InfoStor articles from August 2002

InfoStor archives from August 2002

User survey shows strong surge toward SANs.(Industry Overview)
August 1, 2002... According to an extensive survey of 152 Fortune 1000 IT storage professionals, the surge toward storage area networks (SANs) is much stronger than the shift to network-attached storage (see figure). TheInfoPro (TIP) research group, in New York...

NAS market to split into gateway, stand-alone segments.(network-attached storage)(Statistical Data Included)
August 1, 2002... In the future, the network-attached storage (NAS) market will comprise two distinct product categories--gateways and stand-alone devices--according to a recent report from the Gartner Inc. research and consulting firm, in Stamford, CT. NAS...

Carlson's data center relies on IP SAN. (User Case Study).(Product Announcement)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... The drumroll for IP storage area networks (SANs) has been long and loud, but end-user adopters have been few and far between. But that may be changing. Last month, Carlson Companies rolled out what may be the first data-center-class IP SAN at...

Know what your peers are doing. (Editorial).(Editorial)
August 1, 2002... I have to admit that I am a sucker for surveys. None of us have the time to call hundreds of storage professionals to find out which way the wind is blowing. As such, we have to rely on third-party surveys. Some are good, and some are...

Network Administrator contemplates backup options. (Reader Expert I/O).
August 1, 2002... Q: I need to implement a backup infrastructure for a handful of remote sites (each with a single server), and I have no IT staff to manage the process at these locations. Instead of a conventional tape backup, would it make sense to replicate...

Policy-based automation moves forward. (News Analysis & Trends).(Product Announcement)
August 1, 2002... More than a dozen companies--Start-ups as well as traditional software vendors--are designing or delivering automated policy-based storage management software to centrally manage storage networks from the application down to LUN masking and...

IBM overhauls Shark arrays. (News Analysis & Trends).(IBM TotalStorage Enterprise Storage Server 800, IBM TotalStorage Enterprise Storage Server 800 Turbo)(Product Announcement)
August 1, 2002... Billing it as the most significant redesign since the product line was introduced three years ago, IBM this month enhanced its Total-Storage Enterprise Storage Server ("Shark") RAID arrays with a number of performance-boosting architectural...

SNIA forms network security forum. (News Analysis & Trends).(Storage Networking Industry Association's Security Industry Forum )
August 1, 2002... In October, the Storage Networking Industry Association's Security Industry Forum (SSIF) hopes to unveil a best-practices document for storage networking security, an issue that end users have identified as a primary concern. The mission...

IBM delivers ATA NAS. (News Analysis & Trends).(IBM TotalStorage NAS 100)(Product Announcement)
August 1, 2002... This month, IBM began shipments of its first network-attached storage (NAS) server to take advantage of ATA disk drives. More and more NAS devices are being outfitted with ATA drives to cut costs while moving the file servers into the midrange...

Topspin Communications. (Business Briefs).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... Topspin Communications, a start-up focused on the emerging enterprise data-center virtualization marker, has completed a $30 million second round of venture capital funding, bringing total investment to about $47.5 million. Advent International...

Legato Systems has signed an OEM and distribution agreement with Hitachi CP. (Business Briefs).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... Legato Systems has signed an OEM and distribution agreement with Hitachi CP (Hitachi Computer Peripherals Co. Ltd.), a major subsidiary of Hitachi Ltd. The agreement focuses on providing solutions that meet customers' demand for cost-effective,...

Qualstar has acquired the assets and intellectual properties of N2Power. (Business Briefs).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... Qualstar has acquired the assets and intellectual properties of N2Power, a privately held company located in Newbury Park, CA. N2Power designs and produces open-frame switching power supplies.

Global Automation. (Business Briefs).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... Global Automation, a provider of enterprise software applications for Fortune 500 clients, has created a new division--DinoStor Inc.--focused on delivering advanced solutions for network backup.

It's dirty little secret: users raise concerns about backup and recovery. (Special Report).
August 1, 2002... When it comes to backing up and recovering data, system administrators have some big issues. Most don't know whether they are backing up everything that they should be. Surprisingly few have tested their restore capabilities. Many struggle with...

Outsourcing backup and recovery: potential advantages include increased data security and lower administration costs.
August 1, 2002... Using outsourced services is not often an IT manager's first choice when he or she is considering options for data backup. Even though it is the core component of the data-protection process, evaluating and spending money on backup software and...

Disaster recovery begins at the disk drive level: an effective data-protection strategy involves guarding against inevitabilities such as disk drive and component failure.
August 1, 2002... The task of enterprise-wide data protection is daunting. IT organizations have been forced to view their existing disaster-recovery and business continuity plans in the larger context of information and network security. Data protection is...

Global file systems will enable scalable NAS; emerging file-system technology promises to overcome one of the drawbacks to traditional network-attached storage architectures: lack of scalability.
August 1, 2002... Most IT managers are aware of the benefits of network-attached storage (NAS), including relatively low cost, heterogeneous file sharing, and simple installation and maintenance. The concept is simple: By separating the storage server from the...

Part II: preparing for SRM deployment; pre-deployment involves performance testing, communication with users, and pilot testing. (Labs Review).(storage resource management )
August 1, 2002... In Part I of this series (see InfoStar, July 2002, p. 38), we looked at the process of preparing to stage a storage resource management (SRM) deployment. In this article, we continue the testing phase, provide some sample tests and tools to use...

