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2003, March week 4, Storage news

. Megabyte's selection of storage news
Megabyte loved reading news
about the storage market

See also:-

Squeak! - How Solid is Hard Disk's Future?
Squeak! - the Solid State Disks Buyers Guide
article:- a Short History of Disk to Disk Backup
Squeak! - The Fastest Growing storage companies
article:- the Benefits of Serial Attached SCSI for External Subsystems
article:- NAS, DAS or SAN? - Choosing the Right Storage Technology
earlier news, Sun/SPARC - news, Press Release FAQ's

storage history:- March 2000, March 2001, March 2002, March 2004, March 2005
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LUMBERTON, NJ and SAN JOSE, CA - March 31, 2003 - Inrange Technologies Corporation and Nishan Systems today announced a reseller agreement that will make Nishan's IP storage switches available through INRANGE's worldwide sales organization. The agreement gives IT users more options and enables customers to benefit from cost-effective, high performance IP storage networking solutions for remote mirroring, remote tape backup, and SAN extension. ...INRANGE Technologies profile, ...Nishan Systems profile


Redmond, Washington - March 31, 2003 - ADIC - announced today a major step forward for IT departments with the introduction of the industry's next-generation data center tape library, the Scalar® i2000. The Scalar i2000 is the first library built around ADIC's intelligent iPlatform™ architecture. This new library foundation eliminates external library control servers and enhances library functions to increase overall data protection and save users time and money over the life of their backup system. The Scalar i2000's capacity-on-demand scalability-from 100 to over 2,200 cartridges-and industry-leading storage density provide data protection that grows economically with expanding IT requirements while maximizing utilization of data center resources.

The Scalar i2000 provides a long-term no-risk growth path through its capacity-on-demand scalability, a feature pioneered by ADIC that allows users to easily plan for system growth and adjust the capacity of the library based on changing needs. The Scalar i2000 starts with as few as 100 tape positions, growing in increments of 100 to a maximum tape count of over 2000 tapes, depending on the drive technology selected. The Scalar i2000's form factor matches the dimensions of standard 19-inch data center racks, and it provides the industry's highest density half-inch media storage-up to 80% more than leading competitors.

The Scalar i2000 offers from 1 to 48 drives and up to 1,395 (SDLT), 1,674 (LTO), or 2,232 (AIT) tape cartridges, depending on the drive technology selected, for a total capacity of up to 670 TB. The Scalar i2000 will be available from ADIC reseller partners beginning in May 2003. MSRP for Scalar i2000 libraries begins at $83,000, which includes installation services and a year of on-site service. ...ADIC profile


Sunnyvale, Calif. - March 31, 2003 - Softek today announced Softek Storage Provisioner 2.1, a new product that automatically assigns and allocates disk storage space to applications when needed, thus ensuring maximum availability and uptime. By automatically provisioning network-attached disks, Softek Storage Provisioner helps lower a customer's total cost of ownership by simplifying management of SANs and optimizing the utilization of existing storage assets. Softek Storage Provisioner 2.1 is a key component of Softek Automated Storage™, the company's long-term strategy of associating storage resources to business applications by automating workflows and integrating the storage services (people, processes and tools) to visualize, provision and protect data.

Softek Storage Provisioner software incorporates an easy-to-use workflow scheme to consolidate disparate storage arrays into a centralized storage pool in heterogeneous or single vendor SAN environments. Once established, the central pool automatically allocates storage to application servers, increasing allocated capacity on an as-needed basis. In addition, the software's sophisticated cache algorithms enable greater throughput and faster access times for data requested by applications.

Storage provisioning entails all the moves, expansions and changes involved in allocating storage from the physical device to the application server, which today is done manually, involving as many as 50 labor-intensive steps. Softek Storage Provisioner delivers on the promise of storage provisioning: to make it application-aware and to automate as many, if not all, of the tasks and steps necessary to add new storage to an application, volume or server. Softek Storage Provisioner delivers the right amount and type of storage to application servers on demand without business disruptions and without storage administrator intervention. ...Fujitsu Softek profile


LAKE FOREST, Calif. - March, 31, 2003 - Western Digital Corp. was named as the best maker of storage products and its WD Caviar® Special Edition hard drives were rated as the best storage product according to the recently announced Best of 2002 Readers' Choice Awards sponsored by Tom's Hardware Guide, a leading Internet resource for independent PC hardware reviews. The nominees for the Best of 2002 Readers' Choice awards were selected by the editors of Tom's Hardware Guide; the winners were selected from the Web site's readers.

"Our ultimate goal is to provide customers with the best storage products available on the market," said Richard E. Rutledge, vice president of marketing for Western Digital. "Unequivocal recognition from THG readers who relentlessly demand the best and voraciously purchase WD Caviar Special Edition hard drives is rewarding to our team - a team that has performed admirably to consistently make these the best desktop hard drives available." ...Reader's Choice Awards (THG), ...Western Digital profile


Cupertino, Calif - March, 31, 2003 - HP has released a host-based iSCSI driver, based on the iSCSI v1.0 standard. The iSCSI technology release is intended for HP rp8400, rp7400, rp7410, rp54xx series and rp24xx servers running the 64-bit HP-UX 11i version 1 operating system. The iSCSI software will run over the HP-UX 11i v1 TCP/IP stack allowing SCSI operations to be performed over existing network fabrics using the robust TCP/IP protocol. HP-UX iSCSI provides a very cost effective solution for block access directly to iSCSI storage devices, or using iSCSI to Fibre Channel routers, to SANs.

