RamSan-325 Solid State Disk
Gets Cluster of Certifications
Houston, TX -
February 28 2005 - Texas Memory Systems announced four significant
interoperability certifications for its flagship RamSan-325 Fibre Channel solid
state disk.
The certifications include Microsoft Designed for
Windows Server 2003, Sun Solaris Ready, IBM TotalStorage Proven and McData
OpenReady. Each of these certifications is awarded as a result of testing with
the related platform.
"To achieve record-holding performance and the highest levels of
interoperability, we designed the RamSan's Fibre Channel interface and software
from the ground up," said Rich Holzmann, VP at Texas Memory Systems. "Because
solid state disks are used strategically to accelerate critical applications,
they need to work flawlessly in heterogeneous IT environments. Our active
approach to working alongside leading vendors in the storage industry has led to
a rock-solid product."
The RamSan-325 can accelerate I/O intensive applications such as
databases up to 2,500%. It offers 250,000 I/Os per second and an internal
bandwidth of 3GB per second that can be shared effectively amongst multiple
servers. The performance boost from the RamSan can enable higher transaction
loads and support more users without resorting to additional servers, associated
licenses and management overhead.
...Texas Memory
Systems profile, Solid
State Disks
Surviving the Solaris x86 Wars Game On
Editor:- February 28,
2005 - the popular article in the SPARC Product Directory called -
Surviving the Solaris x86 Wars - has been updated and concluded.
As
well as documenting Sun's long history in the Intel Architecture segment, the
article reverse analyses Sun's forward looking business strategy and predicts
which types of vendors will benefit most, incorporating feedback from Sun VARs,
oems and other partners. ...read the article,
SPARC Product Directory,
other Sun SPARC
Solaris articles
Sun Sparks Up SPARC
SANTA
CLARA, Calif. - February 23, 2005 - Sun Microsystems, Inc. today
reinforced its commitment to the SPARC platform by boosting performance across
its popular UltraSPARC IV processor-based server family.
The new
UltraSPARC IV 1.35 GHz processor, available immediately, gives customers over
twice the throughput at 34% better price/performance when compared to the
fastest UltraSPARC III systems, and can be mixed and matched with previous
UltraSPARC III and UltraSPARC IV processors.
Sun's UltraSPARC IV 1.35
GHz processor upgrade gives customers enhanced throughput computing power on the
Sun Fire V490, V890, Sun Enterprise 2900, 4900, 6900, 20000 and 25000 servers.
These UltraSPARC IV and Solaris OS-based systems deliver Chip Multithreading
Technology (CMT), driving over double the application throughput in the same
physical footprint as its predecessors, which helps reduce the cost and
complexity of doing business for Sun's customers.
UltraSPARC IV
processor-based Sun Fire mid-range servers deliver more than 7x the performance
of UltraSPARC II servers with lower operating costs. For customers using
UltraSPARC II technology, Sun is offering double trade-in values for upgrades to
UltraSPARC IV technology through its Sun Upgrade Advantage Program.
...Sun profile
LeftHand Networks Reaches Out to UNIX
BOULDER,
Colo - February 22, 2005 - LeftHand Networks today announced a
significant new release of SAN/iQ intelligent storage operating system.
Release 6.1 incorporates policy management capability for provisioning
and snapshots, support for several UNIX operating systems, and RAID 5 support
within a storage module. With this release, the SAN administrator can establish
policies that allow a primary storage volume or a volume used to store snapshots
to grow as needed - without administrator intervention - until a specified
threshold is reached. Establishing an artificially large volume size in the
operating system and using the auto-grow capability eliminates the manual steps
frequently involved in data growth, simplifying the job of the administrator.
In addition, this release adds support for the Sun Solaris, HP-UX,
and IBM AIX operating systems. This additional operating system support broadens
the applicability of the LeftHand SAN into UNIX environments and customer sites
with multiple operating systems.
"iSCSI SANs continue to grow in popularity and the types of
applications and environments that can leverage the simplicity of iSCSI are
expanding as vendors add functionality and OS support," said Robert Gray,
senior analyst at IDC. "IDC expects to see a 189% growth in iSCSI storage
systems deployments in 2005."
