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  • AQA2U Launches Twitter-like Premium Text Service


    Text message answer provider AQA has launched a new mobile service that it claims will allow content publishers to make money by sending text messages.

    In what could be seen as a reference to Twitter, UK-based AQA’s CEO, Colly Myers, describes the new venture as "web 2.0 with a business model".

    He said the service allows anyone with interesting content to connect and keep in touch with their followers, making money from every text that’s received by subscribers.

    The company started off by setting up AQA 63336 (Any Question Answered) five years ago.

    This service answered questions texted to it – so far it has provided over 17 million answers to over 2 million customers.

    With AQA2U content "publishers" create topics for people to subscribe to, market these topics to their followers, and then start writing content.

    AQA2U sends their content out to subscribers using premium text, giving publishers the majority share of net revenue received.

    Publishers are limited to no more than 14 texts a month or 3 a day, for which they receive 7-9p per message per subscriber.

    Users pay a maximum of GBP £3.50 a month, plus a 98p initial fee.

    Myers said that with no set-up costs, and with only 25 subscribers, a publisher can make GBP £275 per year.

    With 250 subscribers, a publisher can make GBP £3,000 a year.

    "AQA2U puts texts, alerts, updates and offers from anyone who’s got something to say, into the hands of followers who are passionate enough to part with a few pounds per month," he said.

    "We already know people will pay for this, as we get many thousands of texts to AQA 63336 asking the same types of questions time and time again."

    Myers said he was confident of rapid growth as even small publishers who get a few people to subscribe start making money, and all publishers have a vested interest to market their topics.

    "We’ve got over 2 million customers with AQA 63336 in five years, so we’re confident of getting 2 million subscribers in the next five years with AQA2U – delivering 20 million texts per month from publishers."

    We’d be interested to hear your feedback on this new service. Would you pay to receive content?

  • Samsung Launches "Industry First" Self-encrypting SSDs


    Samsung Electronics has unveiled what it claims are the first hardware-based self-encrypting solid-state drives.

    To be available in 256-, 128- and 64-GB versions, the SSDs provide full-disk encryption using Wave Systems’ technology, which activates and manages the encryption.

    Dell has already said that it will use the drives in its next laptops.

    Despite the improved security, Samsung maintains the SSDs’ performance is not affacted.

    It says the encryption provides better security than the software alternative, because encryption keys and access credentials are generated and stored within the drive hardware, making it more difficult to hack.

    Each Samsung self-encrypting SSD will come bundled with Wave’s EMBASSY Trusted Drive Manager, which provides pre-boot authentication to the drive and enrolling drive administrators and users.

    Jim Elliott, memory vice president, Samsung Semiconductor, said the SSD drives offered business users the best of performance and security in a single drive.

    "Samsung has combined the tremendous performance advantages of solid state technology with integrated hardware encryption for drives designed especially for today’s ‘road warrior’ professionals," he said.

  • Cisco Reveals More Details On UCS Platform


    Cisco has revealed more details on its Unified Computing System (UCS) for virtualized data centers a month after it was first announced.

    Company executives used a live Internet TV broadcast to provide further insight into pricing, processing power and memory capacity.

    The networking company’s UCS is a mainstream data center computing platform that promises to seamlessly integrate processor, storage and network systems in a virtualised architecture.

    It 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.

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

    When first revealed in March, details on the UCS were limited, largely because the system is based on Intel’s Nehalem-class Xeon 5500 series of server chips, which wasn’t released until March 30.

    This week, Soni Jiandani, vice president of marketing for the Cisco Server Access Virtualization Group, and David Lawler, vice president of product marketing for the Cisco Server Access Virtualization Group, provided some more details

    They revealed performance-test results that show UCS performs either first or second in benchmark tests against competing systems in trials conducted by VMmark and SPEC, which will have full results available soon.

    Cisco also added new details around its Memory Extension Technology, a core component of UCS, which Cisco said enables the CPU to access four times the amount of memory compared to typical blade systems.

    The company said its memory extension can cut memory costs by 33 per cent to 60 per cent in 64-GB, 96-GB and 144-GB deployments, while expanding available memory to 192 GB and 384 GB.

    They said this solves the problem of users running out of memory before running out of CPU availability.

  • Replication and Cloud Computing Are Inseparable


    Cloud-based computing is coming of age. The practice is emerging as a computing model that offers flexibility in infrastructure and investment.

    The core of this service is utility that is backed by loosely coupled infrastructure that is self healing, geographically dispersed, designed for user self service, writes Samantha Sai for storage-biz.news.

    The infrastructure is instantly scalable and adjustable to the ebb and flow of business. The services are accessible across IP based networks and all management issues are handled by the cloud provider.

    Users can demand raw compute or storage capacity resources or full blow application services instantly.

    Cloud storage is seen as a solution to the ever present need for cost effective storage.