Technology releases are intended for customers wanting to explore exciting new technologies in preparation for enterprise deployment, but are not intended to be used in mission critical or production environments. This initial iSCSI release is the 1st step in a plan to introduce enterprise ready iSCSI products to this growing market including both software-based and hardware-based (host bus adapter) solutions for the HP9000 server family. ...HP profile


Bristol, UK - March, 31, 2003 - K-PAR Archiving Software has appointed IT-DATA, as its first distributor in BeNeLux. IT-DATA will distribute K-PAR's Archimedia data management software across Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxemburg. IT-DATA provides backup, disaster recovery and SAN management solutions to a number of industries, with particular focus on the medical sector. The partnership with K-PAR will enable IT-DATA to offer a Windows-based archival solution thereby expanding its offering to a wider market. For K-PAR, working with IT-DATA will introduce Archimedia into the BeNeLux region, creating new market opportunities for the organisation.

Rachel Woods, European sales & marketing director at K-PAR says: "We have a strong distribution network in many countries in Europe and the relationship with IT-DATA will extend our operation into the BeNeLux region. IT-DATA has a great deal of knowledge and experience in the storage market and as such is able to add true value to Archimedia and really provide strong archival solutions. We look forward to a flourishing relationship and opportunities for both organisations." ...IT-Data, ...K-PAR Systems profile


MILPITAS, Calif. - March 31, 2003 - Adaptec, Inc. has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Eurologic Systems. The acquisition builds on Adaptec's leadership in direct-attached server storage by allowing the company to provide complete, end-to-end block- and file-based networked storage solutions. Adaptec expects the acquisition to be completed in April 2003. Prior to the acquisition, Eurologic divested its SAN software business into a separate entity, which will continue to operate independently.

Eurologic's broad family of external and networked storage products enables organizations to easily install, manage and scale multi-terabyte storage solutions. The company offers JBOD and RAID SCSI, Fibre Channel and Serial ATA solutions, which are sold through OEMs and resellers worldwide. Eurologic is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, and has approximately 150 employees.

Adaptec will acquire Eurologic as a cash purchase for approximately $30 million and will incorporate the company into Adaptec's Storage Solutions Group. Adaptec will assume all customer and supplier agreements and will serve Eurologic customers through its offices worldwide. The acquisition will provide Adaptec with access to new sales channels and open new opportunities in key industries such as medical imaging and digital media.

"We expect Eurologic will contribute between $60 million and $70 million in revenue during Adaptec's next fiscal year, and provide a positive impact on our bottom line results by mid-year," said David A. Young, Adaptec CFO. ...Adaptec profile, ...Eurologic profile


MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. and PARIS, France - March 31, 2003 - Atempo today announced that it has closed $6.2 million in funding. Banc of America Equity Partners, KBC Investco, Plantagenet Partners and Vision Capital accounted for a majority of the investment in the round. The funding will be used to grow Atempo's business and continue product development plans.

Thierry Flajoliet, Atempo's CEO said "The ability to secure additional funding in a tight market demonstrates Atempo's solid position and sustained momentum. With a decade of expertise in the field of data management and a significant worldwide installed base, Atempo will continue to innovate and provide best of breed storage software to help customers meet the data protection challenges they face across heterogeneous environments."

"We expect the storage market to be one of the first sectors to emerge from the weak technology market. With its world-class product offer and a solid backing, Atempo is well positioned to take advantage of the opportunity created by the growing complexity of storage network environments. We are pleased by the growing interest that Atempo is receiving from storage software analysts both in Europe and in the U.S.," said Sven Lingjaerde of Vision Capital, who was named one of the Top 25 European technology leaders by TIME Magazine Europe in 2001 and in 2002. ...Atempo profile


BURLINGTON, Mass - March 31, 2003 - AppIQ today announced a channel program designed to broaden the availability of AppIQ Solution Suite to Fortune 1000 and government customers by leveraging the technical, sales and support expertise of top-ranked storage solution providers. Targeting SAN storage experts with solid reputations for delivering comprehensive, enterprise solutions devised of product from leading storage vendors, AppIQ has signed seven charter members including Accunet Solutions of Boston, Massachusetts; FedTek of Woodbridge, Virginia; NET Source Inc. of Littleton, Colorado; Rand Federal of Phoenix, Arizona; Sales Strategies Inc. (SSI) of Metuchen, New Jersey; Unique Digital Inc. (UDI) of Houston, Texas; and VeriStor of Atlanta, Georgia.

"An open, standards-based storage management software solution that supports heterogeneous environments is a smart choice for solution providers that offer a wide-range of storage products to their customers," said Tony Prigmore, senior analyst, The Enterprise Storage Group. "The fact that AppIQ already has seven solution providers on board speaks to the value of the AppIQ Solution Suite and could go a long way toward establishing it as a standard feature of SAN solutions offered by the channel." ...AppIQ profile

HOUSTON - March 31, 2003 - The Data Storage Division, of Ovation Data Services, Inc. (Ovation), today announced it is the first to purchase the new Sony PetaSite CSM-200B mass storage tape library, based on SAIT technology. The new PetaSite CSM-200B library has up to 108 terabytes (TB) native capacity in a single 19-inch cabinet, with a scalable total native capacity up to 1.2 petabytes (PB).

"We are pleased to be among the first to purchase this new-generation SAIT-based library from Sony. All data has different access needs, and Ovation DSD is committed to providing each of its customers with best-of-breed solutions for those different access needs. As one of the earliest adopters, we can advance-test the PetaSite library for compatibility with our existing products and solutions to ensure that our customers receive the best total design and deliverables to meet their near-line and mass storage needs," said Gerald Johnson, General Manager of the Data Storage Division of Ovation.

"Sony has collaborated with Ovation DSD for backup and HSM applications to the oil and seismic market for many years. With their purchase of our new PetaSite SAIT library, they continue to demonstrate their support in and encouragement of the advancement of leading-edge Sony storage technologies," said Tom Yuhas, director of data systems solutions for Sony Electronics' Business Systems & Solutions Company. ...Ovation Data Services profile


Melbourn, UK - March 28, 2003 - Plasmon announced the global debut of their new Ultra Density Optical (UDO) drive and media at the CeBIT computer show in Hannover, Germany earlier this month. This is the first time any company has demonstrated a professional blue laser optical drive designed specifically for data archival storage.

