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Storage news - 2001, September - week 1 |
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Squeak! - How Solid
is Hard Disk's Future? Squeak! - the Top 10 Solid State Disk OEMs Squeak! - the Solid State Disks Buyers Guide Squeak! - RAM versus Flash SSDs - which is Best? Squeak! - SSD Myths and Legends - "write endurance" earlier storage news, storage news Google, STORAGEsearch.com | ||||
| Basingstoke, UK - September 7th , 2001
- Solution Centre is pleased to announce that it has recently been
appointed European Master Reseller for the Portlock Software range of
tools for Novell Users. Tools in the product set include:- Storage Manager
for Novell Netware - enables users to Copy, Create, Clone, Image, Restore &
Resize Netware and DOS partitions and volumes including NSS & NSS storage
pools. Storage Manager enables the building of a new server, recovering from a
disaster or just making a "quick recovery" to be be a fast and a
dramatically simplified process. Disk Test for Netware - a powerful and
comprehensive tool for testing disk drives in a Novell environment. Volume
Defrag for Netware - improve the layout and performance of Novell Netware file
systems. Volume Resize for Novell Netware - Manage the size and layout of
Netware volumes.
"We're delighted to have this portfolio of great products. Novell licenses Storage Manager for the NetWare 6 Beta Demonstration CD and with the impending release of Version 6 there couldn't be a better time to make these products available" said Richard Pain - Solution Centre's Managing Director. ...Portlock Software profile, ...Solution Centre profile WOODLAND HILLS, Calif., September 6, 2001 Nexsan Technologies today announced that it has reached a major OEM agreement to supply its InfiniSAN scalable enterprise storage solutions to Xpedx, a $7 billion subsidiary of International Paper and one of the world's largest resellers of graphics imaging solutions. Xpedx will integrate the Nexsan InfiniSAN ATAboy network storage solution into their line of pre-press and digital work flow product offerings. The affordability innovations of the Nexsan InfiniSAN storage solutions will enable xpedx to deliver an end-to-end digital pre-press solution at a cost-per-megabyte basis that is cheaper than a paper-based system. "Xpedx is a dominant presence in the pre-press market, so their endorsement of Nexsan technology gives the company a major boost in this application arena," said Diamond Lauffin, Nexsan's Senior Executive Vice President. "The unmatched affordability, scalability and high availability of the InfiniSAN product line gives xpedx the ability to further expand their market dominance." Nexsan will showcase the full line of InfiniSAN storage solutions for pre-press applications at the PRINT 01 Show at McCormick Place in Chicago, September 6-13, Booth #6048. ...Nexsan Technologies profile, ...Xpedx profile SAN CLEMENTE, Calif. - September 6, 2001 - The FIA Storage Systems Group today announced general availability of the POPnetserver 4000, a high performance NAS system for small to medium-sized businesses and enterprise departments and workgroups. The POPnetserver 4000 offers a tremendous feature set, including hot swappable drives, and RAID levels 0, 1, 5, and 5 plus hot spare, for one low price. The 160GB and 320GB models are priced at $1,895 and $2,895, respectively. Special discounts are available for quantity purchases. The POPnetserver 4000 is available for purchase directly from the FIA Storage Systems Group or through Premio Computer, Inc., a leading PC, workstation and server manufacturer. Premio offers the product through its e-commerce and VAR channels, reaching the business, education and government markets in the United States and Latin America. The POPnetserver is also available through TigerDirect, a leading e-commerce web site for PC hardware. "We are now fully shipping the POPnetserver 4000 and expect to build a solid customer base among small to medium-sized businesses, and enterprise departments and workgroups," said Gene Lu, president and CEO, FIA Storage Systems Group. "The POPnetserver 4000 differentiates itself in the marketplace as the first NAS system to provide high-end features at an affordable price point. We believe this quality will make the POPnetserver a very attractive offering for both VARs and end users." The POPnetserver 4000 is based on a 1U form factor and includes 733 MHz processing, 128MB RAM, and 7,200RPM disk drives. The system supports heterogeneous network environments, including Windows 95, 98, NT, 2000, Linux, Unix, Apple, and Netware. Storage management is provided by the POPassist software, which comes pre-packaged with all POPnetserver models. All products are backed by the FIA Storage Systems Group's skilled customer service and support organization. ...FIA Storage Systems Group profile PALO ALTO, Calif., Sept. 6, 2001 - Agilent Technologies Inc. today announced that it has successfully demonstrated iSCSI (Internet protocol small computer system interface) interoperability with IBM's IP 200i Appliance. Interoperability tests were conducted at the First International iSCSI Plugfest, recently held at the University of New Hampshire's iSCSI