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Scale Computing: New Twists To Scale-Out Storage For The Mid-Market
January 27, 2012 3:30 PM
Startup Scale Computing delivers scale-out, unified storage for the mid-market, meaning users can access SAN/NAS resources from the same, scalable pool of disk storage. Scale Computing is by no means alone in doing this, but the company goes beyond just delivering storage in a box to delivering a data center in a storage box. And that is very interesting.
Dell Moves Ahead Fluidly in Storage
January 20, 2012 12:32 PM
The IT industry is always adapting to new trends, from client-server and the PC revolution of the '80s and '90s to cloud computing and big data today. These trends inspire successful new vendor entrants, but they can also be problematic for established IT vendors. Over time, some leaders don't adapt and die (see Digital Equipment Corporation), while others swoon and survive in a reduced state by being acquired by larger saviors (see Sun Microsystems).
GridIron Systems: Mining Big Data 'Gold' in a Flash
January 12, 2012 9:27 AM
Trends in the IT industry sometimes resemble gold rushes as vendors pan for revenue "nuggets." The use of solid state devices (SSDs)--most notably, flash memory--is the central point of one of these, but just as with the real 19th century gold rushes in California and Alaska, not all prospectors (that is, vendors) will be successful. Where the claims are staked can make all the difference in the world, and GridIron Systems is staking one with a focus on accelerating big data analyses.
iWave Raises The Flag For Storage Automation
December 28, 2011 7:01 AM
One of the fascinating things about the IT industry is its role as an ongoing incubator of innovation that impacts the lives of individuals, organizations and society. Now, if Raymond Kurzweil is to be believed, that trend will continue with no foreseeable end in sight. One hotbed of IT innovation is automation, particularly storage automation. And iWave plans to be a trend setter in storage automation.
IBM's STG Is On Track With Smarter Computing
December 21, 2011 7:00 AM
IBM's Systems & Technology Group (STG) represents, among other things, the hardware heritage of IBM, such as the mainframe, open systems servers and storage. But STG is deeply aligned with the company's software and services capabilities. IBM's annual STG analyst meeting is designed to bring industry (not financial) analysts up to speed on the group's strategy and direction.
Crossroads' StrongBox: Securing the Future of Data Archiving
December 09, 2011 8:33 AM
If you were asked which storage product--hard disk drives (HDDs) or tape--would decline precipitously in market share during the next five to 10 years, you would probably be one of the vast majority of people who said tape. You would also be wrong. Winning storage technologies have to excel on at least one dimension, either performance or capacity, and tape excels on capacity.
IBM's Broad, Deep Data Protection And Retention Portfolio Strategy
December 02, 2011 9:50 AM
That there is a data explosion is well-known. However, it is not simply an increase in volume for existing data and applications; it also involves new types of data for new applications. The resulting mix does not support all the same data protection and retention requirements businesses are used to, so a comprehensive portfolio of data protection and retention products and services is necessary to cover all requirements. IBM is one vendor that offers such a comprehensive portfolio.
NexGen: The Next David to Battle Midrange SAN Goliaths
November 29, 2011 11:04 AM
Small vendors, especially startups, often tend to follow baseball great Willie Keeler's advice of "hit 'em where they ain't" by targeting a market niche that has potential, but where larger vendors either don't play or have a very small footprint. NexGen, with its NexGen n5 Storage System, does just that but with a more direct twist. And that makes it very interesting.
EMC's Unified Storage Division Is Focusing on Customer Requirements
November 17, 2011 3:00 PM
Storage plays a vital role in such glamorous and revolutionary IT trends as virtualization, cloud and big data. While these are fun to watch and comment on, one should not forget the importance of product evolution. Day by day, customer requirements change. Storage products have to evolve to meet these specific needs, as well as be able to deal with the larger trends. EMC's Unified Storage Division illustrates how one vendor is keeping its eye on the customer requirements ball while also participating in the greater game.
Red Lambda: Security Revolution Or Just Evolution?
November 14, 2011 7:00 AM
Security statistics are depressing. The bad guys seem to be overwhelming the good guys, even when the good guys are well-known security vendors. So when an emerging company, such as Red Lambda, claims to have software that significantly improves the odds for the good guys, you need to pay close attention.