UDO employs state-of-the-art blue laser optics and Phase Change recording technology to greatly increase capacity and to enable true Write Once and Rewritable media formats. First generation UDO drives will support 30GB media capacities, growing to 60GB and 120GB in the future. Implemented using ISO standard 5.25 inch drive and media form factors, UDO is the natural successor to the current 9.1GB Magneto Optical (MO) technology. With a 50+ year media life and very low $2/GB media price point, UDO is specifically designed for the long-term archival storage of business critical information.

"We were extremely pleased to be the first company in the world to demonstrate a professional blue laser data storage product. While we're still several months away from product release, all the drives we brought to CeBIT performed flawlessly and there was tremendous interest from end users, our partners and the press," commented Steve Tongish, Plasmon's Marketing Director for EMEA operations. "We're now finishing our final preparations for the North American launch of UDO at the AIIM trade show in New York City at the beginning of April and are confident that UDO will be equally well received in the US market."

Plasmon will be displaying UDO drives and media in their booth (2851) at AIIM 2003 in New York City on April 7-9. ...Plasmon profile


SAN DIEGO and SAN JOSE, Calif - March 28, 2003 - Overland Storage, Inc. announced today that the BlueArc SiliconServer family of products has been tested to work with Overland's active SRM software. BlueArc provides high performance, highly scalable NAS. IT professionals who deploy BlueArc's network storage and Overland's SRM solution will be equipped with a high performance NAS and the right tools to effectively manage their storage requirements.

"An enterprise that runs key applications on a NAS cannot afford to shut down," said John Cloyd, vice president and general manager of Overland's storage management business unit. "Overland's active SRM enables customers to predict and manage storage requirements on NAS systems, such as BlueArc's SiliconServer, through trend analysis, maintenance reporting tools and active management agents, to prevent storage downtime. When NAS solutions are paired with SRM tools, IT managers realize better service, save costs and reduce their workloads." ...BlueAr profile, ...Overland Storage profile


Boulder, CO - March 27, 2003 - Exabyte Corporation today announced support of IBM LTO Ultrium 2 tape drives in its automation products: the entry-level Exabyte 110L tape autoloader, the midrange Exabyte 221L and the scalable Magnum20 tape libraries. Exabyte LTO libraries with IBM LTO Ultrium 2 tape drives provide twice the capacity and more than double the performance of the previous generation Exabyte LTO libraries, meeting the needs of users whose data storage requirements are quickly outgrowing their current solutions. Ranging from 10-cartridge autoloaders to 150-cartridge library solutions, users are now offered automated data storage solutions providing up to 60TB of capacity and throughput of up to 1.7TB/hr. ...Exabyte profile


Andover, Mass. - March 27, 2003 - NaviSite, Inc. today announced it has signed a definitive agreement for the acquisition of Conxion Corporation. Conxion provides software distribution services and security expertise for customers such as Computer Associates, Forbes.com, LSI Logic, Oracle, and Weatherbug. ...Conxion profile


Sunnyvale, Calif. - March 27, 2003 - According to the most recent storage market share report issued by Gartner Dataquest this week, Network Appliance, Inc continued to strengthen its position as the NAS market leader, achieving 37.4% of revenues in 2002. NetApp also led the market for total NAS terabytes shipped, with 41.5%. These figures confirm Network Appliance's winning approach to solving customer challenges for storage consolidation, business continuance, and data center storage needs with an appliance architecture that provides maximum performance, simplicity, and scalability. ...Gartner profile, ...Network Appliance profile


OAKDALE, Minn. - March 26, 2003 - Imation Corp. completed the cleaning and stabilization of the magnetic instrumentation tape recovered from the space shuttle Columbia's salvaged Orbiter Experiment Support System (OEX) data recorder. The recorder, which stores sensor information about temperature, aerodynamic pressure, vibrations and other data from hundreds of sensor locations on the orbiter, operates only during launch and re-entry. The OEX uses magnetic tape to record data that is not sent to the ground by telemetry. Working for NASA and the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB), Imation's role had previously been identified by NASA.

The OEX recorder, which had been recovered Wednesday in Texas, was delivered to Imation's Discovery Technology Center by NASA officials on Friday. Imation scientists worked over the weekend to inspect and evaluate the tape. The visual inspection was conducted using a proprietary non-destructive process based on Imation's extensive recording experience that enabled Imation scientists to pinpoint the place on the tape where it had stopped recording instrument data. In consultation with NASA officials, they developed a process for cleaning and stabilizing the tape, which began on Monday and concluded Tuesday. The cleaning process required Imation scientists to immerse the tape in filtered, deionized water by hand, then dry it. The tape was delivered to NASA on Tuesday for transfer to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida where playback and dubbing of the data onto a new tape will occur. According to NASA, the freshly-dubbed tapes will be sent to Johnson Space Center in Houston and other facilities where analysis of the data by NASA and the CAIB will occur. ...Imation profile


Princeton, NJ - March 26 , 2003 - Dataram Corporation announced today the immediate availability of ECC memory for Dell Precision 450 and 650 Workstations. This unique 1GB upgrade allows customers to double the maximum memory capacity of these workstations; an option not offered by Dell or other memory manufacturers at this time. Dataram's 512MB and 1GB upgrade (DRL650/512 and DRL650/1024 respectively) consists of a single ECC DDR266 DIMM that is 100% compatible with the Dell Precision 450 and 650 workstations and is backed by Dataram's lifetime warranty and free technical support. The Precision 450 and 650 workstations feature dual Intel Xeon processors and support up to 4GB of Dataram memory. Each has four DIMM slots where memory must be installed in matched pairs. ...Dataram profile


MILPITAS, Calif. - March 26, 2003 - Adaptec, Inc. today announced the selection of its leading Ultra320 SCSI solutions - the industry's fastest - for a new line of Hitachi Ltd. workgroup and midrange servers. Hitachi selected the Adaptec SCSI RAID 2015S and 2010S zero channel Ultra320 RAID controllers, the Adaptec SCSI RAID 2200S dual-channel Ultra320 RAID card and Adaptec's Ultra320 chip for Hitachi's pedestal HA8000/70W workgroup server, 1U rackmount HA8000/110W and 3U HA8000/130W workgroup servers and its midrange HA8000/270 server. The HA8000 servers are geared toward midsize and large companies requiring high data availability and optimum price/performance. The low profiles of Adaptec's Ultra320 SCSI RAID cards simplify design of rackmount systems.