Interoperability Laboratory. The event was co-sponsored by the Storage Networking Industry Association IP Storage Forum. "Demonstrating iSCSI interoperability with IBM's storage technology places Agilent among the industry leaders in driving the adoption of iSCSI for storage networking applications," said Lisa Brown, business unit manager for Agilent's Storage Networking Division. "We will continue to participate with industry interoperability testing efforts and the IETF standards committee to ensure Agilent's iSCSI controllers, host bus adapters and fiber optics not only meet but exceed the industry standard for interoperability, performance and reliability." "We are pleased to have successfully demonstrated iSCSI protocol interoperability with Agilent's iSCSI code," said Paul Mattson, iSCSI brand manager for IBM. "As a leading provider of storage area networking solutions, IBM plans to work closely with vendors such as Agilent to develop, test and deploy a range of high-performance iSCSI SAN storage subsystem products." ...Agilent Technologies profile, ...IBM profile WESTWOOD, Mass., September 5, 2001 – Precise Software Solutions (Nasdaq: PRSE) today announced that it has acquired W.Quinn Associates, Inc. ("WQuinn™") for $35 million in a combination of $20 million in cash with the balance in Precise Ordinary Shares. WQuinn can earn additional consideration based on achieving certain revenue and operating income targets. The merger will be accounted for as a purchase transaction. WQuinn, a privately held company based in Reston, Virginia is a recognized leader in storage resource and performance management solutions which currently support the Microsoft® Windows NT® and Windows 2000® platforms. WQuinn's products are used by over 3,500 companies in 50 countries. WQuinn recently signed a strategic OEM relationship with Microsoft Corporation which has licensed WQuinn's technology and embedded it within Microsoft's Server Appliance Kit. WQuinn's products strongly complement Precise's application performance management solutions across the IT infrastructure. WQuinn's patented technology for real-time, proactive storage utilization and performance improvement helps customers identify both the symptom and root causes of performance degradation. "Precise's acquisition of WQuinn is a really nice fit! Comprehensive Application Performance Management must include storage performance," said Carolyn DiCenzo, Chief Analyst for Gartner Dataquest's Storage Management Software Research Group. "The acquisition brings together two leading technology players who now have the opportunity to leverage each others' skills to supply the market with stronger performance tools to better address the storage part of the performance equation. Moreover, WQuinn's strong foothold in the NT market and OEM relationship with Microsoft should be very beneficial to Precise as it continues to expand its solutions into this market." "Our joint vision is to provide customers with software solutions that significantly improve the performance of the application, in real time, by enabling users to detect and correct the sources of performance degradation across the entire IT infrastructure," said Shimon Alon, CEO of Precise Software Solutions. "WQuinn complements existing Precise storage solutions and will be included in the Precise/Indepth™ for Storage family of products. We are equally excited about the expansion of our OEM channels and customer base. Furthermore, this acquisition will immediately contribute to our top and bottom line." Precise expects the merger will leverage the reselling and OEM channels of both organizations. Precise will add Microsoft as a strategic OEM partner and resellers such as Dell, EDS, PowerQuest, and Sunbelt Software, to Precise's already significant strategic distribution partnerships with EMC, HP, SAP, and Amdocs. Precise has more than doubled its customer base from 600 to 1400 in the last year. WQuinn adds a significant incremental installed base of approximately 3,000 customers. Together, the combined company has penetrated over 80 percent of the Fortune 100, which offer substantial follow-on sales opportunities, both domestically and internationally. ...Precise Software Solutions profile , ...W. Quinn Associates profile Kirkland, Wash., Sept. 5, 2001 – YottaYotta, Inc. announced today that William P. Hurley has been appointed Information Architect. He is based in the company's headquarters in Kirkland, Washington. "YottaYotta is very pleased to have William join our management team," said Robin Harris, Vice President, Marketing. "It is a great endorsement for YottaYotta that an individual as knowledgeable about customer needs and the storage industry would choose to join us. As an analyst, William had unparalleled visibility into customer issues with managing the digital content explosion and the leading edge next generation architectural approaches to building scalable and manageable storage and network infrastructures. As Information Architect, William will drive YottaYotta's integration of breakthrough storage and network functionality with critical business processes that require the coalescing of storage and communications." Prior to joining YottaYotta, William P. Hurley