InfoStor articles from February 2004

InfoStor archives from February 2004

Storage market shows signs of turnaround: IDC reports market shares.(news analysis & trends)
February 1, 2004... Networked storage is sustaining growth in an overall disk storage systems market that is still recovering after plunging roughly 20% between 2000 and 2001, according to International Data Corp. (IDC), a market research firm in Framingham, MA....

EMC, Veritas continue acquisition sprees: common goal is extended virtualization.(news analysis & trends)
February 1, 2004... In a bid to expand their product lines and strengthen their positions in the emerging virtual data-center market, both EMC and Veritas finalized acquisitions last month of virtualization technology companies. EMC acquired server...

Survey reveals user interest in D2D backup.(news analysis & trends)
February 1, 2004... A recent InfoStor reader survey reveals continued strong interest in disk-to-disk (D2D) and disk-to-disk-to-tape (D2D2T) backup technologies. Nearly half of the survey respondents said they had already implemented a "tiered" backup...

From storage budgets to security blankets.(editorial)(Editorial)
February 1, 2004... Storage network security, network-attached storage (NAS), iSCSI planning, blade servers, super tape drives, and limited budgets. All of those issues might appear relatively simple, but they all involve tough decisions for storage professionals....

Egenera Inc.(Business Briefs)(secures equity financing)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... Egenera Inc. has secured $30 million in a fourth round of equity financing, bringing total financing to date to $124 million. Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV) led the round, with support from previous investors.

CPU Sales & Service, a Massachusetts-based VAR, has begun reselling and integrating RAIDCore's line.(Business Briefs)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... CPU Sales & Service, a Massachusetts-based VAR, has begun reselling and integrating RAIDCore's line of software-based RAID products.

UBS-Hainer will distribute TeraCloud's SpaceFinder family.(Business Briefs)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... UBS-Hainer will distribute TeraCloud's SpaceFinder family of s/390 storage-management products in Germany and Europe.

Seagate Technology has appointed Singapore-based eSys Distribution as an authorized distributor for its desktop and notebook disk drive products in the US, Canada, and Latin America.(Business Briefs)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... Seagate Technology has appointed Singapore-based eSys Distribution as an authorized distributor for its desktop and notebook disk drive products in the US, Canada, and Latin America. eSys Distribution is a specialized IT component distributor.

To the editor.(Letter to the Editor)
February 1, 2004... Regarding "New approaches to managing reference information" (see InfoStor, December 2003, p. 1): The "reference information" issues raised in this article (e.g., searching, indexing, and long-term retention) may seem new to some people, but...

Influx of iSCSI products continues.(news analysis & trends)
February 1, 2004... After three years of fits and starts and false expectations, some analysts predict that 2004 will finally be The Year of iSCSI. Although end-user adoption is still miniscule, a number of both established vendors and start-ups continue to pump...

ADIC offers iSCSI backup options.(news analysis & trends)(Advanced Digital Information Corp)
February 1, 2004... Some consultants and vendors believe backup will be the first real "killer app" for iSCSI storage area networks (SANs), just as it was for Fibre Channel SANs. Advanced Digital Information Corp. (ADIC) is one of those vendors. Last month,...

BlueArc claims to eliminate NAS 'islands'.(news analysis & trends)(network-attached storage)
February 1, 2004... BlueArc claims it has solved the "islands-of-storage" dilemma that plagues administrators who need to scale network-attached storage (NAS) file systems. Last month, the company released its next-generation NAS system, called Titan...

MaXXan gains traction in DR applications.(news analysis & trends)(disaster recovery)
February 1, 2004... MaXXan claims it is beginning to gain some traction with its intelligent switching platform, particularly in the area of disaster recovery. In December, MaXXan announced support of FalconStor's IPStor 4.0 storage management software suite,...

PATA vs. SATA: does it matter?(Reader-Expert I/O)
February 1, 2004... Q With the buzz about Serial ATA (SATA), why are leading vendors still shipping parallel ATA-configured systems? Indeed, leading vendors of turnkey ATA (a.k.a. IDE) storage systems--companies like EMC, Network Appliance, and Nexsan--are all...

Intransa has formed a strategic partnership with SES Technologies to provide Intransa's IP SAN through international channels.(Business Briefs)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... Intransa has formed a strategic partnership with SES Technologies to provide Intransa's IP SAN through international channels. Under terms of the agreement, SES will provide systems integrators and VARs with distribution services of Intransa's...

Network Appliance and Decru unveiled a storage security option that integrates with IBM's electronic records management solution.(Business Briefs)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... Network Appliance and Decru unveiled a storage security option that integrates with IBM's electronic records management solution. The option consists of a Network Appliance storage system and Decru DataFort storage security appliance configured...

UNH completes iSCSI 'plugfest'.(news analysis & trends)(University of New Hampshire Interoperability Laboratory)
February 1, 2004... Proponents argue that iSCSI will not be plagued by the interoperability issues that plagued Fibre Channel, largely because iSCSI is based on the ubiquitous TCP/IP and SCSI protocols. To help ensure that's the case, the University of New...

Steps for ensuring storage network security: the Storage Security Industry Forum (the security forum in SNIA) recommends a five-step review for improved storage network security.(SNIA on storage)
February 1, 2004... Most companies routinely assess their data security with overall security policy health checks, site surveys, and reviews of processes, systems, networks, and applications. Yet each of these activities rests on fundamental assumptions about...

