survey showed that data storage polices do not necessarily safeguard a vast quantity of critical company data.

    "This fact, coupled with the vast number of information-oriented regulations that have been enacted reinforces that companies need to be prepared to respond to data loss at the individual-employee level," he said.

  • Cisco Transforms Data Center With UCS


    Cisco has launched a mainstream data center computing platform – Unified Computing System (UCS) – that promises to seamlessly integrate processor, storage and network systems in a virtualised architecture.

    The move pits the networking equipment market leader against the world’s largest systems vendors, including HP, IBM, Dell, Fujitsu and others.

    UCS offers medium and large enterprises a single architecture that links all data centre resources together, so overcoming the "assembly-required" nature of distinct virtualisation environments.

    Prem Jain, senior vice president of Server Access and Virtualization Business Unit at Cisco, said UCS unites compute, network, storage access and virtualization resources in a single energy-efficient system that unleashes the power of virtualization.

    "By delivering and supporting Microsoft operating systems for the Unified Computing System, we’re offering a familiar Windows platform to help our customers integrate this revolutionary new architecture into existing data center environments so they can quickly realize the benefits of unified computing," he said.

    Virtualisation has transformed the structure of server and storage environments in data centres. It is now extending to network virtualisation.

    With UCS, Cisco is positioning itself so as to have a controlling role across all three levels of virtual technology.

    Starting in the second quarter of 2009, it plans to offer complete systems of up to 320 compute nodes housed in 40 chassis, with data flowing across 10 gigabit Ethernet.

    Critical to its challenge will be its ability to draw on the expertise of key partners. These include:

    • Its compute capabilities, UCS B-Series blades, will be based on Intel Nehalem processors
    • The follow-on generation will be from Intel Xeon.
    • VMware will supply the critical virtualisation software
    • BMC will enable "a single management environment for all data centre devices".
    • EMC and NetApp will be responsible for the storage system units
    • Emulex and Qlogic will input storage networking technology
    • Oracle will deliver middleware
    • Key systems software will come from Microsoft and Red Hat.
    •  

    John Chambers, Cisco’s CEO, said UCS could do a lot for Cisco’s bottom line.

    He said it gives Cisco access to about a quarter of the many billions spent inside the data center, up from less than 10 per cent presently.
    That’s the principal reason why Cisco is reinventing the basic building block of the data center.

  • LaCie Merges With Swiss Online-Storage Start-up Wuala


    LaCie has announced that it is to merge with Caleido, the Swiss creator of online storage service Wuala.

    The move signals the French external storage device manufacturer’s entry into the cloud storage service market.

    A statement from the newly merged enterprise said it plans to revolutionize the storage industry by building a unique and sustainable cloud storage service.

    With just 11 staff, Wuala has built up a sizeable user base, mostly in Europe, since its launch in August 2008.

    Its service include innovative online storage that allows its users to store, back up, access, and share files with one another from anywhere in the world.

    Users start with 1GB of storage but can get as much as they want, either by trading idle disk space or by buying additional storage.

    Dominik Grolimund, co-founder and CEO of Caleido AG, said the merger was a major leap forward for Wuala and would take it to the next level.
    He described LaCie as the perfect match for the start-up.

    "Together we will realize the vision we embarked on more than four years ago while researching the basics of Wuala at the ETH Zurich: to build a reliable and secure cloud storage by integrating millions of devices around the world," he said.

    Philippe Spruch, founder and CEO of LaCie, said it had a strong vision for where the future of storage is headed.

    He said the merger had allowed it to acquire a very innovative online storage solution that will transform the business from a leading hardware manufacturer to a comprehensive digital storage provider.

    "LaCie believes storage versatility will influence the industry, and we look forward to providing our customers with new, cutting-edge ways to store their valuable data through our upcoming product offerings," he said.

  • Symantec Launches Norton Online Backup Web Service


    Symantec, makers of Norton security software, has announced the availability of an online backup service.

    Norton Online Backup, which automatically stores files and digital assets, is the first Web-based consumer offering delivered by Norton.

