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storage news - 2001, June 7 - 14 |
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| Editor's comments:- this week of archived storage news from June 2001 included - among other things - news from the following contemporary SSD companies:- Adtron, Imperial Technology, SMART | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| UK's Leading Business Services Aggregator Utilizes SANsymphony | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| FT. LAUDERDALE,
Fla. June 14, 2001 - DataCore™ Software today announced that 7
GLOBAL has joined its rapidly expanding European customer base. 7 GLOBAL (7) is the UK's first Business Services Aggregator, a new breed of service provider that integrates best-of-breed business services from multiple Application Service Providers (ASPs) into a single unified service. 7 selected DataCore Software's SANsymphony(tm) to significantly enhance its data management service - CoreStore - which it provides to Independent Software Vendors and enterprise-scale customers. "7's success depends on providing our clients with reliable access to critical business information," commented Graham Crich, Senior VP of Strategic Partnerships, 7 GLOBAL. "We face the need to add, upgrade and replicate storage without disrupting our clients business-critical applications and data. SANsymphony enhances CoreStore, our Storage Provision Service, by providing extremely high performance continual access to data while also driving down the costs associated with managing our multi-vendor storage resources." In addition to its core SAN management excellence, SANsymphony 4.0 includes a powerful Asynchronous Internet Mirroring (AIM) option that improves disaster recovery capabilities by allowing organizations to cost-effectively replicate information to off-site locations over their existing IP (Internet Protocol) infrastructure. 7, for example, uses SANsymphony 4.0 as a robust platform to offer sophisticated IT services to its customers, based on these virtualization capabilities. SANsymphony enables 7 GLOBAL to ensure total data management and security for its customers by providing remote data replication between the customer site and 7's secure location. The primary or secondary data is hosted at 7 GLOBAL, while a remote copy can be managed at the customer's site. SANsymphony allows real time mirrored copies of customer data to also be managed locally providing fault tolerant access to data for customer applications....DataCore™ Software profile Seagate Works with Storagetek COSTA MESA, Calif. — 14 June 2001 — Seagate Removable Storage Solutions and StorageTek are integrating Seagate's award-winning Viper® 200 Ultrium tape drive into StorageTek L20/L40/L80 tape library series, the L180 and the L700 tape libraries. "Integrating Seagate's Viper 200 tape drives in our L-series libraries allows us to offer the broadest range of tape automation solutions in the industry," said Pete Koliopoulos, StorageTek director, Marketing, Automated Tape Solutions. "LTO technology fits well in our product portfolio for the midrange tape market. StorageTek's commitment to this market segment was announced in 1999 for the L700 library. Expanding our L-series offerings with the integration of LTO technology is one additional move to extend our expertise and leadership in this market." Seagate Viper 200 tape drives represent RSS' flagship family of products based on the Ultrium format of LTO technology. As one of the driving forces behind LTO technology, the Viper 200 tape drive design focuses on reliability and ease of integration into automated solutions. Viper 200 tape drives protect up to 200 Gbytes of compressed data per cartridge and operates with backup speeds of up to 115.2 Gbytes per hour (equates to 32 Mbytes per second compressed). They are available in both Ultra2 SCSI LVD and HVD configurations. ...Seagate profile, ...StorageTek profile Exabyte's Fibre Channel M2 Tape Drive Now Available in External Drive Configuration BOULDER, CO, June 13, 2001 -- Exabyte Corporation announced today that it will begin offering its native Fibre Channel M2 drive as a standalone product with an MSRP of $6,769. IS managers are interested in the native Fibre Channel drive for a number of different reasons. First, it allows a greater distance between the drive and the server, which provides much more flexibility than with a SCSI drive. Second, Fibre Channel optimizes throughput. In the case of M2, there is a third unique feature. The extended copy command set is embedded in the drive to accommodate serverless backup applications where the tape and disk interact directly. "This drive holds a unique position in the industry as the only tape drive to incorporate e-copy for serverless backup," said Ken Cruden, Exabyte director of drive marketing. The unique advantage of the native Fibre Channel M2 drive is that it interfaces directly with the RAID, eliminating the need for a router and making backup and restore operations simpler, more reliable and more cost-effective. The total cost of ownership in the backup solution drops dramatically, not only due to the elimination of the router, but also because tape drives can now be utilized 100% of the time without wasting server cycles or interrupting business activity. Reducing the requirements on the backup server