    Cloud based systems provide easily accessible, affordable disaster recovery options for large enterprises that need to implement off site protection for new projects.

    Small and medium enterprises find this highly affordable and an interesting alternative to expensive investment in storage hardware.

    Recovery point and recovery time objectives of small, medium and large enterprises can be met by cloud storage providers who make available storage space on a pay as you go basis while taking on the management issues of such secondary location storage infrastructure.

    Amazon Web Services, with EC2 Compute Cloud, and GoGrid, with GoGrid Cloud Hosting, are some cloud storage service providers who make compute cycles and storage capacity available on immediate deployment basis.

    The replication creates copies of the enterprise data on these sites and allows the key applications to be restarted and run at the remote location in the event of disaster. Interestingly there will be no capital expenditure—only operational expenditure—till the disaster recovery happens.

    The replication technology is available in storage arrays; network based appliances and through host based software.

    Array based replication and Network based applications require similar setup at both the source and the target locations. Host based replication on the other hand use block based replication approaches or file based approaches to replicate virtual machines in real time.

    Host based replication can also be combined with cloud based infrastructure at a nominal cost for extending protection further down the hierarchy in the organization. The replication can also happen real time.

    Replication and cloud computing have certainly matured and are being considered as an effective alternative to local backup.

    Eric Burgener, a senior analyst and consultant with the Taneja Group research and consulting firm, said replication and cloud computing can also be considered as an alternative to local backup.

    Eric Burgener, Taneja Group

    "Disk-based backup has a lot to offer companies, including faster backups, faster restores, and more reliable recovery (relative to tape-based infrastructures)," he said.

    "If you’re considering moving to disk, don’t overlook the fact that it gives you access to replication technology.

    "For data sets that require stringent RPOs/RTOs, replication can be used to kill two birds with one stone: data is quickly and easily available for file- and even system-level restores from the remote location, but the fact that the location is remote provides the resilience demanded by a DR plan."

  • Double-Take Announces Workload Optimization Products


    Double-Take Software is building on its current data protection repertoire by taking on the challenge of workload optimization, writes Samantha Sai for storage-biz.news.

    Workload management encompasses the hardware, the operating systems, applications and data that underpin an organization’s IT-backbone.

    Southborough, Massachusetts-headquartered Double-Take has designed a workload optimization suite to cater to workload portability, backup and availability needs.

    Dean Goodermote, CEO at Double-Take Software, said the move was to align the business to best meet its customers’ evolving technology needs.

    Dean Goodermote, CEO at Double-Take Software

    "Our new Workload Optimisation suite exemplifies Double-Take Software’s focus on providing highly functional, non-intrusive software to an overloaded IT department looking to reduce costs," he said.

    "It represents our affordable approach to meeting customers’ migration, availability, backup and recovery needs."

    There are four products that make up the new suite:

    • Double-Take Move – as the name suggests, moves workloads between physical and virtual hardware within data centers for hardware refreshes. It can also move data across locations for data center migrations and consolidations
    • Double-Take Flex – is for managing workloads by booting from iSCSI SANs running on any kind of hardware
    • Double-Take Backup – backs up workloads continuously and recovers them on demand to new physical or virtual machines using CDP capabilities
    • Double-Take Availability – makes sure that critical IT workloads are available when disaster strikes for recovery and business continuity. It allows real time replication and failover for protection of individual applications, entire servers or virtualized workloads that run on VMWare ESX or Microsoft Hyper V

    Goodermote said all other Double-Take flagship products are built around the new workload optimization suite with new functionalities and licensing options.

    He said users can now migrate, backup, protect and flexibly operate physical and virtual workloads across the enterprise whatever the Operating system, hardware or location.

  • HealthNet's New Venture Venyu Targets SMB Storage and Security


    Amerivault and Network Technology Group Inc data storage providers are to join forces to create Venyu Inc.

    The new venture will provide commercial grade, customizable solutions for data storage with disaster recovery, writes Samantha Sai for storage-biz.news.

    Both Amerivault and NTG are owned by HealthNet Services Inc (PHNS).

    The two entities joining forces were purchased by HealthNet Services for a combined USD $167 million.

    Venyu will be based out of Baton Range and will be a wholly owned subsidiary of PHNS.

    It will provide data backup, disaster recovery and managed data center services to small and medium sized businesses.

    Its progressive portfolio also includes online data backup, physical and virtualized recovery solutions, managed hosting, SaaS, and co-location services.

    Scott Thompson, CEO of Venyu, said it would address client concerns about security and privacy, including focusing on providing solutions and progressive ways to safeguard mission critical data against disaster.

    He said the company aimed to provide secure, reliable and scalable backup and storage solutions that require minimal maintenance, leaving clients free to pursue their business.

    "We’re focused on virtual disaster recovery," he said. "If you have five servers, we will take a snapshot of the data residing on them and keep a virtual instance of them in our own facility."

