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IBM's
Misleading Million IOPS SSD Press Release
Editor:-
August 29, 2008 - a recent IBM blog posted yesterday seems to be aimed
at gullible naiive readers who don't look deeper than headlines.
It
provides additional details related to an
IBM
press release saying that their engineers have demonstrated a sustained
rate of over one million IOPS with a response time of under one millisecond
using a flash SSD
system.
However, if you read the detail - far from proving that IBM
is soon to be a world leader in SSD technology - you learn that the "IBM
part" of this technology was the server and the engineers who installed a
bunch of what appear to be COTS (Commercial Off The Shelf)
PCIe SSDs from
Fusion-io - which you
too can buy and deploy on other servers. And there are plenty of other
fast SSDs which can
be built into scalable arrays too.
This kind of publicity from IBM is
what led to the phrase
FUD (Fear
Uncertainty and Doubt) in past decades by the legendary creator of the IBM
compatible mainframe market Gene
Amdahl. The SSD market has already seen a lot of nonsensical claims and
analysis being published in the IT media because most editors don't
understand what they're writing about. It looks like IBM is going to add to
the smoke and mirrors in an effort to divert buyers until they manage to acquire
or badge engineer a credible SSD of their own.
...Later:- in
a press release a week later (September 3, 2008) - Fusion-io's CEO Don
Basile commented "IBM's choice to use our solution to increase the
performance of their world-class storage systems validates our ioMemory
technology as the leading enterprise solid-state architecture. We are excited to
work with IBM as they develop their next generation storage solutions that will
not only increase performance for a broad range of applications and workloads,
but also improve the effectiveness and power efficiency of next generation data
centers."
Adaptec Acquires RAID Controller Maker Aristos Logic
MILPITAS,
Calif. :- August 28, 2008 - Adaptec Inc. today announced it has
signed a definitive agreement to acquire Aristos Logic Corp in a cash
transaction worth approximately $41 million.
Adaptec's president
and CEO Sundi Sundaresh said - "Aristos Logic will provide us with a
strong ASIC roadmap. Their next generation 6 Gb/s serial RAID controllers will
expand our channel offerings and enhance the value of our current lines of
Unified Serial SATA and SAS products."
...Adaptec profile,
...Aristos Logic profile,
acquired storage
companies, RAID
controllers
Introducing RunCore SSDs
Editor:- August 28, 2008 - RunCore
is a new name in the international SSD market which I only learned about today.
RunCore
says it aims to become "the leader in the field of solid-state storage."
Usually such statements are nonsense. But the company's SSDs are
already available in an impressive variety of form factors which start at 1.8"
and go all the way up to rackmount enterprise SSDs with SAS interfaces and
RAID protection. Its broad range of SSD interfaces also place it in the same
exclusive club as
BiTMICRO and
STEC.
Founded
in 2006, RunCore has extensive intellectual property based on 10 years of
research in the National University of Defense Technology in China. RunCore
says it's developing a bunch of high performance SSDs which will be available in
2009 - but the company is already shipping many products now. ...RunCore profile
...Later:-
RunCore entered the Top 10 SSD companies list for the first time in
Q1 2009
896TB Storage Archive MAID for Global 5000
LONGMONT,
Colo. - August 27, 2008 - COPAN Systems has entered into a strategic
relationship with Quantum Corp. to deliver a file-based archive data
management solution for unstructured data.
This new solution enables organizations to archive up to 896TB
of file based, persistent (non changing, fixed or static) data in a cabinet with
an industry leading footprint of under 1 square meter. Specifically engineered
for government and Global 5000 companies, the combined solution consists of
Quantum's StorNext Data Management Software and COPAN Systems' Enterprise MAID
(Massive Array of Idle Disks) disk-based storage.
...COPAN Systems
profile, ...Quantum
profile
Surveillance Video Gets New Archiving Software
Escondido, CA -
August 27, 2008 - SoleraTec LLC today announced Phoenix Surveillance
Video Management.
Phoenix SVM reduces the costs associated with
long-term surveillance video data. It automatically moves surveillance video
from primary storage in DVRs and NVRs to archive storage while preserving
watermarks, time codes, analytic information, and other surveillance
system-provided metadata. Archived video data is continually monitored and is
automatically migrated to media that provides the most cost-effective storage
that meets the data's storage longevity and access-performance requirements.
...SoleraTec profile
AmeriVault Offers Off-Site Restart & Data Recovery for
iSeries Servers
Waltham
MA - August 26, 2008 - AmeriVault today announced the availability of
an advanced, hardware-free, hosted disaster recovery service for iSeries servers
(also known as AS400 or System i) that allows remote access to a virtualized
recovery environment following a disaster.
The foundation of
RestartIT-VDR for iSeries consists of
online backup and
virtualized standby recovery servers hosted at one of AmeriVault's secure,
world-class datacenters.
Should a client encounter an outage or suffer a disaster, rapid
recovery commences: the backup data is recovered to AmeriVault's standby
iSeries server – all achieved remotely for the client. With iSeries'
compression and with GbE connectivity in AmeriVault's datacenters, the recovery
process to AmeriVault's recovery servers can take just a few hours. End users
can then VPN-in to resume operations while the primary systems are rebuilt.
