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Storage news - 2005, December weeks 3 - 4 |
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| Pioneer
Launches Blu-ray Disc Drives LONG BEACH, Calif - December 27, 2005 - Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. today announced one of the industry's first Blu-ray Disc computer drives. The new Pioneer BDR-101A will utilize shorter wavelength blue lasers in order to store up to 25GB of information on a single layer Blu-ray Disc. It is expected to begin shipping in the first quarter of 2006. The half height BDR-101A Blu-ray Disc/DVD writer will read BD-ROM/R/RE, DVD-ROM/DVD-R/DVD-RW and +R/+RW discs. It offers the following write speeds: BD-R/RE (2X) DVD-R/+R (8X), DVD-RW/+RW (4X) Pioneer has been an innovator of optical disc technology since it brought LaserDisc, the precursor to DVD, to market in 1980. Pioneer went on to introduce the first DVD writer for computer use in 1997, the first DVD recorder as a VCR replacement in 1999, the first DVD/CD writer for home computer users in 2001 and surpassed 5 million sales of DVD writers in 2003. ...Pioneer profile, DVD, Blu-ray and Holographic drives New Article - Animals in Storage Editor - December 23, 2005 - STORAGEsearch today published a new article called:- "Animals in Storage" You know about the mice. But you may be surprised to see how popular the concept of using animal metaphors in the naming of storage products, brands and companies - has been. ...read the article I wish you all a Happy Christmas and Prosperous New Year and look forward to joining you again after the holidays. Ridata Launches "Unbalanced" SD Memory Card Editor - December 22, 2005 - Advanced Media, Inc is adding an "unbalanced" Secure Digital memory card to its RIDATA line. That's an unflattering and peculiar way to name a new product, and it takes a few readings of the press release to understand what it means. The point of this "unbalanced" flash product is that the memory capacity is split into two parts which have different access rights. The secure area cannot be accidentally overwritten, and holds value added data in encrypted form. The other part of the card operates like a conventional high speed flash device. Advanced Media says that proposed markets and applications include:- GPS makers and publishing companies that sell e-books with encrypted chapters. The product will protect competitors or software pirates from stealing proprietary data, while still making it accessible in a low cost convenient format in consumer devices. The RIDATA Unbalanced SD memory card is available in capacities of 384MB (256MB free space and 128M secure storage), 768MB (512M free space and 128MB secure space), and 1.5GB (1,024M free space with a 512M encrypted area). ...Advanced Media profile, Flash, Storage Security, SSD symmetries Seagate acquires Maxtor SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif - December 21, 2005 - Seagate and Maxtor today jointly announced they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Seagate will acquire Maxtor in an all stock transaction. Under the terms of the agreement, which has been unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both companies, Maxtor shareholders will receive .37 shares of Seagate common stock for each Maxtor share they own. When the transaction is completed Seagate shareholders will own approximately 84% and Maxtor shareholders will own approximately 16% of the combined company. The value of the transaction is approximately $1.9 billion. ...Maxtor profile, ...Seagate profile, Hard disk drives, Acquired storage companies Editor's comments:- I'm not surprised. In my article published in May looking at the next 1,000 days in storage, I gave the reasons why I dropped Maxtor from my top storage companies of the future list. And from my own limited communication with them I just got the impression that they were clueless about the important things happening which would affect their market. Google's Mouse Unrelated to Byte Clan Editor:- December 21, 2005 - I was intrigued to see what looked like a mouse appearing on Google's home page today. So I'll just take this opportunity to allay any rumors that STORAGEsearch.com has acquired Google (or the other way round). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Google changes their home page from time to time and they use IP tracking to present different content to different readers based on where they think they are. So just in case it's not visible when you look - here's a little sample of what it looked like. |  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| You can see clearly
from the shape of the ears, that Google's mouse is not a member of the Byte
clan. That reminds me, I will try and publish our long researched article on animal metaphors in the storage market before Christmas. You'd be surprised just how many there have been. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| the Solid State