SAN/iQ's primary data availability
technology is a patented synchronous replication scheme that writes data a
specified number of times across multiple storage modules on the network.
Release 6.1 adds support for RAID 5 data protection for customers starting with
a single storage module.
...LeftHand
Networks profile
Sun Supports NetApp's Version of NFS
SUNNYVALE,
Calif. - February 16, 2005 - Network Appliance, Inc. today announced
that Sun Java System Messaging Server now supports the NetApp
implementation of the Network File System (NFS) protocol.
Through
NetApp unified storage customers of the Sun Java System Messaging Server can
now reduce the complexity of message storage, execute rapid backup and recovery,
and lower their total cost of ownership of archiving and storing messages.
"Sun support of NetApp NFS with Sun Java System Messaging Server
enables customers to capitalize on the latest NetApp technology advances,
including the newly released Data ONTAP 7G software, which powers the entire
family of NetApp storage systems" said Patrick Rogers, VP of Partner and
Alliances Marketing at Network Appliance.
...Network Appliance
profile, ...Sun
profile
Editor's comments:- this is an astonishing coup by NetApp
on two counts. First - Sun invented the original version of NFS - which by the
early 1990s had already been licensed by hundreds of network computer
manufacturers. Second - Sun is a Die Hard case when it comes to adopting any
technology which it didn't develop internally. The acknowledgement that NetApp
has done a better job in Sun's core competence technology of IP may be a sign
that Sun wants to play ball by the new rules in which it is just another server
company.
Red Hat Simplifies Migration from Solaris to Linux
LINUXWORLD,
BOSTON - February 15, 2005 - Red Hat announced plans to extend the
functionality of Red Hat Network to manage software distribution and
configuration for systems running Solaris.
The cross-platform
support in Red Hat Network will ease the transition from Solaris to Red Hat
Enterprise Linux. Red Hat expects the Red Hat Network Management Module for
Solaris to be available by the end of the second quarter of 2005.
"...Customers
are asking how they can complete their company-wide transitions from proprietary
Unix to Red Hat Enterprise Linux," said Paul Cormier, Executive VP of
Engineering at Red Hat. "Red Hat Network for Solaris makes the management
of this transition efficient and cost effective." ...Red Hat profile
Editor's
comments:- I doubt if Sun will lose much sleep over Red Hat's new product. A
much bigger problem for Sun is that after all the hoopla about opening up
Solaris x86 nobody in the commercial world (including most Sun VARs) seems to
care very much and enthusiasm for it is less than for catching a cold.
Sun Unveils 4 Way 1.6GHz SPARC Server
CANNES,
FRANCE - February 14, 2005 - Sun Microsystems, Inc. today unveiled a
1.6GHz performance enhancement to the Netra 440 UltraSPARC processor based
4-way carrier grade server.
Announced at 3GSM World Congress in
Cannes, France, the enhancement can provide up to a 36% increase in
price/performance.
Running on the UltraSPARC IIIi with carrier-grade Solaris Operating
System and Sun Java Enterprise Systems technologies, the upgraded Netra 440
server can enable the delivery of next-generation, high-bandwidth, telecom
infrastructure applications such as 3G wireless and broadband services. Sun
claims its Netra 440 server is the lowest cost, highest density, NEBS-Level 3
certified 4-way carrier grade server on the market today. The Netra 440 server
start at $13,995.
...Sun profile
See
also:- article:-
the New Solaris Migration?
SPARC Notebook Maker Tadpole Computer Names New VP for Government
Sales
Cupertino,
Calif. - February 7, 2005 - Tadpole Computer today announced that Bob
Melissinos has joined the company as VP of Sales for the company's Government
Business Division reporting to Tadpole President/CEO, Mark Johnston.
Bob
takes over from Barbara Payne who held the position for 12 years and was
recently promoted to a new role as VP Government Strategic Business.
Bob has previously occupied Vice President positions in Sales and
Business Development for both product and services companies with a strong focus
on the Government. As VP of Sales & Strategic Business Development for a
premier government reseller, Bob was instrumental in the transition of their
sales force from selling products to selling solutions. In this role, he
successfully grew overall sales revenues with Sun-related revenues increasing by
44% year-over-year.