was Program Manager and Storage Analyst in the Yankee Group's E-Networks & Broadband Access Planning Service. "I'm very excited to join YottaYotta," said William P. Hurley, Information Architect. "YottaYotta addresses critical infrastructure issues driven by the relentless growth of digital assets and need to extract business advantage from them. The YottaYotta Netstorage platform uniquely fuses storage and networking through robust, distributed parallelism. The YottaYotta Netstorage solution allows for new economies of scale by introducing Metcalfe's Law to storage communications. I look forward to delivering the solution that will exceed our customers' expectations." ...YottaYotta profile LAKE FOREST, Calif. - Sept. 5, 2001 - Western Digital Corp. (NYSE: WDC) announced today that it has agreed to sell the assets of its SANavigator Inc. subsidiary to McDATA Corp. (Nasdaq: MCDTA/MCDT) for $29.75 million in cash. Western Digital and McDATA have signed a definitive agreement and the transaction is expected to close in September, subject to customary closing conditions. With the sale of SANavigator to McDATA, Western Digital is capturing return on one of its new venture investments and taking another step to sharpen focus and resources on its hard drive business. Western Digital has indicated it would minimize operating expenses associated with its new ventures through accretive performance, outside financing, or restructuring. Recently, it announced $5.5 million in external funding for its Keen Personal Media subsidiary and the sale of the assets of its Connex Inc. subsidiary to Quantum Corp. Matt Massengill, president and CEO of Western Digital, said, "While maintaining a lean operating model suited for the rigors of our core hard drive business, Western Digital remains committed to building business opportunities beyond the traditional desktop PC market by maximizing our core competencies. A good example of this would be our personal video recorder software expertise through Keen Personal Media. In the case of SANavigator, we were successful in developing a startup company with a strong set of SAN software capabilities, which McDATA is now best suited to nourish given its significant position in the SAN market and the rapid changes the SAN industry is undergoing." ...McDATA profile, ...SANavigator profile, ...Western Digital profile SAN JOSE, CA — September 5, 2001 — Gadzoox Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: ZOOX) today announced that it closed on the sale of $7.5 million of common stock in a transaction led by Balch Hill Capital and Galleon Group on August 30, 2001. The common stock was sold at a slight premium to market ($.10 over the closing price of $1.40 on August 31, 2001) with no attached warrants. The investment will be used to continue the launch of Gadzoox Networks' Slingshot 2Gb Open Fabric switch family, including the recently announced Slingshot 4210, and to support the development of future products and programs. ...Gadzoox Networks profile MILPITAS, CA., September 4, 2001 - LSI Logic Corporation (today completed the acquisition of the RAID business, engineering teams and technology from American Megatrends, Inc. (AMI). As a result of this immediately accretive cash transaction, LSI Logic acquired AMI's MegaRAID software intellectual property and host bus adapter product family. These boards support Fibre Channel, SCSI and other leading storage I/O standards. LSI Logic is also gaining the expertise of AMI's more than 200 RAID employees, including 120 hardware and software engineers based in Norcross, Georgia, Fremont, California and other sales service locations. "We employ strategic acquisitions to enhance our intellectual property portfolio and to bolster our engineering corps," said Bryon Look, LSI Logic executive vice president and chief financial officer. "The purchase of AMI's RAID business is the latest example of how LSI Logic uses strategic acquisitions to better serve customers in our targeted vertical markets." John D'Errico, LSI Logic executive vice president for Storage Components, said that LSI Logic would strengthen and extend its storage components offerings with AMI's leading MegaRAID technology. "As a result of the combination of AMI's MegaRAID products with LSI Logic's expertise in Fibre Channel, SCSI and other leading storage I/O channels, we will offer next-generation storage component products for our customer base that includes: Agilent, Brocade, Compaq, Dell, EMC, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Seagate and Sun Microsystems," said D'Errico. "There is a direct correlation between the rapid growth of data, voice and video conveyed by the Internet and the expansion of the global storage components market. RAID is an ubiquitous technology in the worldwide server market, and the MegaRAID product family provides the most widely used and proven solutions to LSI Logic, enabling us to provide complete storage interface solutions for our customers in the storage market." D'Errico noted that storage components represented 32 percent of LSI Logic's $2.74 billion in revenue in 2000. The market research firm, IDC projects that the SCSI and Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapter market