InfoStor articles from September 2004

InfoStor archives from September 2004

How secure is your storage?(Security Series, Part 1)
September 1, 2004... According to a recent end-user survey conducted by the Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) consulting firm, storage security is a lingering and growing problem among companies of all sizes and across all industries. ESG polled 388 storage...

Users receive a compliance wake-up call.(Compliance Series, Part 1)
September 1, 2004... A joint study recently conducted by AIIM, the Enterprise Content Management (ECM) Association, and Kahn Consulting concludes that while organizations are making headway when it comes to information management and compliance, for the most part...

Reporting tools address backup problems.
September 1, 2004... It's no secret that backups have become a high priority among IT executives. But, for the most part, the process of backing up data to tape still leaves storage administrators guessing whether their backups have been successful. According...

The slow moving industry standard.(editorial)(Editorial)
September 1, 2004... The Storage Management Initiative Specification (SMI-S) is slowly making its way through standards committees and is starting to show up in vendors' products. Although SMI-S is laudable in every respect, I think it's important for users to take...

CNT and EMC have a reseller agreement that will make three of CNT's extension and switching products available directly from EMC through the new EMC Select Program.(Business Briefs)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... CNT and EMC have a reseller agreement that will make three of CNT's extension and switching products available directly from EMC through the new EMC Select Program. As part of the agreement, EMC will offer CNT's FC/9000 Director product for...

FalconStor Software and Crossroads Systems have reached a cross-licensing and reseller agreement to settle outstanding patent infringement claims relating to Crossroads' "access control" technology.(Business Briefs)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... FalconStor Software and Crossroads Systems have reached a cross-licensing and reseller agreement to settle outstanding patent infringement claims relating to Crossroads' "access control" technology. The companies have entered into a business...

LSI Logic's Fibre Channel and Ultra320 SCSI HBAs will be bundled with the JMR Electronics Fortra family of storage enclosures.(Business Briefs)
September 1, 2004... LSI Logic's Fibre Channel and Ultra320 SCSI HBAs will be bundled with the JMR Electronics Fortra family of storage enclosures. JMR delivers SCSI, Fibre Channel, and Serial ATA storage solutions for the VAR channel, focused on disk-to-disk...

OuterBay.(Business Briefs)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... OuterBay has achieved certification of OuterBay LiveArchive integration with PeopleSoft products. Integration certification testing was performed with a number of PeopleSoft Enterprise Financial Management and Human Capital Management...

QLogic.(Business Briefs)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... QLogic has a certification program for QLogic SANsurfer VDS Manager, a Windows application that simplifies SANs for SMBs by supporting the SAN facilities available in Microsoft Windows Server 2003.

Storage Elements, the data storage division of Wenzel Data, has expanded its relationship with FalconStor Software to deliver the COREIUX Storage Server.(Business Briefs)(Storage Elements)(Wenzel Data)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... Storage Elements, the data storage division of Wenzel Data, has expanded its relationship with FalconStor Software to deliver the COREIUX Storage Server, powered by FalconStor technology, to meet the storage needs of small and medium-sized...

Nexsan Technologies' InfiniSAN disk-based storage systems will be tested to work with Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Virtual Disk Service (VDS) and applications that support VDS.(Business Briefs)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... Nexsan Technologies' InfiniSAN disk-based storage systems will be tested to work with Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Virtual Disk Service (VDS) and applications that support VDS, as well as QLogic SANsurfer VDS Manager, an application that...

Decru has joined the Oracle PartnerNetwork.(Business Briefs)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... Decru has joined the Oracle PartnerNetwork, and Decru DataFort storage security appliances have completed interoperability testing with Oracle Database 10g.

Panasas and SICORP Storage Integrators will jointly deliver the Panasas ActiveScale Storage Cluster to Linux cluster environments.(Business Briefs)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... Panasas and SICORP Storage Integrators will jointly deliver the Panasas ActiveScale Storage Cluster to Linux cluster environments. Through this agreement, SICORP will sell and support the Panasas Storage Cluster to its customers nationwide.

