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2007, April week 3, Storage news

. Megabyte's selection of storage news
Megabyte loved reading news
about the storage market
See also:- Squeak! - the Solid State Disks Buyers Guide
article:- a Short History of Disk to Disk Backup
Squeak! - the Fastest Growing Storage Companies
Squeak! - Who's Eating Whom in the Storage Market?
Squeak! - SSD Myths and Legends - "write endurance"
article:- Flash Memory vs. Hard Disk Drives - Which Will Win?
article:-the Future of High Speed HDDs Doesn't Lie in 20K RPM
last week's storage news, storage news Google, market research, events
storage history:- Apr 2000, Apr 2001, Apr 2002, Apr 2003, Apr 2004, Apr 2005, Apr 2006
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SAN DIEGO - April 20, 2007 - Overland Storage, Inc. today reported a 14% reduction of its workforce as well as other actions to reduce costs. "For the last 6 quarters, Overland has invested significantly in new product development, including our new ARCvault tape automation platform, new hardware and software for our REO disk-based backup and recovery appliances as well as sourcing and testing our new ULTAMUS RAID products," commented Scott McClendon, chairman of the board and interim president and CEO of Overland Storage, Inc. "As a consequence, our level of R&D spending during those periods was higher than at any other time in the company's history. At this point, most of our investment in these new products is behind us, and they have either been launched or soon will be announced. It is now time for us to reduce our cost structure and concentrate on returning Overland to profitability." ...Overland Storage profile, Tape drives

Editor's comments:-
Tape backup related searches dropped out of the top 20 subjects viewed by STORAGEsearch.com's readers in March as part of a long term trend and drift to disk to disk backup. Although tape library oems have marketed D2d products in recent years - their high cost (compared to similar capacity products from traditional RAID vendors) has not reversed the customer flow away from vendors in the tape segment.


DENVER,CO - April 19, 2007 - Mushkin today released the HP2-6400 5-4-4 modules available in 4GB dual-channel kits and 2GB single DIMMs. Designed for high-performance and value the HP2-6400 is specified for operation at 800MHz, 5-4-4-12 latencies. ...Mushkin profile, RAM


SUNNYVALE, Calif - April 19, 2007 - MoSys, Inc. announced today that BiTMICRO Networks has become the latest licensee of MoSys' 1T-SRAM embedded memory macro technology. BiTMICRO will leverage MoSys' technology to add new performance, latency and area advantages to its range of E-Disk solid-state storage solutions. At a speed of 350MHz in a standard 90-nm CMOS logic process, the MoSys-enabled BiTMICRO memory macro reaches a performance level that is unmatched by other embedded memory technologies. ...MoSys profile, ...BiTMICRO Networks profile, storage chips, Solid State Disks


SANTA ANA, Calif - April 18, 2007 - STEC, Inc. today announced an extension to its Zeus-IOPS Solid State Drive family with the addition of 512GB and 256GB versions offering enterprise systems the performance equivalent of up to 200 hard drives in just one drive. The company also announced that an agreement has been put in place with a worldwide leader of on-demand and real-time media delivery technology systems, wherein the Zeus-IOPS SSD was thoroughly analyzed and successfully deployed. This customer views STEC's SSD technology as a vital means to enabling video-on-demand services at speeds that were unattainable using traditional rotating hard drive solutions.

STEC believes that solid-state Flash drives with high-IOPS performance will address the growing needs of the enterprise-class drive market. With NAND Flash prices declining on a continued rapid pace, prices for FC, SAS and SATAII-based SSDs are expected to drop below $2 per GB by 2012 which implies 512GB of high-performance storage for less than $1,000. Based upon these capacity and pricing dynamics, STEC expects that the high-IOPS SSD will make up a significant percentage of the $5 billion high-performance hard-drive market. This will make the comparative performance gains of SSD over HDD even more compelling. ...STEC profile

See also:- Squeak! - SSD Market Adoption Model
article:-the Future of High Speed HDDs Doesn't Lie in 20K RPM



Melville, NY – April 17, 2007 – it was announced today that Sun Microsystems will resell FalconStor Software's IPStor (disk-based data protection solutions). FalconStor has also certified Sun's SunFire X4500 (4U, 48 disk storage box) for the IPStor platform running on Linux. IPStor adds iSCSI and Infiniband to the X4500´s Fibre Channel connectivity plus extensive enterprise-class storage services. In addition for data protection, FalconStor has certified the x4500 for its branded VirtualTape Library on Sun Solaris.

