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| Editor's
pick of D2d and VTL companies |
If I listed all
the companies with a claim to being in the disk backup market - then you'd get
a long list of over 500 vendors - and that would be simply from data mining the
backup software ISVs,
hard disk makers and
disk array oems already
listed on other pages here on storagesearch.com
That wouldn't be very
useful.
So, instead, I've looked back at the last 10 years of news
stories which actually made it to this D2d page (out of the
many thousands
of storage news stories we published (and that was distilled down from over
100,000 storage news stories in my email or which I saw on the web.)
Out of all that brew I've chosen less than 20 companies which seemed to say
something worthwhile or consistent about this subject and they appear below as a
useful starting point for your continuing storage search. |
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| Are MLC SSDs Safe
in Enterprise Apps? |
Backing up your data to a
solid state
disk (or SSD RAID
Array) may sound like a crazy idea today...
...but no more so
than the idea - 10
years ago - that disk to disk backup would one day replace
tape.
I've been
backing up my data to flash storage (in rotation with hard disk storage) for
about 5 years. There have been less failures in the flash backup media than
the hard drives - which translates to a lower TCO. But I'll keep using more
than one type of media - because I'm
paranoid about losing
data.
SSDs
cost more per gigabyte than
hard drives, but that
cost gap is closing fast.
New generations of MLC SSDs offer
2x the capacity at the same silicon price, and some companies are
talking about 4x devices - with 8x maybe just a year or so
away.
Most
SSD oems claim that
flash SSDs have
much better MTBF than hard drives. While that may be true - the uncorrectable
data corruption rates in some types of SSD may be orders of magnitude worse
than SLC SSDs, and worse than HDDs.
And the theoretical operating life
of SSDs varies by 100 to 1 between different brands and technologies of SSD.
Storage reliability is
more than the longevity of the storage media. It's about survival of the data.
This
article shows the technical reasons why multi level cell flash SSDs may work
OK in notebooks and PDAs - but may not work satisfactorily in a rackmount
datacenter environment. ...read the article | |
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| Is Deduplication of Data
Safe? - and More Deduplication FAQs |
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One of the problems
with disk backup is
scalability.
For small and medium sized companies the speed and
convenience of disk backup outweighs any other considerations - and in most
cases is cheaper than the alternatives. But if you're backing up data associated
with tens of thousands of internal users - then eventually the cost of the disk
media (compared to traditional tape - even with
tape's intrinsic
lumbering speed, high service costs and unreliability) may start to become an
important feasibility issue. |
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In theory that's where
deduplication comes in - because (moving beyond that other must-have D2d
technology - compression) it offers the promise of saving more unique data to
less disks.
But is dedupe scalable? Is it safe? And what about
performance?
The ultimate dedupe faqs is a good starting point to
learning more. ...read
the article | |
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| Editor:- this article comprehensively reviews
the why? how? and where? of today's modern enterprise
hard disk backup techniques. Themes surveyed include:- snapshot, CDP, coherency
and recovery, energy efficiency, deduplication, branch offices etc....read the article | | |
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"I'm
impressed by your new hotSTOR disk to disk backup"
said Megabyte. "Does
it make coffee too?"
"The more you drink, the faster it goes."
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SEPATON article on tape
dinosaurs
Editor:- August 30, 2010 - Jon Mills, Director
of European operations at SEPATON recently
published an article -
Tape
- the T Rex of backup? - which provides anthropological comparisons between
tape libraries and these
popular creatures.
I guess it takes one soon-to-be-extinct dinosoar to
recognize another. My own view is that
hard disk based backup will
eventually be replaced by solid
state backup. So enjoy chewing the spinning magnetic leaves while they
last.
10,000x more reliable than RAID?
Editor:- August 26,
2010 - Amplidata
claims that its
BitSpread
technology is 10,000x more reliable than current
RAID based technologies
and requires 3x less storage.
Is another new way of fixing
reliability
problems in hard disk
arrays worth the effort just as we approach the end of the
hard disk market's life?
- I doubt it. See why in -
this way to the
petabyte SSD.