With 38 years of experience selling and managing sales organizations
in the IT industry and the Government market, Bob has an enviable and strong
track record of success and is the recipient of a multitude of awards for
excellence in performance.
"As we transition our Government Business, from its initial
stages as a flat "product" centric organization to a multi dimensional
group, with both global sales and strategic business development resources,
Bob's experience will be invaluable", commented Mark Johnston, Tadpole's
President/CEO. "The Government market for Tadpole has demonstrated strong
growth in the past 24 months and currently we are supplying our reliable mobile
solutions into some 40 different Government Programs. We see strong
positive growth for the Company in the future leveraging these Program wins, as
we expand our mobile product offerings into this Program base."
....Tadpole Computer
profile
Editor's comments:- Tadpole recently launched a new family
of SPARC notebooks which they call the
Bullfrog.
The high end model includes dual 1.2 GHz UltraSPARC IIIi processors and up
to 16GB DRAM.
eWEEK Article Reveals Flaws in Sun's Open Source Plans
Editor:- February
3, 2005 - an article today in eWEEK compares the tricksie nature of Sun's
open source thinking with a classic episode from Star Trek.
In my
end of 2004 review
article I predicted that in 2005 Sun's efforts in this direction might come
to nought and that the open source Solaris idea would be declared to be a
dream. ...read
the eWEEK article
Sun Enters the Shadow of Enron with Computer Capacity Trading
SANTA
CLARA, Calif. And Chicago - February 3, 2005 - During its quarterly Network
Computing '05 launch today, Sun Microsystems, Inc. and Archipelago
Holdings Inc. announced the companies plan to build the world's first
online compute exchange.
Based on the new Sun Grid and Archipelago's electronic matching
technology, the companies plan to introduce a new electronic trading environment
that will allow customers to bid on CPU usage cycles. Being able to dynamically
bid for open compute cycles will provide companies across the globe with
unprecedented flexibility in planning for the purchase and use of compute power.
This is a new paradigm in computing where companies can access an unlimited
number of CPUs as they need them.
"Archipelago leads the way when it comes to electronic trading
technology," said Robert Youngjohns, executive vice president of strategic
development and Sun financing at Sun Microsystems, Inc. "With Sun Grid, and
Archipelago's matching technology, we expect companies will be able to access an
unlimited number of CPUs as they need them--and have access to technology that
is reliable, simple to use, powerful, and sophisticated--at a single point of
contact."
...Sun profile
Editor's
comments:- nothing is really new. In March 2001, in my capacity as editor of
STORAGEsearch.com, I was approached by the Director of Enron's Storage Trading
Initiative. Enron had a plan for running a trading market on storage capacity
in a similar way to something they had previously done on OC-48 bandwidth. I
didn't think the idea would fly then for a number of reasons. And later Enron's
collapse became the biggest in corporate history. I don't think Sun's server
capacity trading idea will work either. The security implications are
horrendous. What do you think?
Sun's Knockoff Ads Delusional - Says Article
Editor:- February 1,
2005 - an article published today in TheRegister.co.uk critiques a
recent print ad by Sun in which the company claims its servers are 76%
faster than those from rival HP.
Sun's performance and
price comparisons have often been misleading by comparing new Sun systems to
old or less well specified competitor boxes. Remember when a Sun workstation was
supposed to cost less than a PC? Anyway this quote from the article gives you a
hint of its flavour.
"Sun's current Santa Clara headquarters is
built on the grounds of an old insane asylum, and it seems the ghosts of past
inmates may be affecting Sun's marketing staff." ...read the article
Sun Improves SPARC Workstation Price / Performance
SANTA
CLARA, Calif. - February 1, 2005 - today Sun Microsystems, Inc.
unveiled up to 40% performance increases in its UltraSPARC processor-based Sun
Blade 1500 and Sun Blade 2500 workstations.
These workstations
take advantage of the performance boost from the recently announced Solaris 10
OS. Additionally, Sun today announced new pricing promotions for both its
UltraSPARC and AMD Opteron processor-based workstation lines, giving customers
even better price-performance benefits for these products.