leaves it free for other applications. In addition, the reduction in server backup cycles allows the tape drives and disk drives to transmit data directly to each other in a more efficient manner, making the backup transfer rates two to five times faster. And because the server is no longer involved in the backup, the traditional backup window constraints no longer limit backups to a few hours each night. Serverless backups can now take place 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and often at speeds in the 15 to 20 MB per second range. The fast transfer rates of native Fibre Channel tape drives and libraries are rapidly building interest in applications beyond the classic backup in IS organizations. Vertical markets such as video, digital cinema, hospital records, and insurance agencies are managing large amounts of data where quick loading of data as well as data backup requires the performance of a native Fibre Channel storage device. "We thought the biggest demand for Fibre Channel would be in our automated products," said Cruden. "We are pleased to find that many customers are interested in purchasing the external, standalone M2 native Fibre Channel tape drive." ...Exabyte profile Netreon Integrates NAS Servers into All Windows Environments Netreon™, Inc. today announced DirectoryPlus NAS for Active Directory v1.1 ("DirectoryPlus"), which lets all Windows clients of a NAS server authenticate through Active Directory. The latest version of Netreon's Software Development Kit (SDK) lets a NAS OEM extend single sign-on to all Windows clients, simplifying life for the server administrator and the end user. The NAS OEM can continue to rely on its non-Windows, embedded operating system and still provide administration from the Windows environment. When it is integrated into a NAS server by the manufacturer, DirectoryPlus software allows the device to appear as a Windows 2000 server on the network to the users and administrators. This makes the installation, configuration and user administration much easier for the network administrator. It also makes finding and using the device much simpler for all Windows 9X, NT, and 2000 users throughout the enterprise network who can access the NAS device with a single sign-on to the network. ...Netreon profile Snap Appliances To Remain Part Of Quantum's Storage Solutions Business MILPITAS, Calif., June 13, 2001 – Quantum Corporation (NYSE:DSS) today announced that it will not proceed with its proposed IPO of Snap Appliances shares. Snap, the category leader in workgroup NAS, will instead remain part of Quantum, as the company broadens its role as a storage solutions provider. "In October (2000) when we announced our intention to pursue a Snap IPO, the best means to build shareholder value with our Snap Appliances business was as a separate company, given the expected market growth of NAS and Snap's small size relative to Quantum," said Michael Brown, chairman and chief executive officer of Quantum. "Clearly, conditions in the financial markets have changed since then. The best way that we can strengthen Snap's leadership position and build Quantum's shareholder value now is by growing Snap as part of Quantum, where it will further enhance our expanding range of networked storage solutions." Over the past year, Snap has solidified its leadership in workgroup NAS (sub-$10,000 market category). To date, over 60,000 Snap Server® units have been shipped worldwide, giving Snap the largest installed base of NAS products of any company shipping such products. In addition, Snap Servers have won more than forty product excellence awards since they were first introduced in 1998. ...Quantum profile Editor's comment:- earlier this year, we saw Genroco announce that it was going to remerge with a business which it had spun off earlier. Although there are many storage companies currently planning IPO's, these are more credible in the case of start ups, than for established companies in today's stock market. EMC Extends Market Share Lead Hopkinton, MA - June 13, 2001 EMC Corporation continued to distance itself from competitors in 2000, according to a new report from Gartner Dataquest. EMC grew its #1 share of the information storage systems market to 34.6%, gaining nearly three times more market share than any other supplier. The industry's first independent market share research using actual full-year 2000 results revealed that, for the second consecutive year, EMC's revenue share of the external RAID storage market exceeded the combined shares of Compaq, IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems — the next four competitors and the four largest server vendors in the world. The research, unveiled this week at the annual Gartner Group Storage Conference, underlines the momentum behind the shift in strategic importance and functionality toward open, intelligent information storage solutions. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Roger Cox, senior
analyst at Gartner Dataquest, said, "Information storage has become the
most essential component of a successful IT strategy. Corporations must manage
and extract value from their growing volumes of information. The fastest growth
and greatest demand is for networked information storage deployments. Gartner
estimates that by 2005 more than 80% of external storage will be networked."