Overland launches tape library patent suit
Editor:-
August 20, 2010 - Overland
Storage announced it is suing BDT AG
- for alledged
infringement
of tape library related patents.
"We owe it to our
shareholders and our customers to protect the technology investments we have
made throughout the years," said Eric Kelly, President and CEO of Overland
Storage. "We believe our technologies are one of the driving forces behind
the demand for tape storage solutions today. Our patented technologies allow
us and others to bring to market products and solutions that are more reliable,
more secure and more efficient."
Editor's comments:-
Tape library market
revenue has halved in the
past 10 years.
(2000 tape library revenue was $2 billion according to
Freeman Reports .) But
that strengthens the case for defending each remaining slice and crumb.
Compression-past company acquired by IBM
Editor:-
July 29, 2010 -
Storewiz
announced a definitive
agreement to be acquired by IBM.
Editor's
comments:- Storewiz's real-time compression technology was
predicated
on a legacy model in which there were no
SSDs (compression-past).
This was a short sighted market view - because SSD IOPS will enable
new types of storage array economics - as discussed in my article
Reaching for the
petabyte SSD (compression-future).
IBM's acquisition may have short
term tactical benefits for the company - and help them collect some patent
license fees but is otherwise irrelevant.
NetApp's Jay Kidd joins board at ProStor
Editor:-
June 29, 2010 - ProStor
Systems announced today the appointment of Jay Kidd to its Board
of Directors.
Mr. Kidd's accomplishments span over 30 years in key leadership roles
at many high profile multi-national storage, networking, and computing companies
with a strong emphasis in product strategy and development, marketing, and
business operations. Mr. Kidd is currently serving as senior VP, Storage
Solutions Group and Product Strategy and Development at
Network Appliance.
Prior to joining NetApp, he held the position of CTO and VP of product
management at Brocade,
where he played a key role in developing and implementing the Brocade product
road map, including infrastructure and strategic evangelism.
Nasuni offers $5,000 to successful espiones
Editor:-
June 22, 2010 - I have to hand it to the marketers at Nasuni - they've come
up with a
clever
promotion scheme.
Cynics (aka experienced computer realists) are
worried that cloud storage
may be inscecure - right?
Nasuni say - that the 1st person who can
reveal the contents of a file which they have made
visible
here can win $5,000.
"We're aware that many businesses are
dubious about cloud storage for security reasons," said Nasuni CEO and
co-founder Andres Rodriguez. "Data leakage is a major concern. With cloud
storage, you have to entrust your data to an outside party, and your data is
swimming around in the cloud with other customers' data. Intuitively, it seems
risky. Customers are smart to be wary. But we've built a system that protects
against these risks. We're confident that Nasuni can keep your data safe in the
cloud, and we are willing to go the distance to prove it."
Editor's
comments:- the clock is ticking. After 30 days - the company will donate the
"unwon" money to a good cause.
Who's going to crack it 1st?
- the Russians? or Chinese? Or has an NSA spook read the message already by the
time you see this posting - but won't claim the prize - because that would be
revealing too much.
I bought the 1st UK edition of
the
Cuckoo's Egg - and I can still remember the thrill of reading how a barely
noticeable security intrusion was traced over many modem hops and
international routes and much elapsed time and effort to reveal a real-life
espionage. Storage
Security
Re tape's protracted demise
Editor:- June 16, 2010 -
How tape dies is
the latest blog from StorageMojo, Robin Harris.
Tape market's body is still
twitching - so it's not technically a corpse (yet) - but the life signs are
getting smaller. See also:-
Historic Milestones in
Enterprise Disk Backup
Cisco launches desktop iSCSI for SMBs
Editor:- June
10, 2010 - Cisco Systems
today
launched a
family
of desktop (2 to 6 bay)
iSCSI storage boxes for
SMBs.
The 12TB model costs approx
$4,000.
will free terabyte disks extend the life of the hard disk
market?
Editor:- June 9, 2010 -
Could terabyte hard
drives be given away free? - is the subject of a new blog published this
week on StorageSearch.com
In
it I suggest that the biggest future market for high capacity consumer HDDs
isn't backup and that a new market model may be a better business. ...read the article
3.5" HDDs will store 10 terabytes by 2015
Editor:-
June 7, 2010 - Coughlin
Associates has published its 14th annual
HDD
Capital Equipment and Technology Report (pdf) (189 pages / $7,000).
