The Storage Channel is brought to you by Cisco Systems
-
Roundup: Iron Mountain, APC, BLADE Network
February 24th, 2010 : John RathHere’s a roundup of some of some of this week’s headlines from the data center and hosting industry:
Iron Mountain acquires Mimosa Systems. Iron Mountain (IRM) announced it has acquired content archiving solutions company Mimosa Systems, Inc. for approximately $112 million. The acquisition allows Iron Mountain to have an all-in-one, on-premise archive to complement their existing cloud archives. “This deal strengthens Iron Mountain’s position in the market as a comprehensive provider of information management solutions,” said Arun Taneja, founder and consulting analyst of the Taneja Group. “Its customers now have greater flexibility to store and manage their information onsite or in the cloud, where it makes sense for their budget and business.”
APC introduces NetShelter SX. APC by Schneider Electric announced the NetShelter SX Networking Enclosure, designed for improved support for high density networking applications. When combined with the new Side Airflow Duct Kit, the Networking Enclosure provides complete isolation of hot exhaust and cold intake for large switches and SAN directors. Also included in the enclosure are integrated high density cable managers that offer enough cable capacity for 768 data ports. The Side Airflow Duct Kit is designed to be compatible with Cisco 6509, 6513, 9509, and 9513 series switches.
Read More » -
CloudLeverage Eyes Enterprise Cloud Storage
February 16th, 2010 : Linda LeungSome cloud storage providers compete on features, others on price. Startup CloudLeverage says it will compete on both fronts, claiming it offers enterprise-grade features at public cloud pricing. At $0.05 per gigabyte of storage, the pricing announced by CloudLeverage undercuts Amazon’s $0.15 per GB pricing and yet offers customers such enterprise features as network-attached storage, VPN tunneling, or an MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching) infrastructure.
CloudLeverage, funded by hosting and colocation provider Netriplex, says it will provide storage, acceleration, security, load balancing, and DNS services from 32 data centers worldwide. Storage customers can choose to place their data in up to nine data centers.
“We offer a few hundred petabytes of data capacity now and in the next couple of months that will expand to exabytes of storage that is all NAS-based,” said CloudLeverage President and CTO Jonathan Hoppe.
Files can be uploaded directly from mobile clients and shared across multiple users, with the file owner retaining the ability to manage access. Data is secured using 256 bit SSL in transit and AES encryption at rest.
Read More » -
-
Avatar, Hollywood and the Data Center
February 8th, 2010 : John Rath
A look at some of the high-density server and networking gear inside the Weta Digital data center used to render the animation for the new James Cameron movie "Avatar."
Back in December we shared some details about the powerhouse data center at Weta Digital, which is responsible for the digital effect featured in the 3D sci-fi epic ”Avatar.” The stunning visual effects produced at Weta have won several awards in past years and Avatar is nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Art Direction, Cinematography, and Visual Effects.
As the movie continues to generate awards and attention, IT vendors are sharing details of how their systems played a role in creating “Avatar.” Last week NetApp outlined details of how its storage systems helped reduce Weta’s data management overhead by 95 percent and increased storage price-to-performance ratio by 40 percent.
The data challenges faced by Weta Digital came from Avatar being filmed with revolutionary new motion-capture techniques, which generated more data than any other movie in history (more than the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy combined). To handle the massive storage requirements and provide fast access to that data, Weta worked with NetApp and Fujitsu New Zealand to develop a scalable storage solution.
NetApp SA600 FlexCache cluster units were selected to maintain high-speed access to texture files being demanded by the 35,000 rendering cores of the renderwall (the computer system used for real-time rendering). The FlexCache units were paired with FAS6000 series storage systems and then linked to the renderwall via two 10 Gigabit Ethernet connections.
Read More » -
Roundup: The Planet, Nirvanix, Extreme Networks
February 2nd, 2010 : John RathHere’s a roundup of some of some of this week’s headlines from the data center and hosting industry:
- The Planet announces permanent price reductions. Hosting provider The Planet announced sweeping price reductions from servers, to CDNs, bandwidth, services and hardware. “We’re focusing on value and how we deliver even better, more responsive customer experience from every vector of our business,” said The Planet’s Chairman and CEO Douglas J. Erwin. The Planet Evangelist Kevin Hazard addressed the price breaks in a Jan. 26 blog post and elaborated on some of the pricing changes. Prices on new server orders are reduced from 7 to 30 percent, while RAM and hard drives are reduced by 50 percent.
- Nirvanix and CommVault partner. Cloud storage provider Nirvanix and data management software company CommVault announced a partnership to connect CommVault Simpan 8 customers with an integrated storage connector for the Nirvanix Storage Delivery Network (SDN). The combination of products reduces the complexity of moving, managing and protecting data in the cloud, while lowering overall costs. “Customers now have the unprecedented flexibility to choose how and where they store their data. With Simpana software and Nirvanix, businesses gain all the operational and cost benefits of cloud storage, while retaining the full range of data and information management capabilities inherent in our single platform approach,” said David West, CommVault’s President of Marketing and Business Development.
