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Moonwalks Data
to Plasmon's Shiny Media
Australia - September 29, 2008 - Moonwalk today
announced that it has partnered with Plasmon on a joint
solution that provides companies using traditional HSM solutions greater control
of their datasets and optimal use of their storage infrastructure without the
associated management headaches.
Moonwalk 6.0 can intelligently move, copy or archive files from
various platforms and file systems to the Plasmon Archive Appliance based on the
business value of the unstructured data under storage.
"Plasmon's
UDO Archive
Appliance complements the Moonwalk environment by providing the natural
repository for infrequently accessed files that must be retained." said
Patrick Dowling, VP of Global Marketing for Plasmon. "Data migrated to the
Archive Appliance is secured on both disk and true WORM UDO media. This strategy
ensures data accessibility, record authenticity, and the 100 year UDO media life
provides long-term access while greatly extending data lifecycles."
Editor's
comments:- a few weeks ago Steven Murphy, President and CEO Plasmon
published an update on the company's
status and restructuring
plans. See also:- Optical
Storage Libraries, Backup
Software
ULINK Invites SSD OEMs to Participate in SATA-IO Interoperability
Workshop
Santa Clara, CA - September 29, 2008- ULINK Technology will
provide a range of testing tools for designers and manufacturers during the
SATA-IO Plugfestthis
week in Milpitas, California.
ULINK considers that it will be a good
opportunity for new SSD
designers and manufacturers to test the compliance of SATA-IO industrial
standard by working with ULINK during this coming event.
Storage Events,
Storage Testers &
Analyzers
Toshiba Samples 256GB 2.5" SSD
TOKYO -
September 26, 2008 - Toshiba said it is sampling a 256GB 2.5"
SATA MLC flash SSD with R/W speeds of 120 / 70 MB/s.
Mass
production will be in the 4th quarter.
...Toshiba profile,
2.5 inch SSDs
Toshiba Launches Highest Capacity 1.8" Drive
IRVINE,
Calif. - September 24, 2008 - Toshiba today announced the
industry's first 250GB 1.8-inch HDD.
The 5,400 RPM disk has a
SATA interface and Toshiba's free fall sensor option, which enhances
protection from external shock and vibration events. Peak media transfer rate is
707Mbps. Volume shipments begin in December.
...Toshiba profile,
1.8" storage drives
VMETRO Ships High Capacity VPX Buffer Memory Board
Houston, TX - September 24,
2008 - VMETRO today announced the availability of the industry's
largest capacity 6U VPX buffer memory board.
The
MFC700 is a 6U
VPX-REDI
(VITA 48)
buffer memory node with support for up to 16GB of DDR2 SDRAM memory on the
baseboard, dual XMC
mezzanine sites and support for
Serial RapidIO
fabric. Designed for applications that buffer large amount of high-speed data,
the MFC700 can be utilized in signal and image processing applications, as well
as data recording subsystems. The MFC700 supports VxWorks and Linux.
...VMETRO profile,
Military & Rugged
Storage
Seagate Services Renamed i365
Editor:- September 23, 2008 - Seagate
today announced a comprehensive rebranding of its EVault, MetaLINCS, and Seagate
Recovery Services companies into a single new brand - i365
i365,
a Seagate Company, focuses on the unique needs and expectations of small,
mid-size and enterprise companies. The "i" in the name represents
information and "365" for commitment to be reliably available and
accessible to customers.
The product offerings from i365 include
i365 EVault Data Protection, enabling the protection and recovery of businesses'
mission critical data; i365 MetaLINCS E-Discovery solutions for first pass
processing, content analysis, and review of electronic information for
investigatory and litigation needs; and i365 Retention Management solutions
comprising data recovery, migration, restoration and data management that bridge
the needs of E-Discovery and data preservation.
...i365 profile,
renamed storage companies,
Data Recovery
New Directory will List SSD User Groups
Editor:-
September 23, 2008 - has the
SSD market reached the
size and complexity where enterprise users could benefit from SSD User
Groups?