Fueling
the need for more capex the authors anticipate that disk drive volumes will
more than double - from about 670M in 2010 to 1.4B in 2015 - and that
technology developments will result in 10TB 3.5"
HDDs and 1TB
1.8" drives.
Editor's
comments:- in my article -
this way to the
Petabyte SSD - I said that the highest capacity 2.5" - bulk archive
SSDs - (a product category which doesn't exist yet) could store 50TB in 2016 -
which would be 10x the best hard drives - and with better R/W
performance and a lower power footprint.
I also said that a key
difference would be that the SSD could use wire-speed compression (with minimal
impact on R/W performance) to deliver even more virtual storage capacity.
It's the combination of SSD's unique factors which will make the
difference in big disk backup
systems at the end of this decade - not just the raw media cost / density
which transfixes many market commentators. Will there still be a market for
hard drives? - Yes. And much bigger volumes than today. But not in the
datacenter or the enterprise. More from me on this subject later.
the new dedupe? - Permabit inside
Editor:- June 7,
2010 - Permabit
today announced that its high performance data deduplication software
has achieved multiple design wins with leading OEMs who will embed it in
storage solutions coming to market by the end of 2010.
Permabit says
its Albireo
dedupe architecture scales to petabytes of network storage (FC, iSCSI, NFS,
or CIFS), has application aware tuning and can deliver upto 800MB/s ingest on
dual quad core processors with an extremely small memory footprint.
5 Cloud Storage Tips from Nasuni
Editor:- May 13,
2010 - Nasuni
recently published a guide to the top 5 issues you should consider when looking
at
cloud storage.
This
is a very hype-laden market - which has taken 10 years to get nowhere
substantial very fast - but I suppose others might (wrongly) say something
similar about the
35 years
it's taken for the SSD market
to get seriously started.
Because I have grown suspicious about all
new storage software
companies - I let this one sit in my inbox for a few days before looking at it
in more detail.. But the points made seem quite sensible. ...read
the article
Toshiba samples TB 2.5" HDD
Editor:- March 24,
2010 - Toshiba
today
announced it
is sampling its highest capacity
2.5"
hard drives - with 1TB in a 12.5mm high package spinning at 5,400 RPM.
Hard
disk capacities in the 2.5" size have doubled in less than 2 years. You can
see how HDD and
SSD capacities have grown
in the past decade in this
article.
Digitiliti Launches Virtual Corporate Library
Editor:-
March 22, 2010 - Digitiliti
today
announced
availability of its
DigiLIBE
a multi-functional continuous VTL,
dedupe,
compression, ediscovery appliance which automatically captures and archives
new data from the time it is created and
sanitizes it at
the end of its policy mandated life.
Pricing starts at about $20,000
for a 3TB information director and $3 per GB archived after dedupe and
compression, plus $100 per client.
reaching for the petabyte SSD
Editor:- March 16,
2010 - previewing the final chapters in the long running
SSD vs HDD wars -
StorageSearch.com today
published an industry changing new article -
SSDs - reaching for
the Petabyte.
What will the PB SSD look like? When will it appear?
What technology problems do
SSD designers have to
solve to get there? What about the
storage architecture
that the PB SSD fits into? How much electrical power will it consume? And...
you may be curious - how much will it cost?
All these questions and
more - are discussed and answered in this article which - I anticipate -
will inspire product managers and company founders to create completely new
types of SSDs. ...read
the article
Imation renews RDX license to hard disk afterlife
Editor:-
March 10, 2010 - Imation
today
announced
it has extended its RDX (removable
hard disk) license
agreement with ProStor
Systems through 2020.
Imation also announced that it has
invested $5 million to help advance ProStor's
disk backup technology.
Editor's coments:- RDX was unveiled in
November 2005.
Today's announcement takes the license agreement to
beyond the expected
lifetime of the hard disk market. However,
SSD backup will also be
viable in the same form factor. | |
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