- Extreme Networks announces virtualized infrastructure. Extreme Networks (EXTR) announced new next-generation data center products to enable the migration to virtualized data centers and new infrastructure solutions that feature market-leading scalability, performance and simplicity. Aimed at managed hosting and enterprise data centers the new networking infrastructure supports multilayer switching and routing allowing companies to transition from physical, to virtual, to cloud networks. Extreme announced new core and edge data center switching solutions that deliver multiple network architectures and topologies to be deployed. New products include BlackDiamond 8900-xi modules and Summit X480 fixed configuration 48 port 10/100/1000 switch. Both products will be available for shipment this quarter.
-
Addressing FCoE in the Data Center
November 23rd, 2009 : Kevin NormandeauPower, cooling and space challenges are the norm for most data centers today. These challenges are a direct result of infrastructure sprawl and disparate technologies caused by cabling, adaptors and switch ports for networking and storage. While server virtualization has begun to address part of the issue, many problems remain and new challenges emerge. This webcast look as ways to solve some of these data center challenges using Fibre Channel over Ethernet.
The main application of Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) is in data center storage area networks (SANs). FCoE has particular application in data centers due to the cabling reduction it makes possible, as well as in server virtualization applications, which often require many physical I/O connections per server.
With FCoE, network (IP) and storage (SAN) data traffic can be consolidated using a single network switch. This consolidation can:
- reduce the number of network interface cards required to connect to disparate storage and IP networks;
- reduce the number of cables and switches;
- reduce power and cooling costs
-
Roundup: Internap, Rackspace, Joyent, Isilon
November 18th, 2009 : John RathHere’s a roundup of news announcements from the data center and hosting industry:
- Internap Enhances CDN for High Quality Video. On Tuesday Internap Network Services announced enhancements to its content delivery network (CDN) offering, including new ease-of-use functions and automation of key CDN capabilities. A comScore Video Metrix service poll showed that in September 2009 more than 84.8% of the total U.S. Internet audience watched online video. Version 5.0 of Internap’s CDN MediaConsole includes an integrated rule-based transcoding that automatically converts video into the ideal formats for a broad range of devices. It also performs a continuous bitrate adjustment that dynamically adapts video streams based on the capabilities and bandwidth of the network. Internap is showcasing its CDN offering at the Streaming Media West conference November 17-19.
- Rackspace Launches Cloud Drive. Rackspace (RAX) announced a set of new product offerings that help businesses move their IT applications into the cloud. New products include Cloud Drive, Server Backup, and an upcoming release of Hosted Microsoft SharePoint. The new cloud products mark an aggressive move by Rackspace to expand into collaboration and backup applications and compete in the software-as-a-service market. Rackspace Cloud Drive is a cloud-based, online file storage application that allows individuals and teams to store, share and backup files. Rackspace Server Backup is a cloud-based, online server backup application designed to protect file server data. Both Server Backup and Cloud Drive are powered by technology from Jungle Disk, a Rackspace subsidiary acquired in 2008.
-
Terremark Acquires Storage Provider DS3
November 12th, 2009 : Rich MillerJust weeks after announcing a focus on seeking acquisition opportunities, managed hosting provider Terremark Worldwide (TMRK) has acquired DS3 DataVaulting for $11.5 million in cash, the company said today. DS3 provides customers with offsite, online data backup and restore services which enable enterprises and government agencies to rapidly and securely backup and restore files, databases and operating systems. The company is based in Fairfax, Va. and was founded in 2002.
“Acquiring DS3 enhances our overall data storage offering and helps us accelerate the development of our solutions in the area of managed storage, which is a key growth opportunity driven by the escalating data demands created by new technologies and increasingly stringent regulatory compliance,” said Marvin Wheeler, Terremark’s Chief Strategy Officer.
Read More » -
The Shifting Role of Storage in the Data Center
November 12th, 2009 : Kevin NormandeauStorage networking in the data center is becoming increasing complex. IT directors/managers who have overall responsibility for server, networking and storage operations will benefit from attending this live webcast from IDC and Cisco on strategies for storage networking in a virtualized data center.
As more virtualized servers generate larger quantities of data, access to storage becomes increasingly critical. Providing flexibility in terms of how to access that storage is equally critical because different environments have varying needs.
Join Rick Villars from IDC as he discusses the shifting role of storage, and access to that storage, in today’s Data Center. Click here to register for this live webcast.
Read More » -
Rackspace Adds Storage, DR Offerings
October 29th, 2009 : Rich MillerIn a reflection of the growing importance of large-scale storage and backup, Rackspace Hosting (RAX) today introduced new managed storage and disaster recovery services targeted for enterprise customers. The San Antonio managed hosting specialist said the new offerings are a response to customers wanting to increase their online storage.
“We evolve our enterprise offerings based on customer,” said Taylor Rhodes, GM of Enterprise Services for Rackspace. “They’re telling us they need a partner to provide important but non-strategic functions, and they want to buy them as services rather than pouring their own capital and IT resources into them. We are now able to offer our most complex customers solutions designed for their storage and data replication needs.”
Read More »