"Data is growing so fast that many of our customers are continually facing significant storage management challenges across their IT environment," said Nigel Dessau, senior vice president of storage marketing and business operations at Sun. "Many of those customers require a highly reliable and robust disk-based data protection solution to alleviate time and resource demands. FalconStor´s IPStor platform is an important part of the integrated package Sun can provide those users, to help them get a better handle on their burgeoning data needs." ...FalconStor profile, ...Sun profile, Disk to disk backup


Westborough, Mass - April 17, 2007 - ExaGrid Systems, Inc. today announced sales for the first quarter ending March 31 were up 66% compared to Q4'06. ExaGrid's compound quarter-over-quarter average growth rate, Q4'05 to Q1'07, is 54%. More than 20% of ExaGrid's customers have now made follow-on purchases adding to their initial ExaGrid deployments. And nearly 60% of ExaGrid's customers have now adopted its disk-based backup solution for onsite and offsite backups – many of them eliminating tape from their backup process. ...ExaGrid Systems profile, Disk to disk backup


ALISO VIEJO, Calif - April 17, 2007 - QLogic Corp today announced that it has completed a license agreement with Sun Microsystems and joined the OpenSolaris storage community, making it the "first company to offer fully qualified Fibre Channel HBAs and technology for OpenSolaris". More than 95% of Fibre Channel HBAs in Solaris OS environments are from QLogic. This large installed base encompasses the entire range of Sun application and hardware environments. ...QLogic profile, article:- Surviving the Solaris x86 Wars

Editor's comments:-
it shows how much things change. 10 years ago the main FC adapter companies supplying the Sun market (in the SPARC Product Directory) were companies like Antares Microsystems, JNI, Performance Technologies, GENROCO, Emulex and many others...

QLogic was certainly not the first to supply FC HBAs into the SunOS market, nor the SPARC Solaris market. But by the time Sun's OS got renamed to OpenSolaris - and was born again for the Intel market - most oems had exited the Sun compatible market or been acquired / gone bust or went on to do other things.

...Later:- QLogic's claim that it supplied "more than 95% of FC HBAs in Solaris environments" was shown to be spurious and without foundation. I was informed that Sun had forced QLogic to retract this claim - and it doesn't appear in the company's later archived version of this press release.

I had already ridiculed another assertion by QLogic about being "first" in Solaris.

To sum it up... Not a single claim in the original press release stands up to independent scrutiny. It's not unusual for vendors to make over reaching claims in their press releases but this was a particularly striking example.


Taipei, Taiwan - April 16, 2007 - Transcend today announced a 32GB 2.5" IDE solid state drive for the notebook market and a 1" 8GB IDE flash disk for industrial PCs and set-top boxes. Transcend also announced that its global sales reached $131 million in March 2007 - the highest monthly revenue in the company`s history. This is a growth rate of 85% from $71 million in sales during February, and an outstanding increase of 166% from $49 million during the same period in 2006. ...Transcend profile, Solid State Disks


LAS VEGAS - April 16, 2007 - Volicon today announced the availability of an extended storage option for the company's Observer video monitoring solution. With the capacity to store content from 4 channels for up to 1 year, the Observer ExtendStore online storage option enables hassle-free FCC and ASCAP/BMI compliance and simplifies both internal governance and fulfillment requests from viewers and advertisers.

"The minimum requirements for storage of aired broadcasts differ broadly among stations, government agencies, and other stakeholders," said Julius Perl, Volicon's vice president of marketing. "Without a uniformly defined standard, more and more broadcasters are choosing the flexibility of one- and two-year digital storage configurations. The new Observer ExtendStore enables such long-term storage in a 'set-it-and-forget-it' model that minimizes the need for human intervention and provides ready access to content when needed."