IT organizations require storage specialists: storage and networking professionals should work together, but most companies still require dedicated storage administrators. (Opinion).
August 1, 2002... IT professionals have always had a significant and challenging role: managing the intricate web of systems and networks in a constantly evolving IT landscape. The job requires ongoing evaluation and implementation of new technologies that...

RAID recap: from ATA to SCSI to FC. (Disk/Connectivity).(Chaparral Network Storage StratisRAID FAT DISK)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
August 1, 2002... Chaparral Network Storage recently began shipments of the latest in its StratisRAID family of disk arrays. The FAT DISK is a Fibre Channel-to-ATA disk subsystem that scales from 1.9TB (12 160GB drives in a 5U enclosure) to 11.5TB (72 drives in...

Nexsan enters iSCSI IP storage market. (Disk/Connectivity).(Nexsan Technologies )
August 1, 2002... Nexsan Technologies has entered the IP storage arena via a reseller agreement with start-up StoneFly Networks. Nexsan is reselling StoneFly's SCSI virtualization appliance, re-branded as the Venture iP. A bundled hardware/software appliance,...

3ware ships ATA RAID controllers. (Disk/Connectivity).(Escalade 7500-12 )(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
August 1, 2002... 3ware has added an ATA-based version to its line of Escalade RAID controllers. The Escalade 7500-12 includes 12 ATA disk drive attachments and supports almost 2TB per controller. The RAID-5 controller is based on 3ware's StorSwitch network...

QLogic intros PCI-X FC HBAs. (Disk/Connectivity).(QLogic's SANblade QLA2340 )(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
August 1, 2002... QLogic's SANblade QLA2340 is a 2Gbps Fibre Channel host bus adapter (HBA) that is compatible with 133MHz PCI-X systems. The company claims performance of up to 80,000 I/Os per second and more than 700MBps throughput. Operating systems...

LSI delivers cPCI HBAs. (Disk/Connectivity).(LSI Logic's LSI7202CP-LC)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
August 1, 2002... LSI Logic's LSI7202CP-LC is a 2Gbps Fibre Channel HBA for CompactPCI (cPCI) systems. The dual-channel adapter can handle more than 75,000 I/Os per second on dual channels and is also available in a single-channel version. The card is based on...

Atto bridges 2Gbps FC, SCSI. (Disk/Connecitivity).(Atto's FibreBridge 1290E)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
August 1, 2002... Atto's FibreBridge 1290E is a bridge that links 2Gbps Fibre Channel networks to SCSI storage devices. The bridge supports the SNIA Extended Copy command and the FCR2 protocol and is backward-compatible with 1Gbps Fibre Channel. Serverless...

New twists on NAS. (Disk/Connectivity).(EssentialServer 3.0 )
August 1, 2002... Vancouver-based Merlin Technologies recently made its debut in the U.S. with the Linux-based EssentialServer 3.0 network-attached storage (NAS) device, which includes built-in backup via an Ecrix tape drive (with an optional CD-RW or DVD...

SANcastle adds Fibre Channel native firewall. (Disk/Connectivity).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... SANcastle Technologies has added Fibre Channel native firewall technology to its line of fabric border switches. The feature is referred to as Autonomous Regions with Domain Address Translation (AR/DAT) and is designed to enable global SAN...

Qualstar offers management tool. (Tape).(Q-Link )(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
August 1, 2002... Qualstar recently announced availability of the Q-Link library management tool for its tape libraries. Q-Link lets users manage, configure, and monitor disparate TLS and RLS Series libraries from a single location via a browser-based interface....

StorageTek expands virtual tape system. (Tape).(Virtual Storage Manager)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
August 1, 2002... Last month, StorageTek announced several enhancements to its Virtual Storage Manager (VSM) tape management system, as well as an entry-level model--the VSMe. Features include off-site vault disaster recovery, improved data management, and...

Peer Software ships Save-N-Sync 2.0. (Software).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
August 1, 2002... Peer Software's Save-N-Sync 2.0 file management software provides backup, synchronization, replication, and restoration of desktop data. Users can configure and map relationships between desktops, laptops, NAS devices, and servers within...

Tantia upgrades backup software. (Software).(Harbor NSM 6.2)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
August 1, 2002... Last month, Tantia Technologies announced the addition of several new packages in the Harbor NSM product suite. Harbor NSM v6.2 on OS/390 allows users to consolidate disparate backup domains into a single management domain. When used with the...

ONTRACK debuts e-mail tool. (Software).(PowerControls 1.0)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
August 1, 2002... ONTRACK Data International, a provider of data availability software and services, recently introduced PowerControls 1.0. The software works with Microsoft Exchange Server backup software to restore message-level items from any previous full...

Exabyte continues to target DDS market. (Software).(VXA-2 tape drives)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
August 1, 2002... Exabyte recently announced that it has begun shipping VXA-2 tape drives. The drives, the second in the company's VXA family, have 80GB native capacity and a 6MBps native transfer rate, making it at least twice as fast as DDS-4 drives and four...

Calendar.
August 1, 2002... September 8-13 Networld+Interop Conference and Exhibition -- Atlanta, GA This year's conference includes tutorials, workshops, exhibits, and special interest days, one of which highlights network storage strategies. Jon Toigo,...