InfoStor articles from January 2003

InfoStor archives from January 2003

HDS and Network Appliance team for NAS.(and related article)
January 1, 2003... Within the next two months, Hitachi Data Systems is expected to ship a network-attached storage (NAS) gateway supplied by Network Appliance as the result of an OEM agreement announced in December. HDS's previous forays into NAS have been...

Blade servers gain momentum: IBM offers internal Fibre Channel switch.
January 1, 2003... No longer just a niche market, blade servers are becoming increasingly popular, and shipments are expected to rapidly accelerate through 2006, according to IMEX Research, in San Jose (see figure). Last year, the blade server market was...

QLogic enters iSCSI race.(and related article)
January 1, 2003... Yet another sign that iSCSI may be ready for prime time later this year, QLogic--one of the two largest vendors of Fibre Channel host bus adapters (HBAs)-- recently released chips and HBAs that offload iSCSI, TCP/IP, and IP Security (IPSec)...

SAN ROI is a sticky wicket. (Editorial).
January 1, 2003... With IT budgets tighter than a noose, return on investment (ROI) is the only chair that some managers have to stand on. Determining ROI is a tough task in all areas of IT, but it may be even tougher on the storage front because capacities are...

Disk-to-disk increases backup-and-restore speeds.(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2003... The article, "Disk-to-disk increases backup-and-restore speeds," by Frank Sowin, in the November 2002 issue of InfoStor provides interesting information about the growing use of disk-based systems for backup and restore, but the author's...

Storage Performance Council. (Business Briefs).
January 1, 2003... The Storage Performance Council recently announced public availability of the SPC Benchmark-1 (SPC-1), the first industry-standard benchmark for enterprise storage systems. The benchmark gives end users a vendor-neutral process to compare and...

Kasten Chase. (Business Briefs).(forms Secure Networked Storage Advisory Council)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Kasten Chase has established the Secure Networked Storage Advisory Council to provide enterprise customers and storage industry leaders with a forum for dialogue about their evolving storage security requirements and to establish best practices...

Hitachi and IBM. (Business Briefs).(new company formed, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has approved plans by Hitachi and IBM to combine their hard disk drive operations, forming a new company to be called Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. The deal is worth nearly $2 billion. The companies...

In Technology PLC. (Business Briefs).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... InTechnology PLC, a storage equipment distributor and storage service provider, has created LANnet, a communications network for its Managed Data Services (MDS) customers. The LANnet network will reportedly allow companies to send large volumes...

SCSI Trade Association. (Business Briefs).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... The SCSI Trade Association (STA), a consortium established to support and promote SCSI technology, announced that the InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS) Technical Committee T10 has completed its work on the...

Kano Technologies. (Business Briefs).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Start-up Kano Technologies (www.kanotechnologies.com) a Garden Grove CA-based DVD+RW/R storage solutions company will develop the next generation of optical-storage applications and solutions to take full advantage of the performance capacity,...

Users support SNIA's SAN certification program. (News Analysis & Trends).(Industry Overview)
January 1, 2003... It's no secret that implementing and managing storage area networks (SANs) can be challenging. Leading SAN vendors have training programs, but one drawback to those programs is that they're not exactly vendor-neutral. That's one reason why the...

Start-up acquires EMC technology for tape virtualization. (News Analysis & Trends).(Diligent Technologies )
January 1, 2003... Framingham, MA-based start-up Diligent Technologies has acquired EMC's Israel-based R&D facility that specializes in developing software--including tape virtualization products that are currently on the market as an EMC brand--and other...

SAN adoption much higher at 1TB+ shops. (News Analysis & Trends).(PriMetrica survey)
January 1, 2003... According to an end-user survey by market research firm PriMetrica, companies with relatively large capacities (more than 1TB of data) are--not surprisingly--more likely to have deployed storage area networks (SANs). PriMetrica interviewed 335...

Smart Weapons for...Info Warriors: we're the backbone for 22 government agencies providing enterprise storage backup and recovery security data systems that never forget a name, face, date or critical record.
January 1, 2003... At MTI, we equip our Info Warriors with Smart Weapons that include a suite of comprehensive services designed to help them ensure a rapid and cost-effective implementation of their SAN/NAS solution and strengthening it through the storage...

On your mark, get set, go iSCSI! (Reader-Expert I/O).
January 1, 2003... A number of vendors have been pitching iSCSI storage solutions to me. I thought the iSCSI specifications were still in flux. Should I factor iSCSI into my purchasing decisions? If you are married to the belief that an industry standard...

FalconStor Software. (Business Briefs).(IPStor)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... FalconStor Software's IPStor has received Novell's "Yes, Tested and Approved" compatibility designation. FalconStor's IPStor complements Novell Cluster Services, Novell Storage Services, and Novell NetDevice (now part of Novell Nterprise...

Paceline Systems. (Business Briefs).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Paceline Systems has formed a strategic alliance with Mellanox Technologies Ltd., a provider of InfiniBand technology semiconductors. Mellanox will supply InfiniBand silicon to Paceline, and the companies will work together to develop new...

Fibrenetix. (Business Briefs).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Fibrenetix, an independent manufacturer of RAID solutions in the UK, has appointed storage specialist CMS Peripherals as an official distributor of its products throughout the country.