Gartner Dataquest reported that Compaq, a distant #2 with 10.8%, less than a third of EMC's share, was the only other supplier with a double-digit market share in 2000. Hitachi Data Systems fell to eighth place in 2000, with 3.7% market share. EMC also was the #1 supplier of external storage systems for each of the four largest server operating system market segments: Sun Solaris (EMC 43.1%, Sun 30.9%), Windows NT/2000 (EMC 31.9%, Compaq 24.9%), HP-UX (EMC 45%, HP 38.6%), and OS/390 (EMC 48.5%, IBM 29%). EMC also was the #1 supplier of external storage systems for the emerging Linux market, according to Gartner Dataquest. EMC also extended its #1 market share lead in storage management software in 2000, according to an April report from Gartner Dataquest, growing nearly six points to a 25.5% share last year. EMC outpaced the next closest software competitor by more than nine percentage points in the rapidly growing worldwide storage management software market. ...EMC profile, ...Gartner Dataquest profile Posetiv Chooses Ideal Hardware's Telemarketing Services London, June 13 2001 - UniTel,Ideal Hardware's telemarketing services arm, has announced the launch of a new project working for Posetiv, the enterprise storage integrator, in conjunction with Compaq. The campaign, which is due to last for six weeks, is designed to initiate appointments for members of Posetiv's sales force with key contacts in Times Top 2000 companies. UniTel's role in the project will be to search for opportunities involving enterprise storage solutions, centralisation, data storage automation and disaster recovery where Compaq products and associated software would be appropriate. Posetiv, an independent enterprise storage integrator, will then work to manage the various projects, and ensure that the correct management and strategy is being implemented around the use of Compaq products and services. "We looked at several telemarketing companies to undertake the project before we selected UniTel," says Graeme Rowe, marketing director at Posetiv. "For such an important task it was imperative the telesales people understood the product and the market in which we work. "We were impressed with the focus and knowledge of UniTel's telesales people. In addition, the fact that the company is wholly owned by Ideal Hardware means they know the storage market, and have the high level of understanding we required in a telemarketing service to undertake this task." "We were delighted to win this contract," says Alex Koeppen, UniTel's departmental manager. "UniTel's suite of telemarketing services has been designed to assist vendors and resellers build and manage their new business pipelines. The expert knowledge of UniTel's sales team is the deciding factor for many companies that are using our telemarketing services. They know their product is in the hands of people who understand not just the product but also the complexities of the marketplace." ...Compaq profile, ...Ideal Hardware profile, ...Posetiv profile Brazilian Bank chooses Tandberg Oslo, Norway, June 13th 2001 - Tandberg Data today announced it has won a contract for delivery of more than 750 Tandberg SLR7 tape drives to Banespa Bank of Brazil, a subsidiary of Banco de Santander (Spain). This contract forms part of the banks automation requirements which include servers, tape backup systems, fiber channel communication and LAN's. Working closely with SND Comercio y Servicios ltda, a distributor located in Sao Paulo, Tandberg do Brazil won the contract in stiff competition with products offered by HP, IBM and Exabyte and included DDS4, DLT8000 and Mammoth 1. Low cost of ownership, quality, performance and "in-country" service and support persuaded the customer to opt for the Tandberg SLR7. Initial orders for the SLR7 and SLRtape media have been placed, and the project is expected to be completed by December 2001. "South America is important for us and having been chosen by a major Brazilian bank is yet another indication that our products are gaining ground in this rapidly developing market" said Gudmundur Einarsson, CEO at Tandberg Data, and added "This follows previously announced contracts within the banking and insurance industry in Europe and shows that the quality, robustness and proven technology roadmap of Tandberg SLR products is appreciated by the banking community". ...Tandberg Data profile InfiniCon Systems Launches InfiniBand Education Campaign KING OF PRUSSIA, PA - June 13, 2001 - With the first generation of InfiniBand-enabled products being introduced this year, InfiniCon Systems, Inc., a premier developer of InfiniBand-enabled, multi-protocol intelligent system area network and I/O infrastructure products, is focused on delivering complete solutions leveraging InfiniBand ecosystem components. Because InfiniBand will bring fundamental changes to the data center, there exists a need to examine and discuss its implications. InfiniCon