    Thompson said Venyu is also focused on handling increasing volumes of customer data and is looking for ways to service customer needs in this arena.

    "We’re not really as far along as we need to be storage-wise, I think. SSD [solid-state drive] is coming along, but I want to know what is the next fundamental thing that we’re going to do in the storage arena to help this problem, because the volumes of data that we’re talking about – tape can’t do this.

    "You can’t get this done on tape. I don’t care how large the jukebox is. The exponential growth of data that we’re talking about is not going to be able to be managed on tape. We have to do this through disk of some kind whether solid state or rotational."

  • Belkin Flywire Delayed, Price Rises


    The launch of Belkin’s FlyWire has once again been delayed – this time until August.

    First announced at CES 2008, the initially promising-sounding wireless device streams 1080p HD content from multiple HDMI inputs to HDTV televisions using the 5GHz band.

    So the Flywire hub can be used to wirelessly connect devices such as Blu-ray players, receivers, video-game consoles, and set-top boxes to HDTVs and projectors.

    The company claims its device offers whole-home range that penetrates walls or windows. An IR backchannel allows users to control AV devices hidden behind cabinet doors or in other rooms.

    Automatic frequency hopping is designed to reduce conflicts with Wi-Fi or other signals.

    Originally due for release in the US in January, this has now shifted back to the end of the summer.

    Along with the release changes, Belkin has raised the price of the FlyWire from USD $1,000 to $1,500.

  • Enciris Launches Low-cost HD Compression Solution


    Enciris Technologies has unveiled HD video compression technology aimed at solving problems with reducing bandwidth and storage requirements.

    The LT-100 is a Windows Media Video/ VC-1 HD video acquisition and compression board.

    France-based Enciris says it has been designed to meet the needs of demanding real time true HD acquisition and compression.

    A company statement said that the proliferation of HD video in all market segments has created a significant need for this type of compression technology.

    It adds that specialized, high performance dedicated hardware for real time compression is the only solution due to the massive computational requirements.

    "The low cost of the LT-100 now allows high quality HD compression to be used in product/ projects that previously would have been prohibitive," said the statement.

    "It is a perfect solution for the demanding needs of medical, surveillance, internet, broadcasting, videoconferencing, and video gaming applications."

    Enciris said the LT-100 captures video from both analog and digital HD and SD video sources including DVI, RGB, component, S-video and composite.

    An HD/SD-SDI option is also available.

    Additionally, the LT-100 can function as a HD compression coprocessor for video supplied by the host via PCI or USB.

    The LT-100 will compress HD Windows Media Video (WMV/ VC-1) up to advanced profile level 3 with resolutions from 176×144 to 2048×2048 pixels.

    The maximum compression frame rate is 240 frames per second at lower resolutions. At 1080p the LT-100 can compress 30 frames per second.

    All standard HDTV resolution are supported including the acquisition of 1080p60. The LT-100 can simultaneously acquire uncompressed video for preview purposes or occasional snapshots.

    Designed for low latency applications, the LT-100 outputs compressed video within only a few milliseconds of acquisition.

    Drivers for WindowsXP/Vista and Linux are included. Under Windows, DirectShow is fully supported.

    A cross platform SDK is also available for Windows and Linux application development.

    Mac OS X support will be available soon. Available as a combination PCI/USB board, the LT-100-VC1 can be either placed in a PCI slot or be connected via USB 2.0.

    It is ideally suited for OEMs and system integrators. The LT-100-SDI is an optional HD/SD-SDI daughter card. A USB only module, the LT-100-VC1U, is also available which includes a 140x100x40mm enclosure.

    The LT-100-VC1US is the USB module with the HD/SD-SDI option. A hardware decompression feature will be offered Q3/2009 free of charge via firmware upgrade.

  • SUN Direct Launches HD DTH Service In India


    Sun Direct has announced the launch of India’s first HD broadcast on the direct-to-home (DTH) platform.

    The service provider has built up a subscriber base of three million since its launch in December 2007, making it India’s second largest DTH provider.

    Tony D’Silva, COO of Sun Direct, said that to keep viewers engaged it was necessary to constantly change offer new and exciting options.

    "In the coming fiscal year we look forward to occupy the pole position," he said.

    "We have added more customers than any other DTH player in the last one year and in the coming days we will be adding more innovative features, services and channels in our offerings."

  • Torrent Offers Magnetic Solution To HDMI Connector Problems


    Torrent     has released a magnetic connector that aims to overcome the frustrating problem of loose HDMI cable connections.

    The start-up says that with the help of a sliding sleeve its MagLoc connector gives a five-fold improvement in the HDMI connection strength.

    It suggests this will ensure optimal connectivity – while sparing users the headache of trouble shooting for the source of HDMI connector disconnection problems.

    No release date has yet been given, although Torrent’s initial product lines are slated for availability this Spring.