Engenio Information Technologies and QLogic are integrating the Engenio VDS Provider with the QLogic SANsurfer VDS Manager application for Microsoft Windows Server 2003.(Business Briefs)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... Engenio Information Technologies and QLogic are integrating the Engenio VDS Provider with the QLogic SANsurfer VDS Manager application for Microsoft Windows Server 2003. SANsurfer functions as a graphical software foundation for allocating and...

Corrections.(Correction Notice)
September 1, 2004... The article about online backup in the July 2004 issue (see "Is online disk backup a fit for SMBs?", p. 1) did not include bigVAULT (www.bigvault.com), which offers services similar to those of the vendors mentioned in the article. Also, in the...

Asigra reels in remote data.(news analysis & trends)(Asigra)
September 1, 2004... Making sure that data generated at remote locations is properly backed up can be problematic for many enterprises, especially those with multiple, distributed sites and little to no IT support to leverage. The problem is that traditional...

Veritas to integrate backup, replication: ships Storage Replicator 3.0.(news analysis & trends)(Veritas)
September 1, 2004... Taking first steps toward offering users an integrated backup/replication product, Veritas last month shipped version 3.0 of its Storage Replicator software, which has a Windows-based graphical user interface (GUI) that has the same look and...

Quantum introduces WORM tape: but tapes can be re-used.(news analysis & trends)
September 1, 2004... Quantum Corp. recently announced its DLTice, claiming that it is the first widely adopted midrange tape offering with write-once, read-many (WORM) technology. But there is a key difference in how Quantum has chosen to deliver WORM technology...

EMC integrates ECM and storage.(news analysis & trends)
September 1, 2004... EMC this month will introduce a new product--EMC Documentum Content Storage Services (CSS)--that will allow its customers for the first time to define and automate storage policies for unstructured content based on the business value of that...

STK enters database archiving market.(news analysis & trends)
September 1, 2004... StorageTek recently jumped into the database archiving market with its LifeCycle Director software for IBM's DB2 database. LifeCycle Director is designed specifically for mainframe environments and archives inactive data onto cheaper media...

SVC for MDS supports non-IBM arrays.(news analysis & trends)
September 1, 2004... IBM, with partner Cisco Systems, has released a new version of its TotalStorage SAN Volume Controller (SVC) software for Cisco's MDS 9000 switches. The 1.1.8 release includes first-time support for non-IBM midrange disk arrays, as well as iSCSI...

Nimbus joins iSCSI crowd: Intransa lowers IP SAN costs.(news analysis & trends)
September 1, 2004... Start-up Nimbus Data Systems last month began shipments of a 500GB (model IPS-500) native iSCSI disk array priced at $4,995. A 1TB version (IPS-1000) with four 250GB drives is also available. The arrays are scalable to 8TB and are based on...

Tech Data, EMC target federal accounts.(news analysis & trends)
September 1, 2004... EMC and Tech Data last month expanded their distribution agreement to offer products and services to resellers and integrators targeting federal IT contracts, just in time for the end of the federal fiscal year, which ends on September 30. Some...

Case studies: SMBs turn to SANs: whether it's Fibre Channel or iSCSI, small and medium-sized businesses are realizing that SANs make more sense than direct-attached storage.(Special Report)(small and medium sized businesses use storage area networks)(related article: iSCSI enables consolidation and virtualization.)(small computer system interface)
September 1, 2004... It used to be that SANs were essentially a large enterprise story. Fortune 500 companies demanded rock-solid storage infrastructures and a coterie of pricey vendors delivered. But the worm has turned and small to medium-sized businesses...

What you need to build an iSCSI SAN: here are some tips on what to look for in iSCSI target devices, including disk arrays, bridges, and tape libraries.(Small Computer System Interface Storage Area Network)
September 1, 2004... Building an iSCSI SAN has been billed as a simple task that leverages in-house networking knowledge and standard IP infrastructure. All that is required is an initiator and a target. Put the two together and you're finished managing storage on...

