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Storage news - July 8-14, 2009

the fastest SSDs
the SSD Buyers Guide
the Top 10 SSD Companies
adaptive R/W and DSP in flash SSDs
the BIG market impact of SSD dark matter
Enterprise SSDs - the Survive and Thrive Guide
New Disk Backup Article

Editor:- July 14, 2009 - a new article is published today on StorageSearch.com called - "Aspects of Disk Backup".

Written by Andrew Brewerton - Technical Director (Europe) - BakBone Software - the new article comprehensively reviews the why? how? and where? of today's modern enterprise disk backup techniques.

StorageSearch.com has had a decade long affinity with enterprise disk backup - tracking changes in the market since the concept 1st began. This overview article brings that coverage right up to date - from the perspective of a leading company in the backup software market. ...read the article


Most Secure USB Memory Stick

Editor:- July 13, 2009 - IronKey today announced the launch of its S200 USB flash drive for government and enterprise customers.

IronKey's CEO David Jevans said: "The IronKey S200 is the first and only USB flash drive to achieve the demanding FIPS 140-2, Level 3 security validation from NIST, giving even more proof that IronKey is the world's most secure flash drive. We are also releasing a suite of new enterprise remote management capabilities, available over the Internet from the IronKey managed service, or from our enterprise server software that companies can install and operate themselves."


Seagate Ships 600GB 15K HDD

Editor:- July 13, 2009 - Seagate announced today it's shipping its Cheetah 15K.7 600GB 15K RPM hard drives.

Editor's comments:- according to our news archive Seagate shipped the world's 1st 15K RPM hard drives 9 years ago in June 2000.

Ever since then servers using "so called tier 1" storage have been slugged by the slow access times of Millenium vintage hard drives.

It was the lack of a rotating disk technology roadmap that led to the SSD revolution - which despite its steep learning curve and pitfalls (for the unwary) offered the only viable escape route for performance smothered applications.


Editor Disaster Recovery

Editor:- July 10, 2009 - the stereotype articles on our backup and data recovery pages are about dozy sys admins who hit the wrong button and delete all their critical files.

Well - about 10 minutes ago that was me.

I launched a delete from inside an application I shouldn't have - and my aim was wrong.

I watched in horror as my html editor, ftp package (and all its settings for all my sites) and web stats analyzer disappeared without trace.

It's the 1st time I've done such a silly thing in many years. But no doubt I will have flashbacks - and my finger will hover over the mouse button whenever I do such a deadly delete.

It took 5 minutes to fetch a backup disk and reload the apps. It's only when I restored the 1st app that I found the others needed to be restored too. How to avoid doing this again? More cups of tea and coffee at more regular intervals. Water may be healthy but doesn't have the same effect.


1.8" SLC SSD from Foremay

Editor:- July 10, 2009 - Foremay has recently announced a new 1.8" SLC flash SSD.

The SATA compatible SC 199 Cheetah has sustained R/W speeds of 250MB/s and 220MB/s respectively. Capacity options range from 16GB to 64GB. Endurance for the 16GB device is rated at 87 years assuming 50GB sequential writes per day.


SSD Education - Scale of the Problem

Editor:- July 9, 2009 - One of the recurring themes in my 1 on 1 dialogs with SSD vendors and users alike is the importance of better education about this important subject.

One of my frustrations has been my own inability to convey the idea of how much needs to be known - compared to what is.

So I make no apology for recycling this text below - which I wrote in an email today.

"User education about SSDs is the most serious problem the industry faces. Users need to make local decisions about which info to filter in or out for their own needs and at what level to engage with this technology. It's as if users had to learn all about the microprocessor from the 4040 and microcontrollers up to today's dense 64 core processor chips in 2 years instead of 30 years."

...Later:- If it's any consolation to those of you out there - struggling to build a solid mental pyramid out of SSD's shifting sands - some SSD product managers - who have been parachuted into new roles - don't understand the technology or market they're talking about either. Which just adds to the total confusion.

...And by coincidence - I got this email in my inbox soon after publishing the above.
... Are you struggling with crucial (and expensive) SSD decisions?

Are you deciding whether to use SSDs, make your products work with them, or build them into your systems or applications?

The SSD Basics tutorial at Flash Memory Summit offers the vendor-neutral insight you need! Monday, August 10, 1 to 5 pm. (Yes, this is the day before the main Summit program starts.)
...

6TB Tier 0 SSD in 2U from WhipTail

Editor:- July 8, 2009 - WhipTail Technologies today announced a 6TB version of its 2U SSD appliance.

WhipTail's CEO, Ed Rebholz said "One of Tier 0 storage's downfalls to date has been the perception within the industry that it's too expensive. Since WhipTail's introduction earlier this year, we've already made significant strides in helping our industry peers to gain a new perspective. And in introducing the 6TB capacity, not only is WhipTail setting the bar for performance, footprint and affordability, but now we're the SSD capacity leader."

Editor's comments:- it's certainly the highest density server acceleration SSD I'm aware of. But you should be aware that the internal flash is MLC (and not SLC) which is a bird of a different feather. The memory type wasn't stated in the original text of the press release.

A company spokesperson assured me that WhipTail manages the write cycle to ensure that the MLC disks last a minimum of 7 years when under load.

Other competing 2U SSDs in this capacity range include:- the RamSan-620 a 5TB SLC flash SSD from Texas Memory Systems and the Violin 1010 a 4TB SLC flash SSD from Violin Memory.


VoD and Streaming Content Server Revenue to Triple by 2013

Editor:- July 8, 2009 - Infonetics Research announced a new edition of its IPTV market report.

"All eyes are focused on video on-demand and streaming content servers as more and more programming moves to on-demand. ...Revenue for VoD and streaming content servers (are expected) to triple between 2008 and 2013," said Jeff Heynen, directing analyst for broadband and video at Infonetics Research.

Infonetics predicts that by 2013, telco service providers are expected to derive about $56 billion worldwide from IPTV services offered (not including mobile IPTV services). storage market research & analysts

Editor's comments:- the IPTV industry may be good for SSD sales too. IPTV server designers have asked me many probing questions about the characteristics of different SSD technologies for use in such systems. See also:- tvs and SSDs
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the fastest SSDs
Speed isn't everything, and it comes at a price. But if you do need the speediest SSD then wading through the web sites of over 180 current SSD oems to shortlist products slows you down.

And the SSD search problem will get even worse as we head towards a market with over 1,000 SSD oems.
the fastest SSDs  sorted by interface and form factor - click to read article ... Relax - I've done the research. And this whizzy wish list is updated daily from storage news and direct contacts from oems. ...read the article,
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