Systems has committed itself to anticipating user questions and beginning a dialogue within the industry. ...InfiniCon Systems profile Editor:- The company plans a series of communications, and you can see the first of these in the "Nibble" column on the right hand side of this page. STORAGEsearch will archive these articles for future reference linked from the InfiniBand index page. Microtech Puts a Snap into Kodak's Photo Kiosks Guilford, CT – June 12, 2001 – Digital camera enthusiasts will be able to easily customize and print high quality snapshots using photo kiosks, thanks to a relationship between SCM Microsystems and Eastman Kodak Co. Kodak has selected SCM's Microtech™ brand PCD-47B digital reader/writer for use in its Picture Maker II digital photo kiosk. The reader/writer allows consumers to quickly and easily connect to Kodak's photo kiosk and download images from virtually any digital camera or media card to self-customize and print high quality photographs. The product is designed specifically for use in industrial photo kiosks and minilabs. The Microtech™ PCD-47B reader/writer is equipped with an industry standard Type III PC Card slot and dedicated built-in CompactFlash and SmartMedia slots, allowing the widest variety of digital film or memory cards to be accessed. For users of other supported media such as the Sony Memory Stick, the Type III slot will accommodate most ATA compatible PC Card adapters as well as Type II or III Flash cards and hard disks. According to recent research by Gartner Dataquest, the worldwide installed base of photo kiosks is projected to double by the end of 2001, reaching 60,000 devices. These kiosks provide all the equipment and software necessary to create and print beautiful, customized photographs, providing an attractive alternative to expensive and often complicated in-home printing set ups. Image-editing functions such as zoom, crop and red-eye reduction, restoring color to faded prints, and personalization with text and creative border designs can all be done in a matter of minutes. And with photo kiosks now appearing in many 1-hour labs and retail stores, consumers nationwide are able to experience greater benefits from their digital camera investment. ...SCM Microsystems profile SMART Expands Flash Product Line FREMONT, Calif., June 12, 2001 – SMART Modular Technologies, Inc., a wholly owned company of Solectron Corporation (NYSE: SLR), announced today that it continues to work with the Wilmington, Mass.-based company that previously sold products and supplied services under Centennial Technologies, Inc. All such products and services now will be marketed under the name SMART Modular Technologies. Centennial, renamed "SMART Modular Technologies (MA), Inc." on April 30th when Solectron completed the acquisition, is an industry leader in Linear Flash storage products. This new relationship with its sister company allows SMART to offer expanded product lines in ATA and Linear Flash to an extended customer base and provides customers with more comprehensive sales support. This newest addition to the Technology Solutions Business Unit, which already includes SMART and Force Computers, Inc., is a global company located in the Massachusetts Technology Corridor and has offices in North America and Europe. Operating since 1987, Centennial also designs and manufactures ATA Flash Cards, Compact and Miniature Flash and IC Cards, as well as SIMMs, DIMMs, multi-function modules and custom package designs. Centennial's sales force has been absorbed with SMART's, and the company's customer base is being supported by this newly combined team. "Centennial has demonstrated its excellence with Linear Flash technologies by achieving a strong industry position, and the company's dedicated staff will continue to play strategic roles in developing and bringing to fruition SMART's family of ATA and Linear Flash storage products," stated Ajay Shah, SMART's President and CEO. "Centennial enables SMART to expand geographically and increases the scalability of SMART's Flash product lines." According to Web-Feet Research, a Monterey, Calif.-based research firm specializing in Flash technologies, demand for Flash continues to grow despite the industry-wide slowdown in the technology sector. Flash revenues exceeded $11.3 billion in 2000 and are expected to reach $13.8 billion this year. By tapping into the resources of Centennial's top-quality engineering and technical support specialists, SMART forms one of the industry's strongest team in Flash memory technologies and standards. ...SMART Modular Technologies profile Imperial Technology Shows Trading Acceleration Tool EL SEGUNDO, Calif. June 12, 2001 Imperial Technology, a leading manufacturer of solid state disk and intelligent cache systems, will be showing its newest storage accelerator at the Securities Industry Association - Technology Management Conference & Exhibit next week in New