TidalWire and McData. (Business Briefs).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... TidalWire and McData announced details of a North American distribution partnership between the two companies. According to the agreement, TidalWire can now supply and provide support for McData's full family of Sphereon 3000 and 4000 series...

IBM Tivoli. (Business Briefs).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... IBM Tivoli's latest storage resource management software solution is currently being demoed and offered by 161 IBM Total Storage Solution Centers (TSSC). The software provides a set of tools that allows customers to monitor and report on their...

Dimension Data and EMC. (Business Briefs).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Dimension Data and EMC have a global strategic partnership that will enable Dimension Data to unify its relationship with EMC worldwide and to strengthen its current range of storage solutions The company will leverage its network services and...

Performance Management for FC SANS. (News Bytes).(NetScout Systems nGenius Performance Management System)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... NetScout Systems has extended its nGenius Performance Management System for LANs and WANs to address Fibre Channel storage area networks (SANs). The system allows administrators to diagnose traffic anomalies, conversation specifics, and trends...

Distributor launches SAN analysis service. (News Bytes).(Avnet Hall-Mark's Networked Storage Advisor )(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Designed for VARs, Avnet Hall-Mark's Networked Storage Advisor includes software tools, training, and support services that will allow resellers to perform storage assessment (analysis and recommendations) services for end users. A primary goal...

Remote service/support for SANS. (News Bytes).(Motive Communications' Enterprise Service Solution for Storage Networks)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Motive Communications' Enterprise Service Solution for Storage Networks enables storage vendors and service providers to otter remote service and support for SAN customers. The service allows vendors and users to work together on issues such as...

Storage RX for medical community. (News Bytes).(Sony Electronics network attached storage systems)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Last month, Sony Electronics introduced a line of tape-based and network-attached storage (NAS) systems to meet the data archival and access needs of the medical community. Initial offerings include Sony's AIT-3 tape drives, StorStation AIT...

DUO demos shared file system over WAN. (News Bytes).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... SGI and LightSand recently demonstrated data sharing capabilities using a single shared file system over a simulated 8,000km WAN. SGI's CXFS file system enables distributed servers running different operating systems to directly access a...

Next-gen optical drive packs 30GB. (News Bytes).(Plasmon)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Plasmon recently demonstrated a prototype of its 5.25-inch, 30GB Ultra Density Optical (UDO) drives and media. UDO uses 405nm blue-violet lasers and phase change technology. Its media cartridges are identical to current 5.25-in magneto-optical...

Bull Technologies. (Business Briefs).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Bull Technologies has selected Emulex's LightPulse 2Gbps LP9002L HBA for integration into the company's series of Escala servers.

ASACA. (Business Briefs).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... ASACA, a developer of high-capacity, high-performance data storage solutions, partnered with Rorke Data, a subsidiary of San Jose-based Belt Microproducts, to demonstrate the FireFly DM series digital virtual library at last month's...

Procom Technology. (Business Briefs).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2003... Procom Technology announced a new program that addresses the storage needs of the medical industry. As part of the program, Procom is assembling a dedicated distribution channel to sell NetFORCE storage solutions to medical industry resellers...

Agile Storage. (Business Briefs).
January 1, 2003... Agile Storage has changed its name to ClariStor to reflect the company's value proposition to provide customers with a clear approach for delivering and managing next-generation file services.

IP storage requires interoperability and protocol offloading: there are a number of ways to offload TCP/IP and iSCSI protocol processing, and RDMA is on the horizon. (SNIA on Storage).
January 1, 2003... Given the relatively slow adoption of storage area networks (SANs), some users are apprehensive about new SAN technologies. At the same time, the high degree of interest in IP storage technologies, especially iSCSI, attests to users' thirst for...

Getting SAN ROI right means getting what you need. (Special Report).
January 1, 2003... Even with tight budgets, a return on investment (ROI) argument can usually make SAN spending a "no-brainer"--whether it's for initial deployment or SAN upgrades. When BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee (BCBST) needed to rein in costs...

New Year's resolution: do more with less; storage resource management software, SANs, efficient data protection, and security should be high on your list.(Industry Overview)
January 1, 2003... Many IT budgets are set in the fourth quarter, but now is the time that most managers sit down and evaluate needs versus spending and put together executable plans that will help meet corporate goals. IT executives in every industry arc looking...

TCP/IP offload engines alleviate bottlenecks: TOEs offload TCP/IP processing from hosts to network adapters. Storage applications to benefit include NAS and iSCSI.(Industry Overview)
January 1, 2003... Despite Ethernet's increase in speed to 1 Gbps--and soon, to 10Gbps--high-performance servers cannot support gigabit connections and maintain fast response times for applications. Although today's gigahertz processor servers would appear...

Storage virtualization: Waiting for nirvana; the initial promise of storage virtualization has failed to live up to expectations. (Opinion).(Industry Overview)
January 1, 2003... Just a few years ago, a number of storage vendors made great fanfare about their virtualization strategies, promising of virtual pools of inexpensive storage attached to inexpensive networks. The goal was to drive down the costs of storage...

Calendar.(Calendar)
January 1, 2003... February 19-20 Storage and Storage Networking in the Financial Serices Sector Symposium-New York, NY http://secure.imn.org February 23-28 SHARE in Dallas-Dallas, TX www.share.org/dallas March 4-6 Server Blade...