Volicon's Observer system is based on a powerful, proprietary streaming video engine and player. Using web interfaces, users can log broadcasts and search, retrieve, analyze, and export video clips with metadata, locally or remotely. Its easy export functionality provides for internal asset sharing or repurposing for external distribution via the Web or other platform.

Observer allows users to check not only video and audio quality, but also the presence of closed-caption information. With a real-time link to ratings data, the Observer system allows users to evaluate their broadcasts and even compare their content and ratings against those of competing stations. ...Volicon profile, Storage Testers & Analyzers


CAMPBELL, Calif - April 16, 2007 - ONStor Inc. today announced a record first quarter 2007 along with the appointment of Thomas Gallivan as Senior VP of Worldwide Sales. ONStor achieved a 157% increase in sales over the same quarter of the previous year while also benchmarking 357% increase in International bookings.

Thomas S. Gallivan expands ONStor leadership with over 17 years of worldwide sales and sales management experience. Previously, Tom was VP of Worldwide Sales for Rackable Systems where he was responsible for global sales of server and storage products for the enterprise, web and high performance computing markets. He achieved 9 consecutive quarters of record growth in bookings and revenue. In addition, he has worked with Sun Microsystems, MAXSTRAT and Seagate. Tom's solid direct sales track record complements the ONStor channel strategy.

"File based content is growing at an alarming rate and it generally consumes more capacity than other data types," said Tony Asaro, Senior Analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group. "As a result, the NAS market is booming. ONStor is one of the few storage vendors that provide best-in-class NAS solutions for a wide set of applications and environments. They can support Windows file serving needs, Web 2.0 applications and high performance computing." ...ONStor profile


SNW, San Diego, CA - April 16, 2007 - Intel Corp today announced the industry's first 2U, 12 drive, integrated quad-core storage server: the Intel Storage Server SSR212MC2. Powered by the quad-core Intel Xeon processor 5300 series, this new rack mount server can be configured as a broad range of enterprise and small business storage solutions, including NAS, SAN and application servers. The Intel Storage Server SSR212MC2 will cost $2,800 MSRP with no RAID controller and $3,600 MSRP with the Intel SRCSAS144e RAID Controller and will be available from participating Intel Channel partners in May. ...Intel profile, RAID controllers


Ronkonkoma, NY - April 16, 2007 - Peer Software, Inc. today announces Peer DRS, centralizing management of database backups and replication from a single location and from a single application. Peer DRS also replicates database changes to one or more remote locations acting as warm standby servers. The initial release will support MS SQL Server; future releases will support other database platforms (MS Exchange, MySQL, etc.).

Peer DRS automates the replication of databases and incremental changes on a primary server, which are then restored onto one or more target standby servers. Transaction logs are automatically backed up throughout the day (for whatever interval specified), which are then automatically restored on a standby server located anywhere in the world. This keeps the two Databases in "synch"; should the production server fail, users simply have to point the users/applications to the new server and perform a database "role reversal." A free 15 day evaluation copy is available. Pricing is $899 per MS SQL instance. ...Peer Software profile, Backup Software


SANTA CLARA, CA – April 16, 2007 – Mellanox Technologies, Ltd. announced the demonstration of a 40Gb/s InfiniBand server-to-server connection over a copper cable using advanced versions of the recently announced ConnectX IB Host Channel Adapter. These are the first I/O adapters to support the increased performance of PCI Express 2.0 – a doubling of bus speeds expected to be integrated in server and storage platforms over the next year.

"This 40Gb/s demonstration is strong evidence that InfiniBand will continue to provide connectivity performance leadership for the industry's most demanding computing and storage applications, and it's software compatible with the InfiniBand installed base," said Shai Cohen, Mellanox's VP of operations and engineering at Technologies. ...Mellanox profile, Record Breaking Storage


SAN DIEGO, CA - April 16, 2007 - today at Storage Networking World - Overland Storage, Inc. announced its new ARCvault 48 tape automation solution. ARCvault 48 supports up to 38T of storage in a 4U form factor. The library features 48 cartridge slots, up to 4 LTO-3 tape drives and simplified SCSI and Fibre Channel connectivity. ARCvault 48 is now available from Overland partners worldwide for a starting MSRP of $13,500 ...Overland Storage profile, Rackmount Storage, Tape Libraries