"With more than one million workstations installed worldwide, Sun
has a strong history of leadership in this market, and the company continues to
provide its customers with superior price-performance both on UltraSPARC and AMD
Opteron processor-based workstations," said Rajesh Shakkarwar, senior
director, Workstation Marketing at Sun. "These workstations, running the
Solaris 10 OS, offer customers improved performance and advanced features such
as predictive self-healing, DTrace and Solaris Containers."
The new Sun Blade 1500 and Sun Blade 2500 workstations are currently
available worldwide at a starting list price of $3,195 and $7,195, respectively.
Sun
also announced a pricing promotion whereby customers can get complete PC
functionality on their workstation with a limited-time $1 offer on a SunPCi
IIIpro card when purchased with a new UltraSPARC processor-based Sun Blade
1500 or 2500 workstation. The SunPCi IIIpro card enables users to run Windows or
Linux natively within the Solaris OS.
...Sun profile,
Desktop - SPARC |
|
| |
RamSan-325 Gets
Cluster of Certifications
Surviving the Solaris x86 Wars Game On
Sun
Sparks Up SPARC
LeftHand Networks Reaches Out to UNIX
Sun Supports NetApp's Version of NFS
Red Hat Simplifies
Migration from Solaris to Linux
Sun Unveils 4 Way 1.6GHz SPARC Server
Tadpole
Names New VP for Government Sales
eWEEK Article Reveals Flaws in Sun's
Open Source Plans
Sun Enters the Shadow of Enron
Sun's
Knockoff Ads Delusional - Says Article
Sun Improves SPARC Workstation
Price / Performance
earlier news -
archive |
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| M-Systems is a leader
and innovator of flash-based data storage products known as flash disks. |
| |
| All
Aboard the 4 Gigabit Train? - by Steve Gardner, Director of Product
Marketing, Engenio |
| The
future of 4 Gigabit Fibre Channel technology is here and by 2006 it will be
widely adopted by organisations around the world.
|
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Just 6 -months
ago that statement would have been met with heavy skepticism; but today,
industry analysts, customers and manufacturers all agree that 4 Gbps technology
will be available from the world's leading IT vendors by mid-2005.
Companies with high performance computing needs, such as scientists,
engineers, artists and others who need access to large amounts of data to solve
complex problems, will be the first to adopt the technology. Four Gigabit Fibre
Channel technology will enable auto manufacturers to reduce time to market and
improve the safety of vehicles by making testing and simulations less time
consuming. Energy companies will be able to conduct more iterations of analysis
thereby improving the bidding process and increasing their probability of
finding petroleum. Companies that aren't considered "traditional"
high performance computing customers will also benefit. Food manufacturers, for
example, will be able to redesign and improve packaging in less time by using 4
Gbps technology.
The entertainment industry will produce higher quality animated
movies, in less time, when they adopt 4 Gbps technology. The producers of Polar
Express, an animated film that was a holiday hit, used a new technique called "Performance
Capture" that allows an actor to be covered in hundreds of tiny computer
chips. The data from these chips contains precise information about all of the
actor's movements, including facial expressions. Production of the graphics
involved in the endeavor required millions of time consuming calculations. Had 4
Gbps been available, the time required to produce the movie could have been
reduced significantly.
The most frequently asked question regarding 4 Gbps technology is "Why
do I need this?" After all, most users still aren't taking full
advantage of all that 2 Gbps SANs have to offer. The answer is twofold:
technology and economics. As technology advances components become smaller,
faster and less expensive. Vendors push improvements to differentiate and create
competitive advantage. As a by product, the new technology can drive lower
costs, creating an economic incentive for buyers to use the latest technology,
even if their need is not immediate. When you add the fact that the new 4 Gbps
technology will be compatible with 2 Gbps and 1 Gbps installations. There will
be no need to uninstall 2 Gbps investments, and customers will be able to
seamlessly plug into the improved infrastructure. This understanding changed the
question from "Why do I need this?" to "When can I have this?"