York. The event highlights the newest technology utilized in the securities industry and is the largest technology show for the trading community. Imperial's solid state accelerators operate hundreds of times faster than regular drives and have become one of the hottest tools for brokerages attempting to gain a competitive advantage in trading. By adding a MegaRam solid state accelerator to a storage subsystem, brokerages can often double or triple the number of trades they can execute each day, without purchasing faster servers or incurring higher CPU-based licensing fees. Imperial Technology has thousands of installed applications worldwide, and its customers consist of some of the largest trading firms including E*Trade Canada, ITG, and Knight Securities, the only market maker that participates in after-hours trading for OTC securities. "We've had nothing but positive results. From day one, we've been able to put on our development system double and triple the speed of our existing equipment and it has made Knight very successful, says Charles Attard, Knight Securities' Vice President of Operations. The market today is becoming increasingly volatile with surprise earnings announcements, unforeseen interest rate changes, and quickly circulating economic reports. These factors, coupled with automatic computer buy/sell programs can make milliseconds worth millions. Firms are also now offering commission-free trades if the market order is not executed in less than 60 seconds; so lightning-fast trades are essential for business. Imperial's MegaRam accelerator allows brokerages to execute more trades faster, capitalizing on these opportunities. ...Imperial Technology profile Legato Announces Support for IBM's new TotalStorage NAS Mountain View, CA, June 12, 2001 - Legato Systems, Inc. announced that they have qualified with IBM, the Legato® NetWorker® 6.0.1 and IBM's TotalStorage NAS family of products, including the NAS 200, 300 and 300G. These solutions will deliver enterprise data protection for continuous operation in the NAS environment. Legato NetWorker is the preferred solution for customers who need enterprise class information protection in diverse environments. NetWorker delivers the availability and scalability required in large, heterogeneous environments and has the added benefit of a LAN-free offering in the NAS environment, an important consideration for customers who select solutions such as IBM's TotalStorage NAS family. The NAS family can be configured as a Legato NetWorker StorageNode, which can manage many supported automated tape libraries. This configuration will allow IBM and Legato customers to do a LAN-free backup of the IBM TotalStorage NAS family. This family has been qualified with many tape media products, including IBM LTO, DLT7000 and DLT8000. "By certifying Legato's software on the IBM NAS family of products, our joint customers are assured a leading platform solution for protecting their enterprise data in mission-critical environments," said Robert LeBlanc, general manager for IBM's Storage Networking Division. "We'll continue to work to have future IBM TotalStorage NAS servers qualified as they become available." "The Legato and IBM collaboration significantly expands the scope of enterprise information protection offered today," said Charles Fonner, vice president, worldwide marketing, Legato Systems. "Having business critical information continuously available for their customers is a commitment of both companies." ...IBM profile, ...Legato Systems profile 14G Byte, Highest Capacity 3.5" SCSI Flash Drive Now Shipping PHOENIX, AZ. June 11, 2001 - Adtron today announced availability of the highest capacity 3.5" SCSI flash SSD. This manufacturer of high reliability data storage solutions adds two new capacities, 12.8 GBytes and 14.3 GBytes, to its S35PC line of SCSI Flash drives. Designed for harsh environment applications requiring reliability, durability, long life, and high capacity, the Adtron S35PC storage system is a form-fit-function drop-in solid state replacement for SCSI 3.5" disk and DAT drives. Adtron's SCSI command set delivers consistent system operation and can be factory configured to a specified geometry and command set to meet system specific operating parameters. Alan Fitzgerald, President of Adtron stated: "Adtron can now meet higher capacity rugged storage requirements as found in pipeline inspection systems, airborne surveillance, shipboard fire control systems, and mobile mapping systems. Over the past year Adtron shipped 9.6 GByte Flash drives to these applications; this new capacity enables additional capabilities." | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The S35PC product line offers
capacities of 5.1 GBytes, 9.6 GBytes, 12.8 GBytes and 14.3 GBytes in commercial
(0 to 60 °C) and enhanced (-25 to +75 °C) temperature ranges for
applications that must operate in high shock and vibration environments.