will grow from about $1.7 billion in 2000 to approximately $2.8 billion in 2003. ...LSI Logic profile PHOENIX, AZ. September 4, 2001 - Adtron Corporation now offers flash memory or hard disk based mass storage on a single slot VME 6U plug-in card. The flexible design of the SV6I provides up to 5.4 GBytes of flash storage, or up to 120 GBytes of hard disk storage. The board emulates industry standard 3.5" and 2.5" SCSI and SCSI-2 fast and narrow disk and DAT drives. The simplicity of installation eliminates drive mounting brackets and cabling. Flexibility of the storage media allows customers to choose between hard disk configurations for greater economy, or flash memory for high reliability and durability in demanding applications. The SV6I plugs into the rear chassis connector P1 for power, and either P2 or the front panel connector for the system SCSI bus. Connector P2 supports either a Force or Motorola defined SCSI pinout. The front panel high-density 50-pin SCSI connector brings the SCSI bus to the front of the chassis for easy connection to external SCSI devices or controllers. Configuration options include disk or DAT drive emulation, setting the logical capacity "destroking," 256 Byte or 512 Byte sector sizes, and 1 to 7 logical units. Other Adtron VME products include a dual slot Type I/II/III PC card drive. "The efficiency of the SV6I enables simple installation of high capacity storage for both new designs and existing systems. This approach to integrated system storage eliminates troublesome cabling and mounting of traditional 2.5" and 3.5" disk drives. Telecommunication and military COTS customers can use this production volume product without system hardware or software redesign," says Alan Fitzgerald, President of Adtron. OEM pricing for a 2 GB Flash version is $3,600; a 30 GB hard disk version is $700. Lead time is stock to eight weeks ARO. ...Adtron profile See also:- VME SPARC processor cards San Francisco, CA. September 4, 2001 - Pegasus Disk Technologies today announced that Rocketdyne, a division of the Boeing Company, has implemented the Pegasus InveStore software to control the storage retrieval of all critical testing records of the SSME rocket engine. The Space Shuttle Main Engine has been a Rocketdyne business since 1971. The three engines on the shuttle orbiter provide the majority of the total thrust required to obtain near-orbital velocity. Massive amounts of data from the testing of the SSME engine and other rocket engines, whether in laboratory simulations or actual flight, are kept and monitored by the engineers in Canoga Park, CA. "Applications such as Rocketdyne's require solutions that utilize a storage media with massive capacities and one that will remain reliable over long periods of time. Optical storage has the capacity and longevity to meet these needs and Pegasus has been providing solutions for these types of applications since 1988." says Roy Slicker, President and CEO of Pegasus. "We are very pleased to be part of the Space Shuttle program in this way and provide the necessary storage management tools that enable Rocketdyne engineers to consistently maintain a high level of data testing and analysis that ultimately results in an overall safer shuttle program." According to James Quan, Computer Analyst for Boeing/Rocketdyne engineering division, optical storage technology was selected instead of raid arrays for the permanent storage features that optical offers. When a decision was made to switch to a NT platform, James Quan looked into a system that would run under this platform. After much research, Pegasus was chosen as Mr. Quan felt that Pegasus was easy to use and implement and got the job done within his budget. Pegasus was also the best software for WORM applications. There are four or five tests performed per week and the size of the data can be anywhere from 2.6GB to 5GB, depending on the engine tested and length of the test. Mr. Quan said, "We like optical because of the capacity. It is removable for storage and the media can be distributed internally and externally if necessary for further engineering review and analysis." The data collected is used for comparisons to improve and modify new engine designs. With the Pegasus API, security was designed in to prevent unauthorized access. Only engineers who have prior approved access can retrieve the highly confidential data. ...Pegasus Disk Technologies profile San Jose, Calif., — September 4, 2001 — Xyratex announced today a new range of highly portable add-on test modules for its pioneering Notebook Investigator product range. The new Xyratex FS series adds multi-channel protocol analysis and traffic generation capability to the Notebook Investigator range of portable Fibre Channel test and analysis solutions. "The new Xyratex FS products bring a different dimension to the Fibre Channel test equipment market" said Nigel Brownlow, Director of Marketing and Product Management, Xyratex Storage Networking Division. "The new range introduces features that were previously available only in much bulkier lab-based configurations and reinforces Notebook Investigator's reputation as a highly portable and cost-effective solution for field service applications." Two models