    Intended as a simple-to-use backup system, it allows digital photographs, financial documents, music collections and archived e-mail to be stored through a website.

    Up to five household computers can be safely backed up, managed and restored through a single, central, remotely-accessible account.

    Once users have downloaded a small desktop agent, which manages a backup of the PC, a Web browser is used to restore or download previously backed up files from anywhere.

    This sets it apart from many other online storage technologies that require the user to use the same PC for backing up and accessing online files.

    Rowan Trollope, senior vice president, Consumer Products, Symantec, said more and more of people’s most valuable assets are stored on computers.

    "Norton Online Backup offers total peace of mind through a comprehensive, easy-to-manage backup solution that not only safeguards users from data loss, but makes valuable assets available from any Internet-connected PC in the world," he said.

    Norton Online Backup is available now for purchase in the US. It will be available worldwide in the coming weeks.

    The suggested retail price for Norton Online Backup is USD $49.99 per year, which includes 25 GB of online storage to backup files from up to five of family PCs.

    Additional storage space can be purchased in increments of 10, 25, 50 and 100 GB.

  • Intel's X25-M SSD Judged Insufficient For "Heavy Use"


    Intel’s much-hyped X25-M SSD is being marketed as a quicker and much more energy-efficient option for laptops than the traditional hard disk drives, but a review site finds it slower under heavy use, writes M Asim for storage-biz.news.

    According to PC Perspective, this solid-state drive has problems in the sector relating to wear leveling algorithms and remapping that are considered relatively effective to boost performance.

    PC Perspective says that they it does the opposite and becomes fragmented when used heavily.

    The problem becomes even worse with usual defragmentation programs.

    "If a laptop user places light workloads on its X-25 M, it may not find such issues",the review says.

    "But there are some users who are opting for SS drive for the OS partitions, and these drives can be fragmented by a standard power user workload."

    Intel responded by saying that its labs couldn’t duplicate the reviewers’ tests results.

    "We have contacted PC Perspective’s reviewers to find out about their method to duplicate and scrutinize the data," an Intel spokesman said.

    "We think that the imitative workloads they have tested do not represent real world use."

    According to the chip maker, almost every storage device can prove a fiasco if tested for anything other than normal use.

    PC Perspective’s reviewers, meanwhile, say that this performance problem can be fixed with a firmware update from the chip maker.

    Intel unveiled the X25-M last December and has already lowered its price.

  • EMC Being Investigated by the Feds


    The Federal government has just announced in a statement that Data Storage giant, EMC is being investigated over its pricing and improper contract practices.

    EMC revealed in its annual report with the SEC several days ago that the US justice Department had filed a lawsuit against the company, writes Samantha Sai for storage-biz.news.

    According to the Justice Department press release, the lawsuit accuses EMC of failing to disclose its commercial pricing practices during negotiation of its General Services Administration (GSA) contracts.

    It also says EMC provided improper payments and other things of value to Systems Integrators and other Alliance Partners on contracts with government agencies.

    The lawsuit alleges that EMC tendered false claims for hardware and services on “numerous government contracts from the late 90s to the present”.

    It is believed that the lawsuit is based on insider information as the suit was filed in US District Court in Little Rock, Ark under the Whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act.

    Among other allegations in the lawsuit are that EMC, "made payments of money and other things of value (alliance benefits) to a number of systems integration consultants and other alliance partners with whom it had alliance relationships".

    The Justice Department further states "that these alliance relationships and the resulting alliance benefits paid by EMC amount to kickbacks and undisclosed conflict of interest relationships".

    The government press release also declares that EMC has been charged with making false statements to the General Accounting Service about its profit-making pricing customs to collect better proceeds on contracts, "thereby overcharging federal agencies purchasing EMC products and services".

    The report filed by EMC to the SEC mentions that the Justice Department is scrutinizing the company’s fee planning with systems integrators and other associates in federal government dealings.

    It is also looking at the company’s "compliance with the terms and conditions of certain agreements pursuant to which we sold products and services to the federal government, including potential violations of the False Claims Act".