Additional characteristics include easy firmware upgrade for the addition of new
features, 0 dB sonar signature for submarine systems, low power and 5
VDC-only operation for mobile applications.
The 14.3 GByte capacity, S35PC-14GC, is priced at $42,000 USD per unit in quantities of 25. Lead time is stock to 8 weeks ARO. |
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Sanrise Announces Grand Opening of London Facility Dublin, CA, June 11, 2001— Sanrise Group, Inc., and its subsidiaries, a privately held global managed storage service provider, today announced the grand opening of its London office to serve the company's customers throughout the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region. Since the company's inception in May of 2000, sanrise has secured over 600 customers and has raised and issued in excess of $203 million in debt and equity. sanrise entered the European market in late 2000 and has since become the leading storage service provider [SSP] in the region, with over 100 customers including global enterprises such as Vodafone, Deutsche Bank and British Airways. "With a foothold firmly established, sanrise is in a strong position to maintain leadership as the outsourced data storage market continues to explode in Europe," said Neil O'Brien, Managing Director, Sanrise Limited. According to Dataquest, the European storage utility market is expected to experience rapid growth, increasing from $1 million to more than $2.2 billion from 1999 to 2003. Leveraging sanrise's storagetone data management software suite, coupled with its global managed services offering provides the means for a given enterprise to efficiently manage the explosion of information while significantly reducing the complexity and total cost of ownership within their storage environment. ...Sanrise profile Storage Virtualization at Network Storage 2001 Conference June 11, 2001 - OTG Software, Inc. announced today that CTO Michael Del Rosso will participate on a panel on "Evolving Data Protection Strategies" at the Network Storage 2001 Conference, in Monterey, Calif. As part of the panel, Del Rosso will present an overview of application- oriented storage virtualization and discuss the importance of uninterrupted access in data protection. He will discuss how a truly flexible data protection strategy should incorporate data access for users and applications rather than only traditional storage methods. Application-oriented storage virtualization enables transparent access to protected data regardless of where it is located within the online "virtualized pool." Panel participants include Rick Carlson, Vice President of Business Development and Chief Strategic Officer, Maxtor; Kevin Daly, President and CEO, ATL/Quantum; Bill Marriner, CEO, Exabyte; Tom Phillips, Senior Program Manager, Microsoft; and Alan Welsh, CEO, Columbia Data. Del Rosso was also selected to co-moderate with Farid Neema, president of Peripheral Concepts, a second panel discussing enterprise storage management. Participants in this panel include Marti Bancroft, HPC technologist, Sun Microsystems; Laurie Elliott, Hewlett-Packard Storage Area Network Solutions; David Golds, Group Manager for Storage, Microsoft Corporation; Chris Stakutis, CTO, SANergy/Tivoli Systems Inc.; and Chris Wood, Director SAN Strategy, Sun Microsystems. ...OTG Software profile LSI Logic Storage Systems Announces Next Generation Solution Milpitas, Calif., June 11, 2001 - LSI Logic Storage Systems, Inc today announced the availability of TotalNET Advanced Server (TAS) 6.1, the next generation system for consolidating heterogeneous servers and storage systems. TotalNET Advanced Server 6.1, which is available now, features a unique set of resource consolidation functions including file sharing among heterogeneous computers, centralized administration of shared storage, and consolidated authentication services using LDAP or legacy directories. These features enable Global 2000 companies and government enterprises to minimize total cost of ownership, maximize resource utilization, simplify systems and storage administration, and increase security across networks of computers running many different operating systems. TotalNET Advanced Server 6.1 permits file and print sharing among Windows, NetWare, Macintosh, Unix Network File System (NFS) and Distributed