make up the new FS line providing 1Gbps and 2Gbps operation and each is available in multiple configurations to meet individual requirements. A simple upgrade path is provided from 1Gbps to 2Gbps operation so users can choose the optimal time to migrate to the higher interface speed. Xyratex continues to offer its 1Gbps and 2Gbps FP products - the world's smallest Fibre Channel protocol analyzers. The Notebook Investigator is available as a fully configured system ready to go out of the box or can be integrated with a suitable notebook computer. ...Xyratex profile See also:- Test equipment LUMBERTON, NJ, SEPTEMBER 4, 2001 - INRANGE Technologies announced today that it has completed the sale and transfer of its 7-VIEW SS7 Surveillance Monitoring Technology system to TTI Telecom International (Nasdaq: TTIL). This is a strategic milestone in INRANGE's announced plans to migrate the company to a 'pure play' storage networking company, where it has seen significant growth in its IN-VSN family of virtual storage networking solutions. The agreement includes transfer of the 7-VIEW technology, complementary signaling technology, and licensing agreements for an undisclosed sum. As a part of the sale, INRANGE 7-VIEW customers will continue to receive full service and support under existing support agreements during the transition. The refocused INRANGE business model outlined in July included exiting the telecommunications networking business to allow the company to focus on the high-growth Storage Networking market. ...INRANGE Technologies profile PALO ALTO, CA and HOUSTON, TX, September 3, 2001 - Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HWP) and Compaq Computer Corporation (NYSE: CPQ) announced today a definitive merger agreement to create an $87 billion global technology leader. The new HP will offer the industry's most complete set of IT products and services for both businesses and consumers, with a commitment to serving customers with open systems and architectures. The combined company will have #1 worldwide revenue positions in servers, access devices (PCs and hand-helds) and imaging and printing, as well as leading revenue positions in IT services, storage and management software. The merger is expected to generate cost synergies reaching approximately $2.5 billion annually and drive a significantly improved cost structure. Based on both companies' last four reported fiscal quarters, the new HP would have approximate pro forma assets of $56.4 billion, annual revenues of $87.4 billion and annual operating earnings of $3.9 billion. It would also have operations in more than 160 countries and over 145,000 employees. Carly Fiorina, chairman and chief executive officer of HP, will be chairman and CEO of the new HP. Michael Capellas, chairman and chief executive officer of Compaq, will be president. Capellas and four other members of Compaq's current Board of Directors will join HP's Board upon closing. The merged entity will be headquartered in Palo Alto and retain a significant presence in Houston, which will be a key strategic center of engineering excellence and product development. The new HP will be structured around four operating units that build on the companies' similar go-to-market and product development structures to provide clear customer and competitive focus. Leadership and estimated revenues (calculated by combining the two companies' trailing four reported fiscal quarters) are as follows:
Editor's comments:- the merging of two of the world's top 10 storage companies continues the trend of mergers and acquisitions we've been seeing in this market all year. Highview Farm, September 3, 2001 - Megabyte the Mouse is 3 years old this month. Millions of computer users on the web know that Megabyte is one of the cartoon characters on the computer directory called STORAGEsearch.com. During the past 3 years, the Byte family has been extended to include Spellerbyte the wizard (who is used as the metaphor for software), Terrorbyte (used for tape libraries and other massive storage), Cheaperbyte (used for VARS and channels), Killerbyte (used for military storage) and the bikes (used as the metaphors for fibre-channel). The Byte family ancestor Squeaks-a-Bit, will make his debut later this year in articles about the history of storage. In just 36 months STORAGEsearch.com has become the #1 enterprise storage portal, with a readership more than twice as large as the 9 year old Sun buyers guide called the SPARC Product Directory, from the same publisher ACSL. Commenting on the 3 year anniversary, publisher Zsolt Kerekes said "It's gratifying to see how well STORAGEsearch has been welcomed and adopted by the storage industry. We get inputs from thousands of readers, and it's their contributions which help to make our content sharp and relevant. But no matter how good a web site is, we can't do it all. People have multidimensional needs for information, and that's where our collaboration with other leading information sources including market research companies and conference and trade show organisers has made a significant impact on our readership during the past year." See also:- advertising info, mice & storage |
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