Disks Buyers Guide Editor:- December 20, 2005 - STORAGEsearch today published the 3rd annual edition of - "the Solid State Disks Buyers Guide". The guide lists SSD products by interface and form factor and summarizes developments in the market in the past year. This is typically one of the top 3 articles read by STORAGEsearch.com's readers in the whole year. Even the old editions are quite popular. ...read the article, Solid state disks Primera Releases SDK for DVD Burning & Printing Plymouth, MN - December 19, 2005 - Primera Technology, Inc. today announced its PTDevSuite Software Developers Kit. PTDevSuite provides a comprehensive API for Windows XP/2000. It allows software developers to quickly and easily integrate automated CD-R and DVD R burning and printing (using Primera's Disc Publishers) into their own software programs. PTBurn runs on Windows 2000/XP but the client can be from any Windows, Mac or Linux computer that can access the Windows shared folder over the network. PTDevSuite SDK is available at no charge to software developers and integrators. ...Primera profile, CD & DVD duplicators, Storage Testers Exanet Granted Storage Software Patents NEW YORK, NY - December 19, 2005 - Exanet announced today it has been granted two new patents for its award winning, standards based storage technology by the US Patent and Trademark Office. Exanet has been granted U.S. patent numbers 6,934,880 and 6,922,757. Patent number 6,934,880 refers to a distinctive failover system and method, while patent number 6,922,757 is granted for an innovative distributed shared file system. These technologies are employed in all of Exanet's storage software solutions, and result in the reliability and high data availability for which the ExaStore product is known. ...Exanet profile, Storage Software EVault Announces 'Data Turkey' Award Winners Emeryville, Calif. - December 16, 2005 - EVault, Inc. today announced winners of its first annual Data Turkey Awards to honor business professionals who have lived through a data loss, or whose actions and quick thinking have helped to avert a data disaster. The awards were open to any small business owner, IT or business professional. The winner in the Most Disastrous Data Loss category was Brian Scott, president of Landmark Commercial – a commercial real estate firm based in Arlington, Texas. Scott's entry proves how the path to data disaster is often paved with the best of intentions. When his server at work melted down, Scott went back to his apartment to retrieve a backup copy of critical business data he had stored on a portable hard drive. "As I was leaving my apartment, the hard drive slipped out of my hand and tumbled down a flight of concrete stairs! I ran down the stairs, but after one look at the case, I knew that years of data and lots of valuable work were lost," said Scott. "From that point on, every day I worry about backing up business data." The winner in the Most Spectacular Data Recovery category was Dunbar St. Paul, a 20-year veteran computer consultant and president of New Orleans, La.-based Computer Solutions. St. Paul's entry detailed his travails during Hurricane Katrina, when his entire client base (30 companies in all) temporarily lost access to their data. St. Paul says recovery efforts for one client consisted of driving across the shoulder of the road, jumping over a fence and trudging through mud to reach the building – and then donning boots to wade through 18 inches of muddy, toxic water to retrieve his client's servers. St. Paul worked to get businesses back up and running in hot sites from Memphis, Tenn. to Houston, Texas. "All-in-all it has made everyone here aware of the need for secure, off-site, reliable and efficient data backup and storage," said St. Paul. "We had a backup to tape - but here's the kicker - the tapes were inaccessible. Nobody expects there to be a disaster, but the threat is fairly real - even though we hadn't had a hurricane in 40 years." Winners each received a $500 gift check and a free one-year subscription to EVault's Protect online data protection solution for up to 10GB of data. EVault also will make a $500 contribution on behalf of each winner to a local charity or food bank of their choice. ...EVault profile, Data Recovery, Backup Software, article:- Surviving Non-traditional Data Disasters - by Sunbelt System Software Silicon Image Appoints William J. Raduchel to Board SUNNYVALE, Calif. - December 16, 2005 - Silicon Image, Inc. today announced the appointment of William J. Raduchel, 59, to the company's board of directors. With more than 30 years experience in the information technology and consumer industries, Raduchel has held various senior executive positions at AOL Time Warner, Inc., Sun Microsystems, Inc., Xerox Corporation, and McGraw-Hill, Inc. Raduchel will serve as a key strategic advisor to Silicon Image based on his vast business, financial, commercial, consumer, media and technical experience. He is currently the chairman, CEO and a director of Ruckus Network, a digital entertainment network for students at colleges and universities featuring national, local and campus-based programming over the university networks. ...Silicon Image profile, Serial ATA (SATA), Storage People 2005 Storage Market Exceeds $150 billion Editor:- December 16, 2005 - this is the time of year when I add up all the numbers, from reports published on this page, throughout the year to estimate the size of the storage market in 2005. I haven't completed extracting all the data yet. I'm collecting the numbers and trends together temporarily here. My commentary on the "big thing" in 2005 is already on the storage history page. I'll collect up all the various strands into a 2005 review - just in the nick of time as usual - before the end of the year. One thing's for sure. The storage market in 2005 is much bigger than last year. Here are just some of the numbers:-
