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Getting Faster: SGI, IBM, Pliant SSDs, Akamai
September 15th, 2009 : John RathHere’s a roundup of some of some of this week’s headlines on benchmarks, speed records, and response times:
- IBM breaks processing speed record. IBM announced Monday that the company set a new technology benchmark for the financial services industry, delivering the fastest recorded throughput performance and lowest network latency on Reuters Market Data System v6.0 (RMDS). Using the IBM BladeCenter HS22 server they processed 1.3 million market data updates per second, while maintaining a latency of less than 1 millisecond. Alex Yost, vice president IBM Systems and Technology Group said “The new generation of System x and BladeCenter solutions redefine how x86 clients can address today’s challenges with servers that have less than half the power consumption, one-third the management cost, and more than twice the performance.”
- SSD startup offers more than twice the input/output. Startup Solid State Drive (SSD) company Pliant Technologies announced Monday an enterprise flash drive (EFD) family, a new class of high-performance, high reliability storage drives. The EFD’s deliver 2 -4 times faster input/output operations per second and 10 times higher data reliability than existing SSD’s. The Pliant Lighting EFDs are the first flash-based storage devices to feature a cache-less design to prevent data loss on power interuptions, and a number of advanced data reliability features to deliver complete end-to-end data protection. The Lightning EFDs have been specificaly designed for demanding, mission-critical 24×7 applications. The products are being delivered for OEM evaluation and qualification and will be available in September 2009.
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Rumor: EMC, Cisco JV to Target Data Centers
September 3rd, 2009 : Rich MillerOne of the rumors floating around this week is that EMC Corp. and Cisco Systems will create a joint venture focused on enterprise data centers. This report began circulating last week, when The Register said the two tech titans would team ”to market a jointly developed product.” The JV would not include VMware, the report said.
The story has spread far and wide today after a Wall Street Journal writeup. ”Code-named Alpine, the venture would be aimed at data centers – the giant computing rooms that power the Internet and corporate networks – say people briefed on the effort,” Ben Worthen writes. “It would specialize in installing systems that combine a new server Cisco recently started selling with Cisco networking gear and EMC storage systems, these people say.”
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Roundup: DataPipe, Peak 10, Equinix, APC
September 1st, 2009 : John RathHere’s a roundup of some of some of this week’s headlines from the data center and hosting industry:
- DataPipe rolls out 3PAR services. Utility storage provider 3PAR announced Monday that Cloud-Agile partner DataPipe now offers differentiated virtual private array (VPA) and disaster recovery (DR) services as a part of their Stratosphere cloud services, which are powered by 3PAR Utility Storage. DataPipe’s cloud platform leverages VMware and 3PAR to offer a managed, secure virtualized service. “We now have the opportunity to expand our cloud service offerings in the areas of security and compliance to increase the value we offer our customers,” said Michael Parks, Chief Technology Officer for DataPipe. The 3PAR ASSURED product allows DataPipe to use remote copy, data replication, DR and automatic data backup to end users. The 3PAR SECURED product offers isolated, secure virtual private array servies.
- Peak 10 deploys VMware vSphere 4. Data center operator Peak 10 announced the delivery of Private Cloud Infrastructure Solutions, via VMware’s vSphere 4 platform. The platform offers customers pools of virtualized resources that federate between on and off-premise environments on-demand and with ease. By using vSphere 4 Peak 10 customers can maintain the integrity of their data and applications, while migrating to the cloud platform. Peak 10’s leadership team are in San Francisco this week attending the VMworld 2009 conference. Enhancements allowed from Peak 10’s vSphere 4 platform include twice as many virtual processors per virtual machine, four times the memory, three-times increase in network throughput, and additional SAN tiers available for high-end databases.
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EMC Remembers Co-Founder Egan
August 31st, 2009 : Rich MillerEMC co-founder Richard Egan passed away Friday after a long battle with cancer. Egan was EMC’s Chief Executive Officer until 1992 and Chairman of the Board until 2001. Upon his retirement from EMC, Mr. Egan served as U.S. Ambassador to Ireland.
“To many of us, Dick Egan was a fundamental force of nature,” wrote EMC’s Chuck Hollis. “It goes without saying that Dick was the driving force behind EMC in its early years. He was personally responsible not only for our stellar success in the beginning, but shaping our cultural DNA in a way that persists to this very day. Indeed, many aspects of our industry are his direct legacy. He may have passed, but his impact will be felt for many, many years to come.”
See additional appreciations at StorageZilla and The Storage Anarchist, and news coverage in The Boston Globe and Boston Herald.