Full recovery is typically achieved in 10 hours or less.
RestartIT-VDR for iSeries allows clients to remotely access
AmeriVault's virtualized iSeries environment for up to 30 days following
the declaration of a disaster – for no additional charge – providing
plenty of time for a company to rebuild its primary systems following a
disaster.
...AmeriVault
profile
Editor's comments:- sounds like a realistRunCoreically designed
service. In fact many online backup companies offer engineering assisted data
recSTECovery as part of
their high end services. For example
CRC Data Protection
has an
enterprise
package which includes shipping media for a bare metal restore - if the
amount of data would take too long to recover online.
Are RAM SSDs Threatened by Enterprise flash SSDs?
Editor:- August 26,
2008 - in a new update to the discussion article - RAM SSDs versus Flash SSDs -
which is Best? - Jim Handy, founder of Objective Analysis
shares his thoughts about this subject.
Comparing the application
roles for the 2 main SSD technologies in a way that elegantly avoids heaps of
IOPS data Jim Handy says - "If a flash SSD can be likened to using
dynamite, then a DRAM SSD can be compared to a nuclear bomb." ...read the article
Royal Bank of Scotland's Customer List Sold on eBay
Editor:- August 26, 2008 - the
leading story today on the UK's BBC broadcast news was that 1
million bank customer records had been found on a disk bought for $70 on
eBay.
This is the 2nd major data security story to hit the
headlines in less than a week. The earlier case involved the loss of UK police
records containing data for
thousands of
criminals.
Commenting on last week's incident - George Symons, CEO
of Yosemite Technologies
said "This is not the government's fault as they provided an encrypted data
storage device to their contractors, who then unencrypted and promptly lost
another memory disk. Human failure is increasingly the weakest link in an
organisation's business processes. In this instance the technology exists to
automatically encrypt data as it is sent to storage on removable media like
dongles."
The prisoner records are still missing, but the bank customers in
today's story can breathe a sigh of relief that the purchaser of the unsanitized
disk was an honest citizen.
see also:-
Disk Sanitizers,
Findings from 1,000
Data Recoveries, Storage
Security
Databarracks Unlocks Free Buddybackup
London:-
August 26, 2008 - Today Databarracks announced that it is offering
refunds to all Buddybackup users who have paid for the full version of its
popular Buddybackup software.
The decision comes as Databarracks
removes all of the limitations within the free version of Buddybackup, a
peer-to-peer online backup software used by tens of thousands of people in over
126 countries around the world.
Buddybackup uses the spare space
Editor:- August 26,
2008 - in a new update to the discussion article - RAM SSDs versus Flash SSDs -
which is Best? - Jim Handy, founder of Objective Analysis
shares his thoughts about this subject. on buddies' computers creating a
free storage trade between you and your friends with no costs; all you need is a
buddy with internet connection and some free disk drive space to share. Files
are backed up in real time and all data is encrypted to military standard so
your data can't be accessed or read by your Buddies.
With a number of free or very low cost
online backup services
failing and leaving many customers without access to their data within the past
year, the Buddybackup solution seems to rise to users' expectations. While other
backup providers are not able to sustain backup service, leaving users' data
irretrievable, Buddybackup users can have multiple copies of their data saved on
friends' or families' computers so that they are always going to be able to get
the data back. Buddybackup also caters for a number of businesses that use the
software to backup their corporate laptops or remote offices back to their own
central storage server.
Currently Buddybackup runs only on Windows XP. However,Databarracks
says it plans to extend this to other OS's including Linux and Mac
...Databarracks
profile,
Backup Software
Tandberg Increases RDX Capacity Decreases Backup Window
Oslo
Norway - August 25, 2008 - Tandberg Data today introduced RDX
FileKeeper software which provides transparent, "always-on"
continuous data protection for its removable disk backup systems.
Tandberg
Data also announced the availability of the 500GB RDX QuikStor cartridges.
The MSRP of the RDX QuikStor with a 500GB cartridge including all
necessary accessories and RDX FileKeeper backup software is $699. The MSRP of
the 500GB cartridge is $499.
"Research has shown that 40% of SMB's don't back up their data at
all, and 60% of all data is stored on PC desktops and laptops", says Bharat
Kumar, vice president of marketing and development at Tandberg Data. "Furthermore,
most business users who do have a back-up device do not back up their data on a
daily or even weekly basis. A third of computer users lose all files due to
events beyond their control, and
hard drive crashes
occur every 15 seconds. A plug and play, ruggedized device that offers CDP,
automatically, will be able to prevent disastrous data loss."
...Tandberg Data
profile , Disk to disk
backup, Removable
Storage
Patriot Memory Speeds Up 2.5" SATA flash SSD
Fremont,
California - August 22, 2008 - Patriot Memory today released the 2nd
version of their Warp SSD.
Available in 32GB, 64GB and 128GB
capacities, Patriot's 2nd Warp version boasts read speeds up to 175MB/sec and
write speeds up to 100MB/sec.
"SSD technology is growing exponentially" says Jay Meng,
Flash Product Manager for Patriot Memory. "With read and write speeds
exceeding today's current HDD technology and prices for flash products becoming
more affordable, it's easy to see why SSD technology is the wave of the future."
...Patriot Memory
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