"Customers turn to Hitachi for server products that deliver the performance and reliability to support their mission-critical applications and data storage," said Mr. Masahiro Kitano, general manager, Server Development Operation of the Internet Platform Systems Division, Hitachi, Ltd. "Adaptec's Ultra320 solutions deliver best-of-class performance and data protection, powering Hitachi's server line to maximize application performance and system uptime and enhance return on investment for our customers." ...Adaptec profile


CAMPBELL, Calif. - March 26, 2003 - OuterBay today announced that META Group recommends application data archiving as a best practice to improve application performance and lower storage infrastructure costs, as outlined in a recent META Delta research report entitled "Archiving: Databases on a Diet." OuterBay's Application Data Management Suite has been chosen by many Global 2000 companies to quickly and efficiently implement application-aware archiving as a best practice. The software works by identifying inactive application data and moving it onto more cost effective storage where it remains online and accessible to users from their existing application user interface. With OuterBay, enterprises have benefited from performance improvements of over 70%, reductions in production database size of up to 60%, reductions in upgrade outage windows of 42%, and annual storage cost savings in the millions of dollars.

"With projected compounded annual growth rates for databases exceeding 125%, organizations face two basic options: continue to grow the infrastructure (e.g., server size, storage capacity) or develop processes to separate dormant data from active data," writes Charlie Garry, a Senior Program Director at META Group. "As database performance declines, personnel costs increase while application ROI (e.g., productivity, revenue generated) is reduced." To combat the problem, Garry recommends that - organizations should incorporate data archival policies within current design or implementation plans to maintain future performance and reduce related costs. ...Meta Group profile, ...OuterBay profile


Boston, Mass. - March 26, 2003 - Astrum Software today announced joining the Oracle PartnerNetwork. This Astrum and Oracle alliance helps make it easy for joint customers to tightly integrate their Oracle-based solutions with Astrum 1.5, in order to automate storage management best practices and procedures, increase availability of mission-critical applications, and drive down storage management and maintenance costs.

"Being a member of the Oracle PartnerNetwork will help us expand our business opportunities significantly with the help of a leader in the worldwide relational database systems market," said F. Daniel Haley, president and CEO of Astrum Software. "By working closely with Oracle and leveraging their joint marketing programs, we expect to increase market penetration of Astrum Software's Active Storage Management solutions, and gain a broader base of enterprise customers." ...Astrum Software profile, ...Oracle profile


COSTA MESA, Calif., and BURLINGTON, Mass. - March 26, 2003 - Emulex Corporation today announced that AppIQ will incorporate support for Emulex's HBAnyware™ management suite into its AppIQ Solution Suite. The AppIQ Solution Suite is built on the SNIA Storage Management Initiative Specification, an industry standard created for heterogeneous storage network management. The AppIQ Solution Suite is an application-integrated storage infrastructure management solution designed to simplify management and reduce the costs of complex storage environments.

Emulex's HBAnyware technology provides a centralized HBA management suite that enables complete management of Emulex HBAs and the ability to upgrade firmware anywhere in a SAN from a single console. HBAnyware complements and enhances third party management applications such as AppIQ Solution Suite by providing full visibility to the SAN and enabling dynamic access to critical SAN information such as port attributes, link status and discovery information. ...AppIQ profile, ...Emulex profile


Santa Ana, Calif. - March 26, 2003 - I/OMagic Corporation recently launched the latest addition to its stellar optical storage line-up - the CD Duplicator. The CD Duplicator is unique in that it allows users to copy a disc with a touch of a button, yet is a stand-alone device that does not require a connection to a PC or notebook computer.

The CD Duplicator includes a 52X CD-ROM source drive and a 40X12X48X CD-RW target drive and will support CD-R, CD-RW, Audio CD, Video CD, Photo CD, Data CD, Mixed-mode CD, CD Extra, Hybrid CD, mini CD and Biz-Card CDs. The CD Duplicator also supports both a USB 1.1 and USB 2.0 PC link. I/OMagic began shipping the CD Duplicator in Q1 2003 to retailers nationwide with an MSRP of $229.00.

"The CD Duplicator can quickly and efficiently back-up or copy files," said Paul T. McCauley, vice president of Marketing for I/OMagic Corporation. "Users can duplicate a full 650MB CD in as little as 2.5 minutes." ...I/OMagic profile


FREMONT, Calif. - March 26, 2003 - SYNNEX Information Technologies, Inc. recently entered into an agreement with LSI Logic to distribute LSI Logic storage products, including Ultra320 SCSI HBAs and RAID storage adapter products.

According to John Roeser, North American Channel Manager for LSI Logic, "We are pleased to welcome SYNNEX as our partner in distribution. With SYNNEX' world-class expertise in IT distribution and supply chain services, coupled with our capabilities in design competency, reliability and product performance, we can more effectively serve the continued and growing demand for products like our Ultra320 SCSI boards. We are confident this new partnership will quickly broaden our customer reach." ...LSI Logic profile, ...SYNNEX profile


FREMONT, Calif. - March 25, 2003 - M-Systems today announced the release of its new solid-state flash disk with Narrow SCSI interface available in capacities ranging from 512MB to 35GB in the standard 3.5" form factor. It complies with SCSI-2 and SCSI-3 standards and provides sustained read/write performance of 17 megabytes per second and 11.5 megabytes per second respectively.

