| Asempra
Announces a New Way to Instantly Rollback and Resume 24/7 Windows Apps |
Santa Clara,
Calif. - January 20, 2009 - Asempra Technologies
today introduced its Business Continuity Appliance.
Designed for
Microsoft environments the 2U rackmount
iSCSI /
FC SAN
appliance
(price $30,000) provides a Terabyte of storage which can be rolled back to any
recovery point (with second by second resolution) and deliver data to
applications within 30 seconds of a rollback being initiated, instead of hours
or days with traditional D2d
or tape backup systems.
And unlike clustered servers or HA storage (which merely provide data
continuity) Asempra's BCS can instantly restart from your chosen "good"
data set - before a virus or software corruption occurred.
Editor's
comments:- $30,000 seemed like a steep price for a disk backup / recovery
system - so I asked more about it. One of the problems with this product is
terminology. It sounds like a lot of other storage solutions - but is actually a
different class of storage. The technical stuff on Asempra's site is clear and
you will quickly recognize if it's the right product for your type of
application. Like
RAM SSDs - it's not for
everybody.
RamSan SSD Revenue Grew 20% in 2008
Houston, Texas -
January 20, 2009 - Texas Memory Systems today announced that revenue
from sales of its RamSan line of SSD products grew 20% in 2008.
The
company also recorded record 4th quarter sales.
"We feared the
global financial crisis and increasing competition would have a bigger impact on
our 2008 results," said Woody Hutsell, Executive VP at TMS. "However,
our solid state disks are often used in mission-critical applications and, in
such applications, customers value Texas Memory Systems' engineering experience
and 30-year longevity. Savvy IT managers will always be reluctant to put their
critical data on a first generation product, whether it comes from a Fortune 500
company or a venture-funded startup."
"We are cautiously
optimistic about 2009," continued Mr. Hutsell. "Solid state disks are
an important part of modern telecommunications systems, financial exchanges,
national defense systems and 'green IT'
initiatives which are likely to benefit from new government investment.
Additionally, a solid state disk can cost-effectively extend the life of
existing IT infrastructure allowing cash-strapped IT managers to postpone major
purchases."
...Texas Memory
Systems profile
Editor's comments:- while 20% annual revenue
growth is indeed impressive - it nevertheless represents a slow down for TMS,
which in some earlier years had reported growth rates between 45% and 80%.
One factor may be that in the past year the server acceleration market has
become very competitive. Nearly 30 oems market
rackmount SSDs -
and if you add in the SSD speedsters from the
2.5" and
PCI Express SSD
markets you'll easily tot up more than 40 companies seriously competing in the
space where Texas Memory Systems operates. Given those factors - and the
recession - 20% revenue growth for TMS indicates a strong brand and product
line.
In my article -
Is the SSD Market
Recession-Proof? (published July 2008) - I said "Overall a recession
will be good for vendors of faster server oriented SSDs (both flash and RAM
based) - but a recession will be bad for vendors of notebook SSDs." My
many recent discussions with SSD vendors (and the press release from TMS
today) seem to confirm this.
Austin Semiconductor Announces Smallest Mil Temp 4.8Gb DDR2
Austin,
Texas - January 19, 2009 - Austin Semiconductor, Inc. announced
volume availability of a new mil temp DDR2 memory device.
Packaged
in a 16mm x 23mm, 208 ball BGA with a ball pitch of 1.00mm, the 4.8Gb device is
organized as 64M x 72 and offers performance benchmarks up to 667Mbps data rate
while operating within the Mil-Temperature range of -55 to +125 degrees C,
which makes it ideal for hi-reliability applications. The 208 PBGA offers 61%
space savings, 55% I/O reduction, reduced part count and reduced trace lengths
for lower parasitic capacitance.
"With 208 PBGA we continue to
expand our product line of high performance highly integrated iPEMs (Integrated
Plastic Encapsulated Microcircuits). The AS4DDR264M72PBG1 is our smallest device
in the 4.8Gb product offering and will continue to drive towards smaller, lower
power and more reliable memory products using our integration process" says
Frank Muscolino, VP of Business Development. ...Austin Semiconductor
profile, storage chips,
Military & Rugged
Storage
Hitachi GST Attracts Magnetic CTO
SAN JOSE,
Calif. - January 19, 2009 - Hitachi Global Storage Technologies
today announced the appointment of Steven Campbell to the position of
Chief Technology Officer.
As the top technology executive for
Hitachi GST, Steven will play a strategic role in the company's future direction
and business growth.
Steven has 30 years of experience in the
electronics and data storage industry, having served in senior executive roles
at Western Digital
and technology management roles at
Quantum and
HP. Most recently he was CEO
of Innotek Limited and its subsidiary
Magnecomp Precision Technology,
a strategic component supplier to major
hard drive companies
(which was acquired by TDK
in 2007). ...Hitachi
profile, Storage People
Dress Down Jeans Less Risky than Smart Suits - Implies Survey
Editor:-
January 19, 2009 - Dry Cleaners are becoming an unintended potential recycling
point for USB storage -
according to a report today from CREDANT
Technologies.
In a phone survey of 500 laundries in the UK -
CREDANT found that on average 2 USB sticks were found each year by each site.
Dry cleaners in the suburbs, on the commuter belt or based in city centres find
the most USB or memory sticks. One dry cleaner in the heart of the City of
London said he is getting an average of 1 USB stick every 2 weeks, another said
he had found at least 80 in the past year.
Extrapolating from this sample, the company estimates the UK annual
figure for USB storage left at dry cleaners to be over 9,000.
Are
Brits more forgetful than others? Or does this show that wearing casual clothes
(which can be processed in your own washing machine) presents a lower
security risk than
formal suits. See also:-
Disk Sanitizers
Article Suggests - You Wash Backup Cares Right Out of Your Hair
Editor:- January 15, 2009 - AjaxWorld
magazine has published an article called - "Taking Backup and Recovery
Management off IT's To-Do List."
Author Bill Watson argues that outsourcing the responsibility for
recovering data is a better idea for many organizations than doing it in-house.
Coincidentally this is just the kind of service his company (Symantec
Managed Backup Services) sells.
See also the classic (2001)
article:-
Developing a Disaster
Recovery Procedure - by BakBone
Software which concluded "A Disaster Recovery Plan usually cannot be
written by the IT Deparment alone and should not be created for a given computer
or data center. Typically, effective Disaster Recovery plans are a long-term
project... "
A contra argument I suggest is that
backup and
data recovery are too
important to entrust to a single external service provider. In the interests
of data survivability you need diverse providers of this service (internal as
well as external) just as you need diverse backup locations and media types.
Where did my headline come from? - Listen to the song on
I'm gonna wash that man
right out of my hair |
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| PCIe SSDs Set the Controls
for the Heart of the Server |
Editor:- January 16, 2009 - StorageSearch.com
disclosed that pageviews for
PCI Express SSDs had
overtaken 1.8" SSDs
during the first half of January.
"Interest in PCIe SSDs is
definitely on the rise" said editor Zsolt Kerekes.
"This was the 4th most popular SSD form factor viewed by readers in
December 2008, and is
now the 3rd. Vendors of PCIe SSDs have often claimed this is a more natural fit
for server acceleration than traditional storage networks or storage interfaces.
As the credit crunch squeezes the fat out of server replacement budgets - more
users will look at SSDs as
an alternative way of doing more for less."
See also:- Pink
Floyd (1973) video
Set The
Controls For The Heart Of The Sun | | |
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| If you could get 3 messages
to the most important people in your industry to help them understand your view
of the market what would they be? |
| the SSD
Bookmarks | | |
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