Irvine, Calif - April 16, 2007 - Toshiba today introduced a 200GB 2.5-inch USB portable external hard drive. The new drive (MRSP $229.99) comes bundled with NTI's Shadow backup software. ...Toshiba profile, Hard disk drives, USB storage


San Diego, CA – April 16, 2007 – Neterion Inc. and iStor Networks announced they are conducting a live demonstration of an iSCSI-based SAN operating at line rate 10Gbps speeds at the Storage Networking World Conference this week in San Diego. The network can address more than 80,000 IOPS and 1,160 MBytes/sec throughput. It features Xframe II, a member of Neterion's family of V-NIC 10GbE adapters, and iStor's GigaStorATX 10GbE network storage controller.

"Neterion and iStor want to clearly demonstrate to SMBs that they no longer have to make price/performance tradeoffs for their storage area networking needs," said Philippe Levy, vice president of marketing at Neterion. "iSCSI over 10 Gigabit Ethernet enables companies to leverage their existing IP network infrastructure and expertise, to roll out high-performance and high-reliability IP SANs at a fraction of the cost of Fibre Channel, and without the need for highly-specialized FC experts." ...iStor Networks profile, ...Neterion profile, Storage Events


Las Vegas, NV - April 16, 2007 - BiTMICRO Networks today announced at NAB 2007 that it has once again proven the reliability and durability of its E-Disk solid state disks utilized in extreme operating environments. Spacecraft avionics developer SpaceQuest was contracted by a private aerospace company to develop a groundbreaking design that goes beyond the limits of traditional spacecraft architecture. After finalizing the new design, SpaceQuest looked around for a reliable storage drive for the spacecraft's computer vision system during orbit.

SpaceQuest decided to deploy non-volatile E-Disk ATA/IDE solid state disks from BiTMICRO Networks. The E-Disk SSD has a proven track record in ruggedized applications, operating reliably even in high-altitudes (up to 120,000 feet) and extreme operating temperatures (-60°C to + 95°C). Upon installation, company engineers delightfully noted that the pure solid state E-Disk ATA/IDE flash drive consumed minimal power and integrated well with the spacecraft's network of computers connected by proprietary bus and interfaces.

"The E-Disk solid state flash drive epitomizes what a high-performance, plug-and-play storage device should be," states Mark Kanawati, Vice President, SpaceQuest. "The unit that we purchased was up and running within one hour after delivery, providing critical storage functionality for our spacecraft's vision system." ...BiTMICRO Networks profile
Overland Reduces Workforce by 14%

MoSys' 1T-SRAM will Speed Up BiTMICRO's E-Disk

0.5 Terabyte 3.5" SSD Aims at Video on Demand

Sun Strengthens D2d Capability with FalconStor's IPStor

ExaGrid Reports Revenue 66% Growth

QLogic's Fibre Channel HBAs Dominate OpenSolaris Market

Just Another 2.5" SSD Maker - Fast Growing Transcend

Volicon Increases Realtime Storage Capture for Broadcasters

ONStor Sales Up 157%

Intel Unveils Quad-Core Storage Server

Peer Software Launches Centralized Database Replication

Mellanox Demos 40Gb/s Connectivity Over Copper

Overland has a 38T Tape Library 4U

Toshiba Ships 200G 2.5" USB Drive

iStor & Neterion Show 10GbE iSCSI SAN at SNW

Mushkin Expands High-Performance 4GB DDR2 Lineup

BiTMICRO's SSD Shows "Out of this World" Durability

AmeriVault Completes SAS 70 Type II Certification

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Sometimes the News isn't What's Written in the Press Release
Two stories in April 2007 - illustrate how sometimes the text in a vendor's press release is not the real story. The examples I've chosen relate to QLogic and Sun Microsystems.

The 1st example concerns both companies and a QLogic press release (April 17) which made 2 claims:-

(1) - that QLogic was the first to offer a qualified Fibre Channel HBAs host adapter for OpenSolaris. That was a claim which was patently ridiculous - and I commented on it immediately when running the press release. I knew this to be the case because during the 1990s my day job was being the editor of the SPARC Product Directory - which included a directory of SunOS and Solaris FC adapters. QLogic was by no means the first nor the most significant FC oem in the Sun market for most of that time.