"The FFD 3.5" Ultra Narrow SCSI is ideal for many retrofit and modernization programs within the military, aerospace, telecommunication, public safety and factory automation that are looking for a reliable data storage using the Narrow SCSI interface," said Ofer Tsur, M-Systems' marketing manager for FFD products. "Operating reliably in harsh environment conditions, it complies with MIL-STD 810F and NEBS level 3, while providing high flash disk performance and capacity."

M-Systems' IDE and SCSI product lines are state-of-the-art solid-state flash disks designed as drop-in replacements for 3.5" and 2.5" ATA and SCSI mechanical hard disks. The FFD line operates at high altitudes, extreme shocks and vibrations at industrial temperature ranges while providing free maintenance data storage solution. ...M-Systems profile


DENVER, CO - March 25, 2003 - Tabernus proudly announces our GeminiQT, NorthstarADT, and Workforce products are now available for testing SATA hard disk drives. Using Tabernus' products engineers will have unprecedented flexibility, control and ability to stress their systems to design limitations. Tabernus provides high performance, script driven test software for SATA drives. This announcement makes Tabernus the first company in our software peripheral testing industry space to provide products for SATA testing.

AriesAT is available for iSCSI Testing. With announcements of iSCSI products from Adaptec and LSI Logic, it seems only natural that Tabernus would now be announcing its test software in beta form for iSCSI testing. Our AriesAT SDK is now available in beta form for testing in iSCSI devices. Tabernus is pleased to announce it is working with other companies for the beta iSCSI program, the most noteworthy being Network Appliance.

Tabernus also announces the first tape drive testing solution specifically engineered for manufacturing plants. ...Tabernus profile


IRVINE, Calif. - March 25, 2003 - Broadcom Corporation today announced the Broadcom® BCM8703, the industry's first single-chip serial 10-Gigabit Ethernet/Fiber Channel transceiver with integrated 10-Gigabit equalizer. This third generation product reduces power consumption and footprint requirements by 50% of competing multi-chip and single-chip solutions making the BCM8703 suitable for use inside of modules or for placement directly onto system line cards in LAN (local area network) and SAN (storage area network) applications.

According to the January 2003 five-year forecast report published by Dell'Oro Group (a California-based market research firm that specializes in strategic competitive analysis in the networking and telecommunications industries), the 10-Gigabit Ethernet market will expand at a compounded annual growth rate of 220% over the next five years.

The BCM8703 features Broadcom's proprietary EyeOpener™ equalization technology designed to enable the use of existing backplanes at 10Gbps while improving system reliability and lowering cost. The EyeOpener technology removes inter-symbol interference on the incoming data stream and enables the reliable transfer of serial 10-Gbps data over longer trace lengths and lower cost PCB material such as FR-4. The BCM8703 performs programmable equalization for up to 12-inches on a FR-4 trace which makes it ideal for XFP module-based LAN and SAN applications.

The deployment of XFP solutions decreases the cost of 10-Gigabit interfaces by 50% or more, but requires serial 10-Gigabit transmission over PCB traces, resulting in a design challenge not adequately addressed by competing products. Broadcom is the first company to address this through its proprietary EyeOpener equalizer technology that enables module and system vendors to design their sub-systems for the lowest cost XFP implementation. ...Broadcom profile


Geneva - March 25, 2003 - STMicroelectronics today announced the acquisition of Proton World International (PWI), a leading smart card software company that specializes in high-security, payment and identification smart card systems and has developed an extensive network throughout the financial services and banking sectors. The acquisition will significantly increase ST's smart card system know-how, particularly in the key banking and financial fields. The addition of this software expertise will fully complement ST's leading-edge smart card chip technology and is in line with the Company's highly successful and long-standing System-on-Chip approach.

Based in Belgium, PWI has approximately 90 employees and develops smart card system software, especially for e-purse, EMV (Europay/Mastercard/Visa) debit/credit cards, PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) security, and data management applications. This software, together with PWI's well-recognized capabilities in specification and certification, is an essential ingredient in a wide range of current and potential smart card applications and having this expertise in-house will significantly strengthen ST's presence and offering in these markets. ...STMicroelectronics profile


Abingdon, UK - March 25, 2003 - The DS-OXUF922-1394B-800 development kit from Oxford Semiconductor provides all the tools needed to create FireWire 800 (IEEE 1394b) and USB 2.0 compliant storage products with the minimum amount of effort and the lowest risk. At the heart of the kits development board, the highly integrated OXUF922 programmable bridge chip offers 800Mbps FireWire 800, 480Mbps USB 2.0 and 133MHz, 80MBps IDE connections. Including GNU C++ compiler and development software, source code and manuals, the kit enables users to write custom software on the OXUF922's embedded ARM7 microcontroller. The development kit is priced at $399. ...Oxford Semiconductor profile


Milpitas and San Jose, Calif. - March 25, 2003 - LSI Logic and Hitachi Global Storage Technologies today announced plans to coordinate their respective product development efforts to speed delivery of next-generation Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) technology. The companies plan to share design implementations, performance testing results and debug information, as well as participate in other joint activities. LSI Logic plans to use the LSI Logic Fusion-MPT™ architecture to simplify and speed development. Hitachi expects to integrate 3Gb/s Serial Attached SCSI-based HDD products into its enterprise storage product line as customer demand increases for the new technology.

Hitachi and LSI Logic were founding members of the Serial Attached SCSI Working Group before submitting the emerging standard to the SCSI Trade Association and the T10 Committee. Both companies continue to be active members of these two standards organizations. LSI Logic products are expected to demonstrate later this year with availability in 2004.

"Serial Attached SCSI will allow Hitachi to extend its rock-solid server hard disk drive product line to create solutions that offer an even greater degree of reliability, scalability and performance for data center and other enterprise applications," said Fumio Kugiya, general manager, Server Business Unit, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. "Hitachi has dedicated, worldwide resources and engineering leadership to deliver Serial Attached SCSI products to our customers both efficiently and cost-effectively."