    The investigation partly covers a previous audit by the GSA "concerning our recordkeeping and pricing practices under a schedule agreement we entered into with GSA in November 1999, which, following several extensions, expired in June 2007".

    To date, EMC says it has worked together with the inquiry and assessment and engaged in discussions aimed at resolving this matter without any admission or finding of liability on the part of EMC.

    "We believe that we have meritorious factual and legal defenses to the allegations raised and, if the matter is not resolved and proceeds to litigation, we intend to defend vigorously," the company said.

    "If the matter proceeds to litigation, possible sanctions include an award of damages, including treble damages, fines, penalties and other sanctions, including suspension or debarment from sales to the federal government."

    To keep things in perspective, EMC is not the first IT Corporation to face such allegations. Just a year ago IBM did clear up similar charges with a $ 3 million fine. Other companies that have gone through the same process include Accenture, HP and Sun Microsystems.

    StorageIO Group founder and senior analyst Greg Schulz speculates if the new Administration is just getting started.

    "If that’s the case, one has to wonder who’s next, and how big the boiler will be when the government finally gets around to the really big fish," he said.

  • Results Poor for Silicon Storage Technology – CEO Remains Confident


    Silicon Valley continues to take a pounding on the markets.

    The latest stock market news for Silicon Storage Technology, Inc was all bad news, writes Samantha Sai for storage-biz.news.

    Net revenues for the 4th quarter were USD $58.4 million, a drop of nearly USD $40 million from the 3rd quarter of 2008.

    In 2007, the company had net revenues of USD $107.4 million in the 4th quarter alone.

    To add to its woes, product revenues for the 4th quarter of 2008 were USD $46.3 million, which is close to USD $30 million less than in the 3rd quarter of 2008.

    Only technology licensing revenues remain steady, at USD $12.1 million for the 4th quarter of 2008.

    These numbers have not changed much over the past 2 years.

    Rough estimates indicate that loss from operations for the 4th quarter was close to USD $10 million compared with income from operations of USD $4 million in the 3rd quarter of 2008.

    The loss in the 4th quarter of 2007 was double that approximating close to USD $19 million.

    The net loss for SST continues to mount.

    SST’s shares were estimated at $0.31 per share based on approximately 95.5 million diluted shares in the 4th quarter of 2008.

    Incorporated in the 4th quarter 2008 net loss was the price of streamlining fee estimated at USD $2.5 million, an impairment charge connected to the company’s venture in Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation of USD $5.6 million and an impairment cost associated to the company’s assets in ACET of USD $9.7 million.

    By contrast, the company recorded a net income of USD $4.9 million or 40.05 per share based on about 99.7 million diluted shares.

    SST finished the 4th quarter of 2008 with USD $131.7 million in cash equivalents, short-term investments and long term marketable debt securities.

    These numbers are down by 1.1 million from the estimated USD $131.8 million at the end of Sept 2008.
    So what does SST management have to say about this continued decline in profits?

    Bing Yeh, president, and CEO of SST said: "The unprecedented sudden drop in demand of semiconductor products during the fourth quarter resulting from the deepening global financial crisis has caused significant decline in our revenues."

    He goes on to add that: "This persistent difficult economic environment necessitated that we accelerate our planned changes to our business and focus in late 2008.

    "We took important steps to reduce our inventory, streamline our organizational structure, and cut our expenses by focusing our efforts on our most strategic initiatives with the goal of returning the company to profitability.

    "With these organizational changes, we believe that we can control our expenses while continuing to execute our product and technology roadmap and position SST for growth as the economy recovers."

    For the first Quarter of 2009, revenues for SST are projected to be in-between USD $39 million and $45 million.

    All this depends on the gross margin discrepancies, which is expected to very between 38-40 per cent.

    However, the way 2009 has started, the markets remains unpredictable and the above projections mean little.

  • Sun Microsystems and The World's First Open Storage Appliance


    Just a few months ago, Sun Microsystems revealed the availability of its new Unified Storage System – the Sun Storage 7000 family.

