| Idealstor
Releases iBac VIP for VMware Virtual Server Backups |
Gaithersburg, MD -
December 3, 2008 - Idealstor
announced today the release of an enterprise backup solution for VMware virtual
servers.
iBac
Virtual Infrastructure Proxy
is licensed per ESX server regardless of the number of virtual machines or
processors. This enables users to quickly add new VMs without having to worry
about purchasing additional backup agents for each virtual server. iBac VIP
ties into the VCB framework provided by VMware. Because of this, the load from
running backups is removed from the ESX server and offloaded to a dedicated
2003 backup server, such as the Idealstor Backup Appliance.
"We
released iBac in 2005 with the goal of offering an easy to use yet robust backup
application for Windows servers", said Nandan Arora, chief technical
officer at Idealstor. "Over the years our clients have increasingly
migrated to VMware and reached out to us to help them with their virtual server
backups. Rather than simply modifying our existing software for use with VMware
like most software companies have done, we developed VIP from the ground up with
the unique requirements of VMware in mind."
VIP can backup data
residing on a fibre channel
or iSCSI SAN or can
backup data directly from the ESX server over the LAN. VIP offers a simple user
interface that provides scheduling, logging email reporting and the ability to
backup multiple ESX servers on the LAN or in remote data centers.
Intel and Hitachi GST Announce Plans for SAS flash SSDs
SAN JOSE , Calif - December 2, 2008 - Intel and Hitachi GST today
announced
plans to jointly develop and deliver
SAS and
Fibre Channel high IOPS
enterprise-class flash SSDs.
The new SSDs, expected to ship in
2010 will
be branded and exclusively sold and supported by Hitachi GST and use Intel NAND
flash memory and SSD technology.
Editor's comments:- this marks Hitachi GST's entry in the
SSD market. If you can't
wait till 2010 for SAS SSDs - our
SSD Guide
lists RunCore,
Solid Access
Technologies and STEC
as current sources.
Santa Announces Green Server SSD Initiative
North
Pole - December 2, 2008 - Texas Memory Systems
and Santa today announced an
initiative to
replace all monolithic RAID storage at the North Pole with energy efficient and
super fast solid state disks by the end of
2009.
This proactive move is expected to reduce the energy required to
process the "Naughty or Nice" lists by up to 50%. ...read the case
study,
Green Storage -
Trends and Predictions
Editor's comments:- TMS also published
today a
case
study with an online retailer
featured in the Oprah Winfrey Show in
November. Anticipating that their web site would get slammed by viewers - the
CTO turned to a VAR who suggested they install a fast
RAM SSD - the
RamSan-400 to quickly
upgrade their server performance.
Brocade Enhances SAN Monitoring
SAN JOSE, Calif. -
December 2, 2008 - Brocade
today
announced
enhancements to its Network Monitoring Service.
Brocade
NMS
now provides 24×7 expert end-to-end monitoring about the health and status
of data center fabrics to help maximize network efficiency, availability, and
uptime. Moreover, Brocade NMS provides organizations with valuable information
and rules-based business intelligence to maximize application availability and
optimize data center resources. ,
storage services,
storage reliability
Infortrend Reduces RAID Performance Hit from Failed Data Links
SAN JOSE, Calif. - December 2, 2008 - Infortrend today
announced
a new technology - "Dynamic Logical Drive Assignment" which boosts
R/W performance in dual-controller RAID subsystems when a data path has
failed.
Typically, failed data links lead to performance degradation
because the storage controller has to re-direct the I/Os targeting the logical
drive whose primary data path is broken. Infortrend now supplies all its EonStor
dual-controller arrays with the "Dynamic LD Assignment" technology to
improve performance by eliminating the re-rerouting overhead. Once the failure
is identified and corrected, optimal system performance can be immediately
restored. The "Dynamic LD Assignment" now comes with all EonStor
Fibre-,
SAS-, and
iSCSI-host
redundant-controller models using Firmware ver.3.64J or later.
PCI Express SSDs Enter Top 10 Storage Searches
Editor:-
December 1, 2008 -
STORAGEsearch.com today
updated its
monthly
list of the top articles and subjects viewed by storage searchers in
November.
Pageviews for the top 5 most popular articles (all
related to the subject of
SSDs) grew 64%
compared to a year ago.
The directory page for
PCI Express SSDs
entered the top 10 subjects viewed by readers for the 1st time. market research
Job Uncertainty Increases Risks of Illegal Data Migrations
Editor:-
December 1, 2008 - Cyber-Ark
has published results of a recent international IT security survey called -
the Global
Recession and its Effect on Work Ethics (pdf).
50% of US
responders and 27% in the UK said they would be willing to work 80
hours a week if it meant they could keep their jobs. Nevertheless, there is a
risk that workers are using their IT privilege access rights to conspire
behind their bosses' backs to download vital, useful and competitive information
to take with them if and when they get the push.
56% of workers surveyed admitted to being worried about losing their
jobs. Alarmingly, in preparation, more than half have already downloaded
competitive corporate data and plan to use the information as a negotiating tool
to secure their next post. Top of the list of desirable information is the
customer and contact databases, with plans and proposals, product information,
and access/password codes all proving popular choices.
Memory sticks are the
smallest, easiest, cheapest and least traceable method of downloading huge
amounts of data, which is why this is often considered the "weapon of
choice". Other methods were photocopying, emailing, CDs, online encrypted
storage websites,
smartphones, DVDs,
cameras, iPods etc. ...read the
article (pdf), Storage
Security |
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| SSD Market
Missed Opportunities in 2008? |
Editor:- December 9, 2008 - overall pageviews on
StorageSearch.com in the past several weeks are at all-time historic
high levels and are 37% higher than the year ago period.
It's
very gratifying for me as an editor to find that so many of you find the
SSD related articles and
buyers guides so useful.
The most popular article in recent weeks has
been Looking Ahead to the 2009 SSD
Market (on our home page). I've tended to focus on the positive market
developments in that particular article.
But there have been some big
missed opportunities in the SSD market - in 2008 too. In the
interests of balance I've listed them here.
- The abysmally bad design integration of flash SSDs in most notebooks -
which completely miss the true potential of this technology described in my
SSD market
model. The result has been a wave of yawn inducing products which you
would not rush out to buy if your best friend had just bought one. Whether this
has been due to a lack of imagination by notebook product marketers and
designers - or simply the need to rush out designs which tick the SSD box - I
don't know. But I haven't yet seen an SSD notebook I would actually buy myself.
Products on offer at the moment are as inviting as a battery operated engine in
an offroad 4x4 car.
- Several years ago - the big
hard disk makers paid
out to settle class action suits related to misleading claims about
capacity. I
expect that the flash SSD market will be fertile ground for future
performance-related lawsuits from oems and users.
I analyzed the
issues in
Can you trust flash
SSD specs & benchmarks? From my discussions about this subject - it
seems that the root causes lie more in vendor naivety rather than
duplicity. But that's little consolation. The industry needs to get its act
together. | | |
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