ComplianceVault Archives Email for SMBs OAKDALE, MN - December 15, 2005 - Imation Corp today announced it will launch with its partners, Intradyn and Exabyte, the industry's first VXA and LTO-enabled ComplianceVault email archiving appliance. This is a completely integrated hardware and software solution that archives businesses' email messages on a continuous basis, from a virtually unlimited number of mailboxes. When the Imation ComplianceVault solution is connected to an organization's network, all email messages are immediately and continuously saved and indexed to disk, in addition to being archived and indexed to tape at intervals specific to the needs of the company. The appliance is a complete, all-in-one, bundled solution with a single upfront cost, unlike competitive offerings that require customers to pay ongoing per-user license fees and software maintenance costs. The Imation ComplianceVault archiving appliance is available immediately at prices starting at under $10,000. ...Exabyte profile, ...Imation profile Swissbit Launches DDR2 Editor:- December 15, 2005 - Swissbit today announced immediate availability of its DDR2R memory modules. This is aimed at users who like to have different colored components inside their systems. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Instead of the usual green PCB they now come in bright red. So I added the extra "R" suffix because I think that DDR2R (DDR2 "Red") is easier to read than with the prefix - RDDR2 ("Red" DDR2). |  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| That brings to mind
prequels and sequels, and if we're not careful we're going to end up getting
confused with that charming little robot in
Star Wars. The new color applies to all Swissbit's DDR2 modules with capacities ranging from 256MB to 2GB and speeds ranging from 400MHz to 667MHz. Actually I'm red/green color blind - so I just have to take it on trust that I used the right picture. ...Swissbit profile, Storage News in Pictures Sun Veteran Named Arkeia's New CEO CARLSBAD, Calif. - December 15, 2005 - Arkeia Corporation has announced the appointment of storage industry veteran Alain Péchon as its new CEO. Péchon brings more than 20 years of leadership in IT companies to Arkeia, including previous management positions with Sun Microsystems, Amdahl and EMC. During his 15 years at Sun Microsystems, Péchon established and grew sales organisations to more than 800 people and $500M in revenue. Most recently, Péchon was CEO of Calendra Software and directed its merger with BMC in 2005. He replaces former Arkeia CEO Phil Roussel.  "Arkeia has a proven product that has been in the market for more than seven years, a large and dedicated base of customers, and participates in a fast growing market segment: data protection," said Péchon. "Customers such as Porsche, Disney and NASA already rely on Arkeia products and I am thrilled to lead Arkeia through its next phase of growth." "Alain has an outstanding track record of building world-class organisations," said Arnaud Filhol, general partner at SPEF Ventures. "As Arkeia matures into a leader in the data protection software market, Alain is the ideal person to direct and lead the company." ...Arkeia profile, Backup Software, Storage People Avamar Names VERITAS Veteran to Board Irvine, California - December 15, 2005 - Avamar Technologies, Inc. today announced that Joe Julian has been appointed to its board of directors. Mr. Julian most recently served as the Senior Vice President, Americas Sales and Global Accounts for VERITAS Software which was was acquired by Symantec in July of 2005. As Senior Vice President of Americas Sales and Global Accounts for VERITAS, Mr. Julian's organization managed the sales and support renewal operations for all products in the United States, Canada, and Latin America. Mr. Julian joined VERITAS Software in 1997 through the merger with OpenVision Technologies. "Joe Julian is a great addition to the Avamar team. I believe his experience and background will help him make an immediate impact," said Ed Walsh, CEO of Avamar. "We are confident he will be a valued contributor to our Board of Directors and a steadfast steward of our shareholders' interests." ...Avamar Technologies profile | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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