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Roundup: EMC Prevails, Wins Data Domain
July 9th, 2009 : Rich MillerYesterday morning we wondered “Is The Data Domain Saga Over?” It was indeed over by the end of the day, as original suitor NetApp conceded defeat and said it would not compete with the enhanced $33.50 a share bid announced Monday by EMC Corp. “NetApp applies a disciplined approach to acquisitions, one focused intently on creating long-term value for our stockholders,” said Dan Warmenhoven, NetApp’s chairman and CEO. “We therefore cannot justify engaging in an increasingly expensive and dilutive bidding war that would diminish the deal’s strategic and financial benefits.” Here’s some reaction from around the web:
- Steve Duplessie of Enterprise Strategy Group says he thinks “the price was too high to begin with, and nuts by the end. … I think NetApp would have enjoyed a lot of synergies and opportunity with Data Domain, but at that price, there was simply no margin for error. They are probably pissed off, but in the end I think they will be happy with their decision.”
- Marc Farley notes that “Netapp gets a consolation prize – the $57 Million break up fee which will be paid by Data Domain. It’s not a lot but I’m sure they can put it to good use. The larger problem for Netapp is how they are going to replace DDUP in their plans.”
- GigaOm speculates that the post-DDUP NetApp may have a cloud problem. “Given that Facebook and Yahoo seem to have turned away from NetApp, the company may feel exposed to cloud computing, since cloud service providers have taken to buying cheap commodity hardware straight from the factory in Asia instead of buying the hardware and software as a solution from storage OEMs like NetApp.”
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ParaScale: Cloud Storage for Providers
July 9th, 2009 : Rich MillerParaScale is a startup that makes software that enables enterprises and ISPs build their own cloud storage offerings. At Structure 09, ParaScale CEO Sajai Krishnan spoke with us about ParaScale’s offering and the state of the cloud storage market. One potential opportunity: helping service providers build their own cloud storage offering to retain customers who might otherwise look to Amazon and S3. This video runs about 9 minutes.
See our Storage Channel for more coverage of the storage sector. For additional video, check out our DCK video archive and the Data Center Videos channel on YouTube.
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Is the Data Domain Saga Over?
July 8th, 2009 : Rich MillerOn Monday EMC Corp. raised its all-cash offer for deduplication specialist Data Domain (DDUP) to $33.50 a share, of $2.1 billion, topping a $30 a share cash and stock offer from NetApp (NTAP). EMC, the world’s largest data storage firm, also said the Federal Trade Commission has granted regulatory approval of the deal. The takeover battle began when NetApp offered $25 a share for Data Domain back in May, which prompted a $30 a share offer from EMC..
The ball shifts into NetApp’s court. “In response to EMC’s revised, unsolicited offer, the NetApp Board of Directors will carefully weigh its options, keeping in mind both its fiduciary duty to its stockholders and its disciplined acquisition strategy,” said Dan Warmenhoven, chairman and CEO of NetApp, in a statement. “We will provide an update shortly.”
But Data Domain’s largest shareholder appears to believe the battle is over. Tech Trader Daily reports that Artis Capital Management President Stuart Peterson told Dow Jones in an e-mail that it is “unlikely” that NetApp will ratchet up its previous bid. Artis held 10.6% of DDUP at June 4, but Peterson now says the firm has “chosen to reduce our position considerably.”
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From the Moon to the Cloud
June 29th, 2009 : Rich Miller
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, shown here in an illustration by a NASA artist, will take lunar images that will be backed up by the Nirvanix cloud storage platform.
High-definition images of the moon shot by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) satellite are being backed up on the the Nirvanix Storage Delivery Network, a cloud storage solution developed by Nirvanix.
The LRO, which launched last week, will spend a year orbiting the moon and collecting detailed information about the lunar environment. Images from the satellite’s camera will be transmitted from the satellite to a project team at Arizona State University for processing, copied to a separate storage unit at ASU and then replicated to the Nirvanix Storage Delivery Network. ASU and NASA have already transferred multiple TBs of original Apollo mission imagery to the Nirvanix CloudNAS-based solution.
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NetApp Raises Bid for Data Domain
June 3rd, 2009 : Rich MillerNetApp (NTAP) has countered EMC’s takeover bid for Data Domain with a revised offer of $30 a share in cash and stock. The new offer matches EMC’s price per share, but includes stock while EMC’s bid is all cash. Meanwhile, Data Domain’s share price continued to rise in anticipation of a higher bid from EMC.
NetApp announced May 20 that it was buying Data Domain (DDUP) for $25 a share, or $1.5 billion. On Monday EMC jumped into the fray with a surprise bid of $30 a share. NetApp is asserting that its revised offer is superior to the EMC bid.
“Our strategic rationale remains the same and we firmly believe that the combination of our two companies will provide a greater opportunity and risk-adjusted value for Data Domain shareholders, customers, and partners,” said Dan Warmenhoven, chairman and CEO of NetApp. “The complementary nature of the Data Domain and NetApp product lines will result in higher aggregate growth compared to the redundancies that would result with the EMC product line.”
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