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Storage Loves Linux
Linux plus database archiving is a common theme of storage software rollouts
August 18, 2004
3 Min Read
Relative newcomer Linux and old standby database archiving are a hot pair in storage software these days, showing up together in a slew of new rollouts.
It's not surprising, given the emergence of Linux as a mainstream enterprise operating system, to see it paired with storage functions. Gartner Inc. forecasts Linux server revenue will reach around $6.3 billion by 2008 after a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.3 percent over five years. IDC sees it growing 20.2 percent per year until 2008.
Meanwhile, database archiving remains a storage priority. According to Ted Battreall, database archiving product manager at Storage Technology Corp. (StorageTek) (NYSE: STK), 50 percent to 75 percent of enterprise storage consists of files residing on databases. At the same time, with Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) and utility computing picking up, people are looking for new ways to deal with archiving.
Products are emerging from both the storage and the database sides of the industry. Some examples of how archiving is being paired with Linux include the following:
3PARdata Inc. has introduced Linux support for Virtual Copy DBA (see 3Par Offers Virtual Copy DBA for Linux). The software, running on 3PARs InServ storage servers, targets high availability and quick recovery of data in Oracle9i databases running under Linux (see 3PAR Gooses Its X).
3PAR’s senior marketing director Craig Nunes says Linux is emerging as an operating system of choice in the startup’s three main markets -- financial services, telecom, and government -- usually at the expense of Unix. “A year ago you could see it coming, but it wasn’t as prevalent in the data center,” Nunes says. “We’ve seen quite a big increase in the adoption of Linux, and it seems like a good next place to focus.”3PAR's Virtual Copy DBA uses snapshots of Oracle9i data sets running on Linux to allow customers to recover data from disk rather than having to get it off tape. The application is priced at $20,000 for two controller nodes and $10,000 for each additional node. Nunes says online grocer FreshDirect.com is already using Virtual Copy DBA for Linux.
Virtual Copy DBA already supports Windows Exchange and Oracle on Solaris, and Nunes says the company plans to add support for Microsoft Corp.'s (Nasdaq: MSFT) SQL Server.
Veritas Software Corp. (Nasdaq: VRTS) said earlier this month it would make its Storage Foundation 4.0 migration suite available on Linux in September(see Veritas Broadens Linux Offering). The latest version of Storage Foundation Suite is currently available only for Solaris and Windows (see Veritas Re-Lays 'Foundation'). Veritas also joined the Linux Open Source Development Labs.
“We wanted to address a much larger customer base,” says Ranajit Nevatia, Veritas’s director of Linux strategy.
Emulex Corp. (NYSE: ELX) also announced HBA driver support for SuSE Inc. this month, following a July announcement of driver support for Red Hat Inc. (Nasdaq: RHAT). (See Emulex Releases Linux HBA Drivers and Red Hat Certifies Emulex HBAs.) Emulex has identified Linux as a market it is moving into aggressively (see Emulex Cuts Guidance, Jobs).
There also are new products on the database front:
StorageTek this week announced Lifecycle Director for DB2, an archiving package for mainframe databases (see StorageTek Adds Archive Solutions). The application allows companies to automate archiving of older files and records to offline disk or tape. That’s important on mainframes, because writing new code can be tricky for legacy applications. Pricing begins at $150,000 per CPU, and it will become available in October.
OuterBay Technologies Inc. today announced that PeopleSoft Inc. (Nasdaq: PSFT) has certified its LiveArchive database archiving software. LiveArchive will run with PeopleSoft’s human resource and enterprise financial management applications.
Princeton Softech Inc. earlier this month entered a sales and marketing partnership with BMC Software Inc. (NYSE: BMC), which adds database archiving to BMC’s Performance Management product line (see Princeton Softech Archives BMC).
— Dave Raffo, Senior Editor, Byte and Switch
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