"Successfully engaging with Hitachi for SAS product development is an important milestone as this new interface technology gains traction," said David Steele, LSI Logic Storage Standard Products director for product planning and management. "Having hard disk drive plug compatibility for both SAS and SATA will allow enterprise users to confidently continue to leverage SCSI technology, its scalability and robust reliability." ...Hitachi profile , ...LSI Logic profile


CHATSWORTH, Calif. - March 24, 2003 - Alera Technologies releases its new DVD Copy Tower Quad Family of multi-drive 4x DVD duplicators offering stand alone DVD/CD duplication in 3 recorder and 7 recorder configurations. The DVD Copy Tower Quad family includes, all in one unit, a professional duplicator controller that boasts over 40 control functions and that can write on the fly simultaneously to either three or seven high speed 4x DVD-R/RW, DVD Recorders without needing a Hard Disk Drive.

"Understanding the growing need for businesses, institutions, and individuals to have the ability to duplicate increasing numbers of both DVDs and CDs, Alera Technologies has successfully developed an advanced DVD Copy Tower family of DVD/CD Duplicators with the speed and control features needed in a professional environment, yet with the widely acknowledged Alera Technologies simplicity that allows anyone to walk up to one and start copying discs immediately," stated Perry Solomon President and CEO of Alera Technologies. "We believe that our unique combination of powerful features coupled with offering the 1:3 and 1:7 DVD Copy Towers at consumer prices and making them very widely available gives our customers exactly what they have been asking for." ...Alera Technologies profile


Seoul Korea - March 24, 2003 - Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. today moved to make DDR2 technology a reality for designers of next generation chipsets with the announcement that Samsung has begun mass production of the industry's first 1GB DDR2 DIMM, which is based on 512Mb DDR2 components.

"DDR2 is a viable technology and will play an important role in enabling the development of a new generation of feature-rich, high-speed gaming PCs, servers and network computers," said Tom Quinn, Samsung's US Vice President of Memory Sales and Marketing. "Samsung is ready to meet the requirements of high-speed, low-power memory solutions for tomorrow's chipsets."

The availability of a DDR2 memory solution in production volume, which features a 4-bit pre-fetch delivering twice the external bandwidth of DDR solution for the same internal frequency, will speed the industry's transition from DDR. The 1.8-volt device features a high-speed data transfer rate of 533Mbps that can be extended to 667Mbps for networks and special system environments. Samsung first shipped engineering samples of a JEDEC standard compliant 512Mb DDR2 SDRAM to major chipset developers last May. ...Samsung Electronics profile


BELLEVUE, Wash. - March 24, 2003 - TeraCloud Corporation announced the launch of SpaceNet™ 3.0. Leveraging TeraCloud's 12 years of storage management expertise, SpaceNet 3.0 expands support for SAN and NAS storage environments to further reduce storage-related costs and increase application availability. With TeraCloud SpaceNet 3.0, IT professionals can leverage new capabilities to quickly assess and manage existing data storage hotspots, customize their view of storage data based on existing business processes, and utilize sophisticated search and real-time file browsing utilities to expose cross-platform causes of storage problems.

With 18% of the Fortune 1000 as TeraCloud SRM customers, we believe SpaceNet 3.0 addresses the core of today's storage management challenges," said Doug Ebstyne, CEO and President of TeraCloud. "SpaceNet 3.0 introduces the concept of 'Management by Exception' by providing the the ability to implement customized business best practices for monitoring and automating the management of critical storage assets in one at-a-glance interface. This capability delivers immediate and dramatic cost savings and performance results." ...TeraCloud profile


EL SEGUNDO, Calif. - March 24, 2003 - Imperial Technology today announced Remote Access Monitor 2 (RAM-2), its enhanced web browser-based tool for comprehensive management, notification, and configuration for Imperial MegaRam and SANaccelerator zero latency solid state storage accelerators. Imperial's RAM-1 tool was released in April 2002 as a SNMP toolset for monitoring, querying, and receiving notification of out-of-tolerance conditions. RAM-2 builds upon the RAM-1 foundation.

"Manageability and administration are hot topics in many enterprises," said Robert David, CEO and President, Imperial Technology. "A cornerstone of our strategy is to improve manageability and create the hooks necessary to seamlessly integrate into other strategic management suites and capabilities. This need is not only driven by market demands but by increasingly sophisticated products such as our 1TB, 1 million I/O per second MegaRam-10000 which uses RAM-2 capability for ease of configuration and management."

"A single instance of RAM-2 can manage a virtually unlimited number of Imperial MegaRam and/or SANaccelerator devices," said Robert Mescher, COO Imperial Technology. "Previously, one had to individually configure each unit which was time consuming and not necessarily an intuitive process. With RAM-2, it's basically point and click functionality to make changes. RAM-2 delivers on the promise of ease of management and a consolidated view that our users need." ...Imperial Technology profile


SAN JOSE, Calif. - March 24, 2003 - Sony Electronics will be offering a new series of PetaSite tape library systems based on SAIT drive technology, currently the industry's highest capacity data tape technology. Designed for content management, data backup and enterprise data storage applications, the new SAIT PetaSite systems are expected to set a new standard for automated tape storage density with up to 250TB of native capacity per square meter of floor space, and a total native capacity of up to 1.2 petabytes (PB). SAIT PetaSite systems, available in June, will bring high-speed backup and restores to life for enterprises and digital content providers. Sustained native data transfer rates for the SAIT PetaSite library will reach up to 2.88GB per second, and a standard file can be restored in just over one minute.
Other news on this page

INRANGE and Nishan Systems Announce Reseller Agreement

ADIC Announces Next-Generation Data Center Library

Fujitsu's Softek Announces New Software Solution that Automates the Workflow for Provisioning Storage to Applications

Western Digital Sweeps 'Best of 2002 Readers' Choice' Awards, Mass Storage Category from Tom's Hardware Guide