File System (DFS) client computers. Resource sharing across heterogeneous systems is made possible through support of multiple transport protocols such as TCP/IP, NetBEUI, IPX, SPX, and AppleTalk. Thus, a file created by a Windows 2000 user is easily shared with Unix and Macintosh users and appears native to all. "The explosion of servers and desktop systems has led to costly inefficiencies in information storage management and deployment, especially in large companies with hundreds or thousands of heterogeneous computers," said Tom Georgens, president of LSI Logic Storage Systems, Inc. "TotalNET Advanced Server 6.1 revolutionizes the cost of storage ownership by changing the computing model. It allows many servers and storage devices to be consolidated into a common, centrally managed resource that can be shared throughout the enterprise." ...LSI Logic Storage Systems profile Ecrix Introduces Integrated IEEE 1394/FireWire Interface Boulder, CO - June 11, 2001 - Ecrix Corporation today announced availability of the IEEE 1394 interface, also known as FireWire or i.LINK, for the Ecrix VXA-1 tape drive on the PC platform. The VXA-1 is the data storage industry's first tape drive to support FireWire/IEEE 1394/i.LINK interfaces on Intel-x86 personal computers. The VXA-1 offers users a simpler, low-cost interface with hot plug-and-play capabilities as well as the fastest and largest capacity IEEE 1394 tape drive available. The VXA-1 solution consists of an external translucent VXA-1 tape drive with an integrated IEEE 1394 interface, comes bundled with Dantz Retrospect Desktop Backup software and is compatible with other Windows backup applications such as Veritas Backup Exec. Like the earlier Mac-only version, which the company started shipping in January 2001, the new VXA-1 FireWire drive backs up 33 GB of data to a single-cartridge at 3 MBps (66 GB at 6 MBps with 2:1 compressible data). "Analysts predict IEEE 1394/FireWire PC shipments will grow from 25 million in 2000 to 76 million in 2004," said Kelly Beavers, president of Ecrix. "Being the first tape drive to offer a 1394 interface for this market puts the VXA-1 in an excellent position to take advantage of this rapid growth ." The base retail price of the Ecrix VXA-1 FireWire Kit is $1,199. The complete kit includes the translucent external VXA-1 tape drive, FireWire cable, 66 GB VXAtape V17 cartridge, cleaning cartridge, power cord (US and Canadian), SCSI terminator and documentation. Dantz Retrospect backup software is included. ...Ecrix profile Vixel Launches its Multivendor SAN Management Software Business Bothell, WA, June 11, 2001 - Vixel Corporation today announced its entry into the storage management software business, the single fastest growing segment of the storage marketplace. The Company recently signed 2 OEM agreements for its new multivendor enterprise SAN device management software product, SAN InSite Professional, and will pursue a three-pronged go-to-market strategy that includes capturing additional OEMs, upgrading its switch customer base and leveraging its multivendor management software to create a point of entry into accounts with competing switch products. "In addition to establishing a significant new source of revenue for Vixel, our multivendor SAN device management software offers us the opportunity to leverage sales opportunities for our fabric switch and hub business," said James McCluney, president and CEO of Vixel Corporation. "The recently announced private label transaction with Fujitsu Softek (see below - Editor) underscores the value and viability of our new software product, and we've already signed a second OEM agreement with a major player in the storage industry." SANInsite Professional is available now for OEMs and Vixel is offering 30-day trial evaluation CDs to qualified OEMs who wish simplify SAN management for their customers. Vixel's existing switch customers will be able to upgrade their SAN management capabilities at preferred discount pricing levels at the end of June 2001. In another press release today, Vixel Corporation announced a strategic partnership with Fujitsu Software Technology Corporation (Fujitsu Softek), the new U.S.