IBM's IOD 2011: A Cornucopia of Solutions
November 04, 2011 9:09 AM
IBM titled its Information on Demand (IOD) 2011 conference in Las Vegas "The Premier Forum for Information and Analytics." IOD featured innovation and a cornucopia of products and services that act a litmus test and checkpoint as to where the IT industry is and where it is going.
IBM Continues To Drive Storage Efficiency
October 18, 2011 7:12 AM
In its fall storage announcement, IBM continued to emphasize the efficiency of its storage products. Efficiency is always a good thing, as it has been defined by the late revered management guru Peter Drucker as "doing things right," and everybody wants to do things right. But saying that you want to do things right is easier than doing it. Continual improvement is the prime ingredient, and that is well-demonstrated in the latest IBM storage announcements.
How The BlueArc Acquisition Tightens HDS' Storage Strategy
October 03, 2011 8:19 AM
On the one hand, the recent acquisition by HDS of BlueArc simply affirmed the symbiotic relationship that the two companies have. But in another sense, it represents tighter integration, such as for product development plans and resources allocated to their implementation, as a key piece of HDS' greater storage strategy. And understanding that strategy will hopefully shed some light on where the storage industry is going as a whole.
IBM Storage Systems Research Envisions the Future
September 14, 2011 4:08 PM
What is the future of storage and storage management? While all crystal balls are partly cloudy at best, one of the best bets would seem to be in IBM’s vision. Whether particular technologies make the grade or not--and, if so, when--is uncertain. However, the company’s general direction seems clear, and there are many important and exciting changes ahead. Let’s take a look at some of the developments that IBM Storage Systems Research is working on to bring about the future of storage.
VMware: Driving IT Innovation and Disruption
September 09, 2011 10:51 AM
The big picture that VMware continues to emphasize is that a trio of disruptive trends is simultaneously transforming IT: infrastructure renewal, applications development and end user computing. Understanding these trends is necessary not only to comprehend what new products and services can do today, but also to get a better perspective of what is likely to happen in the future.
Astute Networks - Attacking Server Virtualization I/O Bottlenecks
August 26, 2011 2:55 PM
For cash-strapped IT organizations, server virtualization has many compelling benefits, such as better use of IT assets and energy savings. But at some point, as the number of physical servers drops and the percentage of virtualized workloads and applications rises,application service-level performance suddenly goes to hell in a hand basket. I/O bottlenecks are the problem here, and Astute Networks has a solution in the form of a flash-memory-based appliance.
Horizon DataSys' Rollback Rx Is A Prescription for Personal Logical Data Protection
August 17, 2011 7:00 AM
There is a critical need to provide data protection for personal computing devices--notably, desktops and laptops. That protection has tended to be in the form of backup, either locally or over the Internet. While that is useful, there is also a need for safe recovery from logical data protection problems, such as restoring crashed systems to a working state. Rollback Rx, Horizon DataSys’ snapshot software product, is designed to provide that level of data protection.
Oracle Places Its Storage Strategy Bets
July 14, 2011 7:00 AM
Key Oracle executives—President Mark Hurd, Executive VP of Systems John Fowler and Senior VP of Storage Phil Bullinger—unveiled the company’s storage strategy a day after the official announcement of Oracle’s acquisition of Pillar Data Systems. Although that deal is noteworthy, it should not distract from Oracle leveraging its traditional product strengths to strengthen its overall storage position.
Scality: Climbing The Cloud Storage Heights
June 24, 2011 7:00 AM
The traditional storage business models of NAS and SAN have been worthwhile for many enterprises, but the question remains: Is NAS or SAN best for cloud computing environments? Scality, a storage vendor, asserts that, in many cases, the answer is no. Scality's RING "organic storage software" is, according to the company, the first object-based storage platform to provide the levels of performance necessary for robust Web-based applications.
IBM's Century Of Achievement And The Next 100 Years
June 16, 2011 3:20 PM
IBM is proudly celebrating its 100th year of existence, and with good reason. Set aside any factional differences or carping about the warts that any organization has over its lifetime, and take into account the bigger picture. In that larger perspective, all of us owe IBM a debt of gratitude, not only for what it has done for us individually, but for what it is likely to do for us even if we do not regard ourselves as IBM customers.
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