    Described as the world’s first Open Storage Appliance, Sun claims the Storage 7000 family is the "biggest thing to happen to storage in decades", writes Samantha Sai for storage-biz-news.

    Quite a brag – though the product’s creativity and innovation speaks volumes for Sun’s group of engineers.

    The Storage 7000 family has three different versions – the 7110, 7210, and 7410 – which have an overall capacity ranging from 2 Tbytes to 288 Tbytes.

    However, the 7410 offers a collected configuration (for advanced accessibility) and is typically aimed for enterprise class configurations, whereas the 7110 and 7210 are better designed for less significant fittings.

    The Sun Storage Unified system can run both NAS and SAN solutions, and Sun pulls seriously on its well-respected ZFS (Zettabyte File System) in the Storage 7000 family.

    Unified storage space rivals EMC Corp, NetApp Inc and IBM Corp have so far focused their attention on IT environments that have a strong NAS presence – but they would very much like to manage SAN as well.

    Sun, meanwhile, has put a major emphasis on facilitating the Storage 7000 family to provide universal function storage requirements.
    The major thrust of Sun’s message for the Storage 7000 is that it makes life a lot easier for storage administrators.

    Sun caims the installations process only takes a few minutes, but persists with key courses of action such as thin provisioning, a function which is embedded in ZFS (as logical storage pools can be enlarged or diminished transparently as long as there is sufficient physical storage to carry them).

    Another feature of the Storage 7000 technology that is of benefit to administration is the concept of DTrace, a collection of analysis that permits real-time system diagnostics.

    Engineers at Sun feel that DTrace can significantly advance storage system troubleshooting to a level never seen before in the industry.

    Another aspect of the Sun Storage 7000 is its performance.

    The company appropriately calls it Hybrid Storage Pools, which shares DRAM, read, and write optimized flash devices that work in working in combination with hard disc drives.

    Sun maintains that the innovative use of SSD technology can help flash memory combine with disc technology resulting in a mega performance that is very cost effective.

    While all that is great, Sun Microsystems continues to show a financial downturn having lost more than USD $1.7 billion in the first quarter of 2009 that ended in Sept 2008.

    With the ongoing financial crises and global recession, the question remains – how well does the Storage 7000 system fit in with other Sun storage products and how does the company plan to market and sell them in a cost efficient method?

    Only time will tell.

  • Texas Memory Systems Introduces Highest Capacity PCI-Express Solid State Disk


    Texas Memory Systems has announced its latest PCI-Express Solid State Disk aimed at mainstream businesses and applications.

    The RamSan-20 offers 450GB of usable grade Flash – which the company claims makes it the highest capacity enterprise class PCIe Flash card on the market.

    Described as a complete storage system on a PCIe card, the SSD accelerates server-resident applications that require large, fast buffer areas and those that are random access intensive.

    Texas lists databases, video editing, financial modeling, data acquisition, scientific computing, and web content as examples of applications likely to benefit from the RamSan-20.

    Woody Hutsell, president at Texas Memory SystemsAs a PCIe Flash card, said the RamSan-20 minimizes latency between the server’s processor and storage and is easily installed in minutes.

    He said users are increasingly looking to SSD as they demand greater application performance.

    "Beyond the Enterprise data center, the technology and cost improvements in Flash are stimulating demand," he said.

    "These factors, coupled with a growing desire to reduce space and power requirements with greener storage, led us to develop the RamSan-20."

    He said that to maximise performance and reliability, the RamSan-20 utilizes Single Level Cell (SLC) Flash.

    It delivers 120,000 I/Os per second (IOPS) for random read operations – and Texas claims it transfers data faster than other Flash drives and "hundreds of times" faster than traditional mechanical hard drives.

    A comprehensive on-board management suite ensures the RamSan-20 does not impact host resources, yet Hutsell said it delivers extreme reliability and durability, ensuring data preservation even in the event of a server crash or power outage.

    The RamSan-20 is scheduled for general availability in early Q2 2009. No pricing information was available.