HP Releases iSCSI Driver for HP-UX Servers

K-PAR Archiving Software expands into BeNeLux

Adaptec acquires Eurologic

Atempo Raises $6.2 Million in Funding

AppIQ Signs 7 Top-Tier Solution Providers to SP Program

Ovation Data Services Is First to Purchase New Sony PetaSite SAIT-Based Library

Plasmon Demonstrates Ultra Density Optical (UDO)

Overland Storage Teams with BlueArc

Exabyte Announces LTO-2 Tape Libraries

NaviSite Signs Definitive Agreement for the Acquisition of Conxion Corporation

Network Appliance Strengthens Lead in NAS Market

Imation Completes Cleaning & Stabilization of Magnetic Tape Recovered from Space Shuttle Columbia's Data Recorder

Dataram Announces Unique 1GB Upgrade Memory for Dell Precision 450 and 650 Workstations

Hitachi Selects Adaptec's Ultra320 SCSI and RAID

OuterBay Cites Meta Group Research - Archiving is a Good Thing

Astrum Software Joins the Oracle PartnerNetwork

AppIQ to Leverage Emulex HBAnyware™

I/OMagic Corporation Expands Its Optical Storage Line-Up With Introduction of CD Duplicator

SYNNEX Signs Disti Agreement with LSI Logic

M-Systems Releases New Ultra Narrow SCSI Solid-State Flash Disk

Tabernus SATA, iSCSI and Tape Testing Software Now Available

Broadcom Announces Industry's First 10-Gigabit Ethernet/Fiber Channel Serial Transceiver with Integrated Equalizer and Best-in-Class Jitter Performance for Datacom and Storage Networks

STMicroelectronics Announces Acquisition in Smart Card Arena

Oxford Semiconductor's FireWire 800 and USB 2.0 development kit provides complete solution for storage designers

Hitachi and LSI Logic to accelerate delivery of serial attached SCSI

Alera Technologies' New DVD Copy Tower Quad Family Duplicates up to Seven 4.7GB DVDs Simultaneously in as few as 15 minutes

Samsung Announces Mass Production of DDR2

TeraCloud Launches SpaceNet 3.0

Imperial Technology Enhances Management Capabilities for MegaRam and SANaccelerator Zero Latency Accelerators

Sony Debuts PetaSite SAIT-Based Libraries for Enterprise and Broadcast Storage Applications

AmeriVault Relies on Astrum Software to Manage 19 Terabytes of Mixed-Vendor SAN Storage

Seagate and Best Buy First to Offer Serial ATA Hard Drive in Retail

Fairchild Semiconductor Marks its 30th Anniversary in ECL with the Introduction of a New Advanced ECL Logic Family

earlier news (archive)
solid state disks
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Megabyte went through his Michelangelo phase. "Somewhere in that lump of rock is a solid state disk..."

Nibble:- Why Good Fuel Consumption Doesn't Sell ATA Network Storage

R
ecently companies like EMC and Spinnaker Networks have joined the slow moving ATA disk network storage bandwaggon. This is the one in which which you can buy a SAN or NAS stuffed with low cost ATA connected disks, instead of faster and more expensive SCSI or fibre-channel models.

The sales pitch goes something like this. The basic low cost disk drives which you find in a new PC give adequate performance running at 7,200 RPM. Although you can buy disks which run more than twice as fast - the cost penalty is not worthwhile in many real-life applications.

If the accountant is the person in charge of buying storage in your organisation, then this argument put forward by EMC says it all. The ATA populated CLARiiON can slash "50% of the list price in large systems configurations". ...And a 50% reduction off an EMC price is not an inconsiderable sum.

This is not a new idea. Nexsan Technologies was the first company to put its head over the parapet a couple of years ago. The idea that anyone might knowingly want to buy a disk storage system which was not the absolutely fastest was novel at the time.

Surely, when you buy a new computer system you want it to be as fast as you can afford. This is a classic buyer argument. After all, you have to live with the system for many years, during which demand will increase and technology will pass you by. Not necessarily so - said Nexsan. There are lots of situations when the disk storage doesn't have to be so fast - such as archiving data onto disk, instead of tape for example. That was still a theoretical consideration to users a few years ago, because no one was doing this very much.

But the germ of this idea spread and took root. Last year some bigger manufacturers started doing pretty much the same thing. StorageTek called their product BladeStore. Network Appliance called theirs NearStore, while ASACA went one step further with its 48TB FireFly by using Serial ATA hard drives, which can be switched off to save power until the data is actually needed.

Despite all that, the ATA network storage market has been slow to take off, and I think that owes more to emotional factors than the drag from a sluggish economy.

When you buy a car, you know that most of the time it will be parked and doing zero miles per hour. When you're actually driving, the combination of traffic congestion and speed limits, means that you may only average 20 MPH in the town and maybe no better than 50 MPH on the open road. But most drivers still feel more attracted to a Ferrari than a Skoda.

I'm a cautious (read - slow) driver. And I'm very happy with my Renault Clio which my wife mockingly refers to as being powered by a rubber band. It is true, that recently I borrowed my wife's Audi A6, in which the engine alone cost more than my entire car, and found I could comfortably knock 20 minutes off the 2 hour journey time to see my sister, even while keeping to the speed limits and sticking with the winding cross country route which I prefer. That's because, with the Audi, I could overtake slow moving tractors or horse cars. That's something which the rubber band powered Clio can't safely do.

And maybe that kind of worry is a factor slowing down the new ATA network storage market.

The end to end performance of most systems is not driven by the average speed, but by peaks and bottlenecks.

Even if the new low cost ATA disk based network storage systems have been purchased for one application, the fact is organizations change, and there's the suspicion that the accountant will say - That's it! No more IT budget this year. Out of necessity you could end up redeploying it your main online storage. It may be faster than what you have in place today, and even if it does what is claimed when doing an incremental backup there will still be the niggling doubt that it will get you up that hill fast enough when you really put your foot down in an emergency.

