IBM brushes up mainframe VTL, touts SVC performance
In separate announcements this week, IBM announced new virtual tape
library (VTL) offerings for mainframe environments and touted its
SPC benchmark results for the
storage area network (San) Volume Controller (SVC) storage
virtualisation product.
The new version of its mainframe VTL, the Virtualisation Engine
TS7740, will now allow users, across up to three separate sites, to
share tape data. A 1 terabyte (TB) version of the TS7740 has also
been added to be marketed to small businesses. Another update aimed
at midsized businesses is the new TS2230 Tape Drive Express Model
H3S LTO-3 half height, which will become available on 3 August.
Mainframe users will also be able to attach their systems to the
self-encrypting T1120 tape controller as of Aug. 31. IBM's new
midrange storage servers, the DS3000 and DS3400 DC, both of which
have built-in DC power, will be marketed to oil, gas and telecom
customers .
IBM also announced that the latest version of SVC has been clocked
by the Storage Performance Council (SPC) at 75% faster than its
predecessor, with an SPC-1 (single workload result) of 272,505
IOPS. During a SPC-2 test, with three workloads, the system
performed at 7,084 megabytes per second (MBps), 50% faster than the
previous version.
EMC prices VMware shares
EMC announced this week that 33 million shares of server
virtualisation subsidiary VMware will be priced in an initial
public offering (IPO) at between $23 and $25 per share. EMC will
remain the majority owner of VMware, but Intel has also declared
its intention to buy a partial stake in the company, with an
estimated worth of $218.5 million.
AT&T deploys Sun Thumper
Sun announced that AT&T will use the Sun Fire X4600 (Thumper)
storage server in branch offices to deliver a new IP-based
television service called AT&T U-verse TV. AT&T will also
deploy Sun StorageTek arrays, but which ones weren't specified. A
press release said the two companies have a long-standing
relationship.
In a separate announcement, Sun and Cluster File Systems
announced they will be integrating OpenSolaris ZFS with the Lustre
parallel filesystem. "Our customers are asking for features in
Lustre servers which are available through the use of OpenSolaris
ZFS. This will shorten our time to market with future versions of
our product that scale to trillions of files and exabytes of
storage with … enhanced storage management [features]," said Peter
Braam, CEO of Cluster File Systems, in a press release.
Quantum launches removable disc
Quantum announced the GoVault Data Protection Solution, a removable
disc
backup system that will be marketed to small businesses and
branch offices, The product includes a tabletop or server-embedded
intelligent dock, two disc cartridges, backup software and data
deduplication. The product is available now at a manufacturer
suggested retail price (MSRP) of $400 for an internal server dock,
two 40 GB cartridges, SATA II cabling and software. Cartridges
begin at $100 and are available in 40 GB, 80 GB, 120 GB and 160 GB
capacities.
Logistics company outsources to Digitiliti
Managed service provider Digitiliti announced that Minnesota-based
Koch Logistics chose its service over replacing tape library
equipment and upgrading software. The company sends 2 TB per day
over a T1 connection, which Digitiliti's onsite appliance
compresses to around 900 GB.
Arkeia GAs EdgeFort
Arkeia announced the general availability of its
EdgeFort product, originally preannounced at
Storage Networking World (SNW) this spring. EdgeFort is an
appliance that will allow backup administrators to remotely
manage backup operations at remote sites without sending data
back to headquarters over the WAN. For more commentary on the
product, see this post by
Jerome Wendt on our Storage Soup blog.
QLogic, HDS certify iSCSI bundle with Microsoft
QLogic and Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) announced that their iSCSI
bundle, which combines QLogic iSCSI host bus adapters (HBA) with
HDS Workgroup Modular Storage (WMS) or Adaptable Modular Storage
(AMS) systems, has been certified by Microsoft as a Simple San.
However, not everyone in the industry thinks it's so simple: "I
would question the use of iSCSI HBAs," said Tony Asaro, senior
analyst with the Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG). "Most of the
customers we've talked to aren't using HBAs when they deploy
iSCSI."
Emulex partners with 3Leaf, gets into Linux
Server virtualisation player 3Leaf SystemsTM announced that it will
incorporate Emulex 4 Gbps LightPulse HBAs into its V-8000TM Virtual
I/O Server. In a separate announcement, Emulex also said a driver
for its virtual HBA has been incorporated into the Linux kernel.
This means that open source Xen virtual servers can each see a
dedicated partition of the HBA.
Cisco, Microsoft, EMC band together to sell to
government
Cisco, Microsoft and EMC announced that they've founded the Secure
Information Sharing Architecture (SISA) alliance, which will put
together product packages that will allow role-based access to
shared content among government agencies. Other vendors adding
pieces to the package include Liquid Machines, Swan Island Networks
and Titus Labs.
MicroNet boosts PlatinumNAS
MicroNet announced new software capabilities for its small and
midsized business (SMB)/small office/home office (SOHO) network
attached storage ( NAS) appliance, called PlatinumNAS. New features
include automated shutdown after business hours, an unattended
download scheduler, iTunes music server function and USB expansion
slots.
Sanbolic adds network cacheing to San filesystem
Sanbolic announced that its Melio filesystem will now allow San
filesystem clients to queue operations, such as file open, file
attributes updates and file data write via a network redirector.
The company claims this will boost performance, as network
communication is no longer required for each operation in the
filesystem.
Digistore ships 100,000 CD libraries
Digistore Solutions announced that it has shipped its 100,000th
unit in its Centurion line of CD storage devices since the
company's launch at the end of 2003.
Isilon branching into backup?
Clustered NAS maker Isilon announced that its IQ storage clusters
have been certified as compatible with NetBackup through NDMP.
Panasas pumps up clusters
Panasas announced the addition of the 15 TB ActiveStor 3150 to its
ActiveStor 3000 parallel storage cluster product line. Each 4U, 15
TB capacity shelf can be stacked together for up to 150 TBs in a
single-rack system.
DataDirect Networks adds SATA checker
DataDirect Networks announced that version 3.08 of its Silicon
Storage Appliance (S2A) management software will include a new
feature, called SATAssure, which detects and corrects data
corruption on SATA discs by performing parity checking on read
I/Os.