(2) - QLogic went on to claim that

"More than 95% of Fibre Channel HBAs in Solaris OS environments are from QLogic. This large installed base encompasses the entire range of Sun application and hardware environments."

- Well - that was news to me. But a lot of oems had dropped out of the Sun compatible market - and I had no reason to doubt it - although I was surprised.

...Later:- this claim was shown to be spurious and without foundation. I was informed that Sun had forced QLogic to retract this claim - and it doesn't appear in the company's later archived version of this press release.

So the real story here is that editors will be very cautious about running future market share stories from QLogic until the memory of this over reaching false claim fades. That will clearly benefit rival Emulex - because in the past 5 years or so - regular as clockwork (every quarter) - one or other of these 2 companies has published a press release showing how they have either retained or won the #1 market share in Fibre Channel HBAs. Emulex has always used reliable 3rd party market research data to support its own market share claims, and the credibility of its press releases and market positioning statements therefore carry more weight.

The 2nd example concerns Sun Microsystems' (April 23) press release celebrating the company's 25th anniversary - which included among other things - some discount promotions and a special web site to celebrate Sun's "quarter-century of innovation".

This kind of PR is usually harmless fun - so I thought I'd spend a few minutes having a nostalgic look. Then, to my surprise - the text commenting on the launch of Sun's first SPARCstation sounded remarkably familiar.

Where had I seen that before?

I checked - and sure enough - I had written it myself in an article published 1996 celebrating the 1st Decade of SPARC history.

Sun had just copied the whole paragraph verbatim and cut and pasted it into their own feature - without attribution or a backward link! Not much innovation in doing that...

I contacted Sun and they said they would do something about it - although they haven't yet as I write this (April 26).

For the real story here is that Sun (a company who has shut down many independent VAR businesses citing trademark and copyright issues) should itself be guilty of a blatant violation of copyright. Even if Sun later adds an attribution or removes the text the fact is that readers who have already seen the original celebration article on Sun's web site have no inkling that Sun marketers used my commentary on the historical significance of Sun's pivotal workstation.

I often come across websites and articles that have lifted part or even whole articles without permission and without attribution. Usually they are rogue sites - or if not - the mistake is quickly corrected. I'm very sensitive to this issue - because my livelihood depends on writing stuff that the right sort of readers want to read.

Anyway, if you have been... thanks for reading.
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top news stories in recent months

April

week 1 - First 8Gbps Fibre Channel Protocol Analyzer
week 2 - Seagate Launches DIY Data Recovery Software

March

week 1 - 60nm DRAM in Production
week 2 - Intel Enters the SSD Market
week 3 - Maxell Launches World's 1st iVDR Hard Drive
week 4 - Silicon Image Ships New Storage Processors

February

week 1 - Mellanox Announces IPO Details
week 2 - SimpleTech Divests RAM Business Focuses on SSDs
week 3 - Aleratec Super Tower Duplicates 120 DVDs / Hour
week 4 - Hard Disk MTBF Specs Incredible

January

week 1 - First Terabyte Hard Drive
week 2 - RELDATA Reports 300% Sales Growth
week 3 - Seagate Ships Record Breaking 2.5" SAS HDDs
week 4 - Showcases Thinnest 2.5" 64G SSD
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Top 20 Storage Searches
The top 20 most popular storage categories on STORAGEsearch.com in March 2007 were as follows... Figures in brackets (n) indicate rank the month before.
  1. Disk to disk backup (1)
  2. Solid state disks (3)
  3. Hard drives (2)
  4. RAID systems (5)
  5. NAS (4)
  6. Market research (11)
  7. iSCSI (7)
  8. Serial ATA (SATA) (10)
  9. Backup software (14)
  10. Removable Storage (6)
  11. Serial Attached SCSI (12)
  12. Data Recovery (15)
  13. Boxes & enclosures (9)
  14. Optical Libraries (13)
  15. SAN (16)
  16. Acquired, dead, renamed etc (18)
  17. RAM (19
  18. Flash memory (8)
  19. USB storage (17)
  20. Disk Sanitizers - new to top 20
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