-based division of Fujitsu Limited. With this partnership, Fujitsu Softek will private-label and market Vixel's SAN management software, SAN InSite Professional, as part of its leading-edge storage management solution suite. ...Fujitsu Softek profile, ...Vixel profile Editor's comment:- the battle for dominance of the SAN software market has already seen many caualties. CrosStor Software, FilePool, HighGround Systems, LSC, Pathlight Technology, and Smart Storage have all been acquired by other companies. The prize for the eventual winner could be "ownership" of a controlling influence in network storage similar to Microsoft's position today in desktop operating systems. Dataplay Closes $55 Million Financing June 8, 2001 - BOULDER, Colo. - DataPlay, Inc., announced today that it has closed a $55 million round of financing, bringing the total capital raised since the Company's inception to $119 million. This financing includes significant investments from leading consumer electronic device manufacturers, technology companies and retail distribution. DataPlay is committed to becoming a standard for the distribution and recording of digital content such as music, video, digital images, games and software in the consumer electronics marketplace. This current round of financing includes investments from Eastman Kodak Company, Intel Capital, Olympus Optical Company, Ltd., Trans World Entertainment, meVC Draper Fisher Jurvetson Fund I, Imation Corporation, Sequel Venture Partners, Colorado PERA, Portage Venture Partners, SG Cowen Securities Corporation, A.G. Edwards Capital, Graystone Ventures and musician David Crosby. "DataPlay digital media is a creative, exciting technology that we expect will make a huge impact on the way people use and store digital content not only with digital cameras, but all consumer electronics," said Yusuke Kojima, Division Manager, Olympus Optical Co., LTD. "We view DataPlay as an integral part of our efforts to incorporate advanced technologies that let our customers get more use and enjoyment out of Olympus products." The DataPlay solution includes three primary offerings: DataPlay digital media, DataPlay micro-optical engine and ContentKey™, a content distribution, marketing and e-commerce tool. DataPlay's miniature optical media, approximately the size of a quarter, allows access to all forms of digital content across all digital devices and platforms, including images, documents, software, games, video and more. One 500 MB digital media can hold over 11 hours of music downloads or five complete pre-recorded albums of CD-quality music, hundreds of high-resolution photographs or dozens of games, and will retail for around $10. ...DataPlay profile Report Affirms Infineon as World's #1 Supplier of Semiconductors for Chip Cards Munich, Germany – June 8, 2001 – Gartner Dataquest has named Infineon Technologies the leader in worldwide sales revenue for silicon chips used in chip card products, marking the third consecutive year that the company has ranked Infineon as the #1 provider of silicon to this fast growing market. In its recently published report:- "Worldwide Chip Card Market Share, 2000: Card Vendors and Semiconductor Vendors", the market research firm states that Infineon held a 47 percent share of the total 1.9 billion chip card IC market, representing 921 million units shipped. In terms of revenue, Dataquest assessed Infineon's year 2000 shipments of both smart card microcontrollers and memory chips at 34 percent of the total market of approximately 1.2 billion US dollars. The chip card market is driven by the trend towards increased security requirements in such aspects of everyday life as mobile communications, banking, health services, electronic commerce and internet communications, and government applications. Infineon was the first supplier of chip card ICs to pass the strictest security evaluation tests for chip card ICs; achieving the ITSEC E4 high rating for multiple products. According to Dataquest, Infineon dominated the supply of silicon to the memory chip card market with 60 percent market share in 2000. This is due to strong demand for security memory ICs for use in prepaid phone cards, especially in Asia and South America. Since entering the chip card arena more than a decade ago, Infineon has sold more than four billion chip card ICs. ...Gartner Dataquest profile, ...Infineon profile | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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