I think so. If you're thinking of setting one up, or have
done so already and would like a free listing on the mouse site to promote what
you're doing - go to the
SSD User Groups page
Cypress Integrates Non Volatile Static RAM in Controller
SAN
JOSE, Calif. - September 22, 2008 - Cypress Semiconductor Corp. today
introduced the industry's first device to integrate a non-volatile static random
access memory (nvSRAM) and a programmable system on chip.
The new
PSoC NV family combines the flexible design capabilities of Cypress's flagship
PSoC architecture with an infinite endurance nvSRAM in a single package.
PSoC NV devices integrate configurable analog and digital circuits, controlled
by an on-chip microcontroller, providing both enhanced design revision
capability and component count savings. The secure-store data logging devices
target the computing, networking, telecomm, automotive and industrial markets.
"The PSoC architecture offers integration and flexibility
advantages over other embedded control offerings, and nvSRAMs deliver superior
performance compared to other non-volatile memories," said Robert Dunnigan,
VP of Non-Volatile Products business unit at Cypress." ...Cypress Semiconductor
profile
Editor's comments:- I thought you might want to
think about the potential of using nvSRAM in
flash SSDs.
In
the future I think that very high performance flash SSDs will incorporate
small amounts of non volatile RAM technology - to get better internal controller
performance.
Current designs use large flash arrays and
relatively small volatile RAMs. As there is always a risk of power failure -
the way that the internal state of the SSD controller is managed is a defensive
compromise which protects against data loss - but doesn't permit the same level
of random access time that you would get if the designers were confident that
the RAM was non volatile. This design trade-off is compatible with high
throughput - but (even in the best designs) results in an order of magnitude
worse latency than RAM SSDs.
For
those interested in seeing how nvSRAM technology could be integrated in an SSD
controller take a look at the article called
nvSRAMs
eclipse battery-backed memory. The example given in the article is for
industrial products. But remember that most innovations in SSDs
originally
came from either hard industrial or military applications.
SNIA Announces Solid State Storage Initiative
Editor:- September 22,
2008 - SNIA has announced the formation of its Solid State Storage
Initiative.
As a result, a whole
bunch of SSD
related articles have appeared on SNIA's site, although most seem to
require registration to read them. Voting membership of the SSSI costs $5,000
a year.
Vincent Franceschini, Chair of the SNIA said - "SNIA
has created the SSSI to propel the solid state technology in the storage
industry. Drawing from the experience and expertise of its existing and new SNIA
members, the new Initiative will work to advance the knowledge and acceptance of
solid state storage by evaluating and contributing to the standards necessary
for industry-wide adoption, as well as through education, training, and best
practices." ...SNIA
profile
See also:-
Storage ORGs,
SSD Alliance ,
SSD oems directory
MTI Names CMO
Godalming,
UK - September 22, 2008 - MTI today announced the appointment of
Aad Dekkers to the position of Chief Marketing Officer and Head of
Business Development.
Aad will direct MTI'smarketing strategy and
business development. Aad will report directly to Keith Clark, MTI's CEO. Aad
joins MTI from Network
Appliance where he was the Director of Products, Solutions & Alliance
Marketing for Europe and served on the board of
SNIA Europe. ...MTI Technology profile ,
Storage People
Is Deduplication of Data safe? - and More Deduplication FAQs
Editor:- September 22,
2008 - StorageSearch.com has published a new article - on the subject
of - "Data Deduplication."
Its author Philip Turner,
UK Regional Director at Data
Domain described his article as the "Ultimate Deduplication FAQs".
But it's more than mere FAQs - as the paper combines multiple mini essays on
this subject in an easy to read guide. ...read the article
Is Cucku's Business Plan Cuckoo?
San Francisco, CA - September
18, 2008 - Cucku today announced version 1.20 of its free Social
Backup software for Windows.
"Cucku Social Backup puts a
new twist on the age-old chore of
backing up," said
Laura DuBois, storage
software research director at
IDC. "With Cucku,
people enjoy the peace of mind of backing up their data at a remote location,
with the added benefit of knowing exactly where their backup resides, and who is
looking after it. Cucku brings an element of social connection to the backup
process that is difficult to match by traditional hosted backup providers."