NAS market overview: issues and trends: the network-attached storage market is on the verge of another wave of innovations that will at least in part solve issues such as NAS management, scalability, and convergence with SANs.(Special Report)(Industry Overview)
February 1, 2004... Network-attached storage (NAS) has become an increasingly robust platform for enterprise storage. And the NAS market is in the early stages of several advances in functionality that will bring this technology into every corner of the data...

Storage execution in a time of scarcity: an executive summary from a large end-user survey reveals how IT managers are dealing with storage "pain points" within restricted budgets.
February 1, 2004... Aberdeen Group and InfoStor recently collaborated on an enduser survey to investigate how organizations are managing their storage infrastructures within financial constraints. The study addressed the following question: How do organizations...

iSCSI planning: targets, availability, and security: the second article in a two-part series examines iSCSI storage subsystems, data/application availability, and security requirements.
February 1, 2004... End users are beginning to consider the iSCSI protocol for more cost-effective and less resource-intensive server and storage consolidation for a range of Windows applications, including Exchange, SQL Server-based transaction processing and...

Blade servers and storage implications: Part II: the second article in our series examines management issues, the role of blade servers in grid computing, and the impact of blades on storage.
February 1, 2004... Comprehensive management and provisioning software is critical unlocking the scalability and versatility features of blade servers. Seamless scalability refers to the ability of administrators to quickly add more processing power to an...

Super tape shoot-out: SDLT vs. LTO: with the introduction of the SDLT 600 the tables are turned in performance and manageability--at least for the time being.(lab review)(Product/Service Evaluation)
February 1, 2004... Starting with the first generation of LTO Ultrium tape drives, at least when it came to performance the difference between Ultrium and SDLT was, to say the least, dramatic. Even when Quantum released the SDLT 320, which barely managed to catch...

EMC targets SAP upgrades.(Software)
February 1, 2004... EMC recently introduced two service packages for users to upgrade to the newest versions of SAP software EMC Replication Accelerator for SAP Upgrades streamlines replication of data during upgrades from older versions of SAP R/3 to newer SAP...

Veritas adds EMC option.(Software)
February 1, 2004... Veritas recently introduced an option for its Indepth application performance management software that works with EMC disk arrays. Called Storage Extension, the software uses EMC's open API to link arrays with Veritas software, resulting in...

DataCore introduces utilization analysis tool.(Software)
February 1, 2004... DataCore Software has added a storage resource utilization analysis option to its SANsymphony software. Dubbed SANmaestro the software correlates storage area network (SAN) activity to applications by charting I/Q workloads, capacity...

Arkeia targets SMBs, departments.(Software)
February 1, 2004... At last month's Linux World Expo conference, Arkeia introduced Arkeia Enterprise Backup software for small and mid-size businesses and enterprise departments Available options include hot backup plug-ins for Oracle, DB2, Lotus, MySQL and MS...

Vision delivers high availability.(Software)
February 1, 2004... Vision Solutions last month began shipments of high-availability software for OS/400 and Windows platforms. The or packages are based on the company's flagship ORION software. The OS/400 version is based on QRION or Express for OS/400 on...

Cepoint's RAID targets video apps.(Disk/Connectivity)
February 1, 2004... Cepoint Networks' Rx524 RAID array is targeted primarily at video streaming and high-end video broadcast applications. The Rx524 is configurable with up to 6TB in a 5U form factor. The subsystem supports Windows 95/98/2000/NT4/XP/ME Linux,...

Snap upgrades NAS software.(Disk/Connectivity)
February 1, 2004... Network-attached storage (NAS) vendor Snap Appliance recently released it SnapOS version 4.0 operating system which is compatible with Windows Serve 2003 and Windows Server 2003 Active Directory Server environments. SnapOS 4.0 is...

Olixir offers portable-disk backup.(Disk/Connectivity)
February 1, 2004... Qlixir Technologies last month launched the Mobile DataVault FastRestore SE, a chassis-based portable hard-drive backup and disaster-recovery system based on the company's Mobile DataVault 3DX portable disk drives. The system is positioned...

GST delivers 2.3TB SAIT-1 drives.(Tape)
February 1, 2004... GST last month added Sony's Super AIT (SAIT-1) tape technology to its product line. The company offers three SAIT systems: the EntryDR single-drive system, SafeDR dual-drive mirrored subsystem; and Growth DR midrange tape library. Each...

QStar supports UDO.(Optical)
February 1, 2004... QStar has announced compatibility with Plasmon's UDO optical drives and libraries in its QStar HSM and Data Director software. QStar's software presents UDO drives/libraries as a standard file system on supported platforms, which include...

Kano debuts double-sided DVD+R media.(Optical)
February 1, 2004... Kano Technologies recently introduced ArchivMedia DVD+R double-sided media. Kano teamed with Verbatim to develop the media for use with Kano's XFiniti optical libraries. However, the media is also compatible with all DVD+ recorders and players....

Calendar.(Brief Article)(Calendar)
February 1, 2004... March 8-9 Network Storage Conference--Monterey, CA The conference, sponsored by Peripheral Concepts, structures sessions to include a combination of vendors, integrators, and administrators/MIS. Sessions focus on integrating systems,...