Key benefits of serial attached SCSI: SAS provides a number of advantages over parallel SCSI in the areas of performance, configuration flexibility, scalability, and reliability/availability.
September 1, 2004... Today's predominant server storage interface for enterprise environments--SCSI--relies on parallel transmission of data streams for device-level attachment. However, parallel technology's signal skew and crosstalk, signal termination...

EFILM relies on SANs and SATA: the production studio uses storage area networks for sharing hundreds of terabytes of digital content, and Serial ATA-based disk arrays to keep costs down.(Storage In The Studio)
September 1, 2004... In Hollywood, pushing the envelope of what's been done before can bring high praise from critics and industry peers. According to EFILM LLC, a leading digital intermediate film company and subsidiary owned by Panavision and Deluxe Laboratories,...

Small studio requires huge storage: Cry Havoc uses disk arrays based on the latest generation of the venerable SCSI disk drive interface for high capacity and high performance.(Storage In The Studio)
September 1, 2004... Going from garage-style start-up to producing TV documentaries for stations like Fine Living and The Discovery Channel can involve a few growing pains along the way. In the case of Venice, CA-based Cry Havoc Productions, some of these pains...

Special effects and shared file systems: the Orphanage visual effects studio leverages a shared file system and a SAN to coordinate artists and save time and money.(Storage In The Studio)
September 1, 2004... The Orphanage, a San Francisco-based special-effects studio, is no stranger to explosions. In fact, the company's nearly 200 artists--whose credits include the creation of 2D and 3D special effects for such feature films as Hell-Boy, Day After...

Visual effects studio sticks with DAS: although the trend is toward networked storage configurations such as SAN and NAS, Stargate Digital is sticking with direct-attached storage.(Storage In The Studio)
September 1, 2004... Fans of popular TV shows like E.R. or Crossing Jordan or mini-series like Spartacus might be surprised to learn how the episodes look when they first arrive at Pasadena, CA-based Stargate Digital, a production studio that has worked on a number...

SNIA launches new education, certification programs: the SNIA Technology Center Institute offers vendor-neutral storage networking education for end users and storage integrators.(SNIA on storage)
September 1, 2004... The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) recently launched the SNIA Technology Center Institute (TCI), an education program for users and integrators. While the SNIA has provided various education offerings in the past, this...

HP intros EVA3000 starter kit.(new products)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... This month, Hewlett-Packard began shipments of a "starter kit" version of its StorageWorks EVA3000. A 1TB version of the 2Gbps Fibre Channel disk array is priced at $42,000 and includes two controllers, eight 146GB Fibre Channel disk drives...

SATA product roundup.(new products)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... The onslaught of products based on the Serial ATA (SATA) disk interface continued last month. For example, Advanced Technology and Systems Co. (ADTX) announced that it has integrated its 2U, eight-bay SCSI-based P Series of SATA RAID arrays...

NetEx accelerates data over IP.(new products)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... NetEx recently began shipments of its HyperIP R5, a software accelerator that speeds up data movement over IP-based WANs. The company claims performance of 480Mbps (a 200% boost over the previous release of HyperIP), elimination of TCP/IP...

Excel ships NAS filer.(new products)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... Excel/Meridian Data's 1U DataNAS Director NAS filer includes a Pentium 4 processor; 512MB to 2GB of memory; dual Gigabit Ethernet interfaces; SmartSync remote mirroring and data synchronization, backup/restore, and distribution; RAID 0, 1, 5,...

FilesX speeds data recovery.(new products)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... FilesX recently announced the general availability of its disk-based Information Recovery Platform, Xpress Restore. The platform reportedly streamlines the data-recovery process and allows users to restore servers from bare-metal, volume,...

Acronis upgrades True Image.(new products)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... Acronis recently launched version 8 of its True Image disk imaging and backup software. The new release allows users to create the exact disk images for complete file and system backups. New features include the ability to exclude paging,...

Calendar.(Calendar)
September 1, 2004... October 3-5 2004 ILM Solutions Conference and Expo--Long Beach, CA Hosted by SNIA's Data Management Forum and collocated with the ARMA International 49th Annual Conference and Expo. For more information, go to www.ilm-solutions.com ...