It may take more than numerical arguments to lift this market off to the next level. That may only happen when there are enough pioneers out there who have the experience of using them and can share their experiences. Until that time users are no more likely to buy storage systems based on gigabytes per dollar, than they buy cars based on miles per gallon fuel efficiency. Emotion, not logic, sometimes gives the right answers.

See also:- Disk to disk backup

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Curtis
Curtis, Inc., based in Minneapolis, MN, is a leading supplier of solid state disk products, and has been making SSDs since 1985.
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Squeak! - Animal Brands and Metaphors in the Storage Market
Squeak! - Animal Brands and Metaphors in the Storage Market
Animal marketing metaphors are popular in service industries, but you'd be surprised how many companies have used animals in their marketing of data storage products and services.

The storage market was worth over $150 billion in 2005, and as it gets bigger - more companies will turn to animal brands to help differentiate their otherwise bland products and lend them artificial (or deserving) characters and virtues.

The idea behind this type of marketing is to suggest positive connotations so it's unlikely that anyone will choose to associate their products with gremlins. But you may be surprised by the population of the storage ark.

This reference articles lists all known companies who have furry marketing brands, and also includes some which are slimy, scaly and scary too. ...read the article, Mice in storage
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"With petabyte storage management already a reality for some companies, Sony will be arming administrators with a reliable backup and consolidation solution that can scale rapidly, maintain top performance as demands increase, and keep files within quick reach of end-users," said Tom Yuhas, director of data systems solutions for Sony Electronics' Business Systems & Solutions Company. "SAIT PetaSite lets organizations achieve five-nines data availability without hitting the glass ceiling of capacity." news image - Sony's PetaSite library
A basic SAIT PetaSite system will contain two SAIT-1 drives, an Ethernet hub, a terminal server, and a PetaSite control unit. This entry system, encapsulated within a standard 19-inch rack console, will be scalable to house up to 12 drives and 216 cartridges for up to 108 TB of native capacity in a flexible and highly available configuration. Up to seven cartridge and/or drive consoles can be added to the base system. The cartridge consoles will allow users to add up to 330 cartridges for 165 TB of extra native capacity, and the drive/cartridge consoles will house up to 12 additional drives and 258 additional cartridges, totaling nearly 135 TB of extra native capacity.

Yuhas said that PetaBack software, as part of Sony's PetaApp system solution, is optimized for LAN-free backup in storage networking environments. "When organizations are confronted with terabytes and petabytes of various data and video files, management is just as important as capacity and density," he added. "The SAIT PetaSite removes the aggravation from large-scale storage management and backup by automating the entire process through intelligent hardware and software." ...Sony profile


Boston, Mass. - March 24, 2003 - Astrum Software today announced that AmeriVault Corporation is achieving a 115% IRR by using Astrum 1.5 software to proactively ensure availability for more than 19TB of storage containing its customers' mission-critical data. Companies rely on AmeriVault for automated backup and recovery services for critical data in order to ensure business continuity. AmeriVault selected Astrum 1.5 to provide active, policy-based management of these data storage resources across its SANs at data centers in Boston and Philadelphia. Astrum 1.5 enables AmeriVault to automate storage management best practices and procedures, and drive down storage management and maintenance costs.

"It is essential that we track our storage utilization in order to ensure that our customers always have adequate storage capacity to protect their critical business data," said Kevin Harris, AmeriVault Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder. "The old way of manually monitoring and tracking storage utilization was labor intensive and could not scale. Astrum 1.5 enables us to automate these processes, so that we can reliably predict and monitor storage utilization and availability in a constantly growing storage environment, without adding additional resources." ...AmeriVault profile, ...Astrum Software profile


Scotts Valley, Calif. - March 24, 2003 - Seagate and Best Buy, one of the nation's leading entertainment technology retailers, have become the first to offer Serial ATA hard drives to retail consumers. Seagate hard drive kits featuring the new Serial ATA storage interface are now on Best Buy shelves.

Seagate's native Serial ATA design improves hard drive performance because it handles data more intelligently than parallel ATA hard drives, and offers external transfer rates up to 150 Mbytes per second in its first generation - 50% faster than the Ultra ATA/100 bus most commonly used today in desktop PCs. It uses a point-to-point connection that eliminates device bus sharing, making multi-drive systems like home servers work faster, because the full bandwidth of each bus is dedicated to a single hard drive.

Serial ATA can make installing a hard drive and upgrading your system's capacity a breeze. It uses simple socket-style connectors instead of the old 40-pin connectors, so it's as easy to plug in as a phone. Its thinner, longer cables are easier to route, and hot-plug connectivity can mean greater productivity when reconfiguring a PC system. And Serial ATA has eliminated the need to set tiny master/slave jumpers on the drive. Equally important, Serial ATA provides better reliability and improved data integrity for PCs. ...Seagate Technology profile


South Portland, Maine - March 24, 2003 - Fairchild Semiconductor International introduces a new family of high-speed ECL logic devices - the 100EL/LVEL advanced ECL Series. Typical applications include telecom central office switches, servers, data communications routers, memory storage, and ATE. Ideal in high-power backplanes where switching and routing circuitry in rack-mounted cards requires jitter-free, low-skew data, advanced ECL series components are specified for AC/DC equivalency and replacement of competitive advanced ECL product families, including ECLinPS®Lite.

According to Ken Murphy, Fairchild's marketing manager for Logic Products, "Fairchild's 30 years as an ECL market pioneer is strengthened by the introduction of the new 100EL/LVEL Series. This solidifies Fairchild's leadership role as a first-tier supplier of superior, advanced high-speed ECL solutions for both the 5V and 3.3V operating environments."

ECL 100EL/LVEL Series parts offer designers a 3-5 time speed advantage over standard ABT, LCX and GTL single-ended logic devices, and provide 1–3GHz toggle speeds at 3.3V and 5V, with typical propagation delays of 350pS or better. ...Fairchild Semiconductor profile

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