Cucku Social Backup relies on a partner approach whereby files are
encrypted and backed up on a friend or family member's computer. Social backup
offers the same peace-of-mind provided by hosted
online backup
solutions, without the cost. The current version is free. A Pro version may be
launched later. ...Cucku
profile
Editor's comments:-
Cucku faqs page answers a lot of
questions such as - What happens if my backup partner's computer has a virus or
spyware infection?
This software is in the same market space as
BuddyBackup from
Databarracks.
Unlike the first generation of free consumer online backup services
which appeared in the
late
1990s (which were mostly supported by invalid web advertising models) you
don't have to worry that your backup will disappear if the original software
supplier does.
The business model behind the new social backup
products seems to be - that if a tiny percentage of users convert to
a paid version with more features - then overall - the customer acquisition
costs are lower than would be the case by advertising only a paid version.
Advertising is expensive. (We know.
We sell it. And so does
Google. ) Advertising is
not sustainably viable for many low value single lifetime purchase products.
Will the new generation of give-away social software products survive?
It's hard to say. Our gone-away
list includes nearly 500 storage companies who thought they had better plans.
Only time will tell if there are enough consumers who care about backup to make
social backup viable. Could be a better long term prospect than most banks
though.
SAMSUNG Securities Chooses Solid Access Technologies' SSDs to
Accelerate AIX Servers
Newburyport, Mass - September 17,
2008 - Solid Access Technologies today announced a significant sale of
its RAM based SSD accelerators to SAMSUNG Securities Co., Ltd, a
full-service investment bank.
Solid Access (working with its
Korean partner NEOframe Inc.) earned SAMSUNG Securities' business after an
exhaustive 6 month evaluation in competition with other
DRAM-based SSD vendors
and an incumbent Tier 1 RAID
supplier.
For use within SAMSUNG Securities' market data processing
activities, 28x
USSD 200 devices are
being integrated with 28
IBM
POWER6 570 servers running AIX.
With a 10 microsecond access
time, Solid Access provides very fast IOPS and data bandwidth performance to
tackle the demanding tasks of this critical business function, which requires
low latency and high
reliability. Meeting these benchmarks plus a track record of zero field
failures after 2 years of 24x7 customer production usage, the USSD 200 met all
the requirements of SAMSUNG Securities.
"This sale by Solid Access Technologies of a DRAM SSD solution
into the financial space is testimony to the imminent, and significant market
presence that SSD is going to have within users and applications that demand the
highest performing possible storage systems," said Mark Peters, an analyst
at Enterprise Strategy Group.
"This presence will not be measured in terms of capacity, which is how
we've traditionally measured storage devices, but will be in terms of raw
throughput, delivering truly impressive I/O per $$ and per KW."
...Solid Access
Technologies profile
Editor's comments:- you can be pretty sure
that the IT guys in SAMSUNG Securities can easily think of at least one
locally based company which makes
flash SSDs. This
story clearly demonstrates that expert users with demanding applications
understand the critical
differences between
RAM and flash SSDs. |
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International
Microsystems, founded in 1976,
is a leading manufacturer of flash
memory card testers,
SSD testers, SSD burn chambers and duplicators. | |
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Recession - the New Green? |
Editor:- September
19, 2008 - with banks failing or merging on a daily basis - I thought it might
be time to look again at my article- "Is the SSD Market Recession-Proof?"
That
got me thinking... What about the rest of the
storage market?
You may think that - like death and taxes - the need to buy ever more
storage is inevitable. And surprisingly we haven't seen a downturn yet in the
rotating disk storage market. An IDC report published earlier this month said
that the external disk storage market
grew 17%
year-over-year in the 2nd quarter of 2008. But - as with stock markets -
heed my warning. The past doesn't predict the future.
The
storage market is not imune.
Due to mergers in the financial
markets there will soon be a flood of "nearly new" enterprise
storage systems and servers flowing into the broker / recycling market - just
as when the dotcom bubble bust. The impact may not hit new storage sales
immediately - but users don't need to buy factory fresh rotating disk
arrays if they can pick up identical products at a quarter of the price
in an auction.
I have no doubt that we'll read a lot more about "recession-proof
" products, strategies and trends in the next few months. |
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"Recession" will
become the new "Green" for
PR writers. It
won't be possible to see a news story or article which doesn't include a
liberal sprinkling of the R word. | | |
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