It's important to remember that 4 Gbps Fibre Channel Technology is
only part of the computing equation. If your performance bottleneck is the
server horsepower for example, adding 4 Gbps infrastructure won't produce
improved results. 4Gbps technology is just around the corner. The speed is
impressive, and the costs are attractive. This train will be leaving the station
soon. Don't be left behind. ...Engenio profile,
Fibre-channel adapter cards,
SAN,
article:- Fibre-Channel SAN
History
See also:- another article by Steve Gardner -
Disk to Disk Backup
versus Tape - War or Truce? |
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| . |
New Sun
Sponsored Survey Reveals Security and Accessibility Top the List of Consumer
Concerns for Data in Digital Domains
SANTA
CLARA, Calif. - January 27, 2005 - Sun Microsystems, Inc. today
announced the results of a new Harris Interactive survey (of 2,056 U.S. online
adults) that sheds light on the relationship between consumers' growing reliance
on their "digital domains" and data center storage trends.
Expectations of online savvy adults place heavy demands on data accessibility,
security and storage.
According to the survey, 94% of U.S. online adults use digital
services, and, of those users, 82% consider the security of their online data to
be of great importance, rating security of this information a 9 or a 10 on a
10-point importance scale. The perceived need for security is followed in
importance by the ease of accessibility to a consumer's data, which was
considered a 9 or a 10 by 63% of the digital service users polled.
The
survey also revealed that many respondents expect the data they store through
digital services to be accessible forever; this includes photo downloads (30%),
online banking records (25%), music downloads (24%) or email (23%). And, while
these users have growing needs for and expectations of online storage, 82% of
respondents said they would not be willing to pay for additional storage
capacity.
"As consumers continue to 'outsource' their data
storage by using online services to process email, share photos, build MP3
libraries, access financial information, and participate in online auctions, the
role of a well-planned enterprise storage strategy becomes all the more crucial
to ISPs and other companies that profit from providing these services -
especially when these customers are not willing to pay more for the increased
storage they will demand," said Mark Canepa, executive vice president of
Sun Network Storage. "Additionally, the fact that consumers place the most
importance on data security and access supports Sun's systems approach to
building data centers, which focuses not just on storage, but on how data is
accessed, used and moved throughout its lifecycle."
Digital services are online services that allow consumers to store,
manage, access and share their personal data like photos, music or e-mail over
the Internet. As consumers continue to store and access more of their personal
data through online services, they build what Sun calls their own "digital
domain" - a virtual world where they store, access, manage, share, move and
enhance their personal data. Companies with the best enterprise storage
strategies for their data centers reap the benefits from customers' growing
their digital domains. Sun
Microsystems, Storage
Security, Market
research | |
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Serial Attached SCSI - Delivering Flexibility to the
Data Center - article by LSI Logic and Maxtor
"SAS gains a
performance advantage through its support of multiple initiators, or the ability
to support I/O requests from more than one controller at a time. With dual ports
and multiple initiator support, SAS RAID arrays can implement dynamic load
balancing, allowing I/O requests to be evenly spread across multiple
controllers, leveraging the full processing power of all of them. Without this
capability, the I/O requests can become skewed, and overload one controller,
while the others may not be at full capacity. SATA technology does not
support this capability."
...read the article,
...LSI Logic profile,
...Maxtor profile,
Serial Attached SCSI | |
|
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Solid
State Disks:- Pushing the Envelope in Blade Server Design - article by BiTMICRO
"In
terms of power consumption, mechanical hard disks typically devour around 500mA
while flash SSDs consume a mere 50mA. The difference may seem insignificant in
small enterprise apps, but for huge data farms, the cost savings become
apparent. This further enhances the blade server's advantage over proprietary
systems with regard to operational costs. The reliable performance of
mechanical disk drives can only be ensured if these drives operate within
specified temperature ranges. As drive manufacturers introduce newer models
featuring spindle speeds as high as 15,000 RPM, cooling has emerged as a major
issue." ...
read the article,
...BiTMICRO profile | |
| . |
SPARC
Trivia Quiz - Test your knowledge of Sun's technologies and marketing
strategies.
Sun has had an impressive track record of promoting
innovation and inventing new computer technology, especially in its younger
more creative days. Which of the following statements is true?
(a)
- Sun invented the microprocessor.
(b) - Sun invented Unix.
(c)
- the first C compiler was written on a Sun-1 workstation.
(d) - Sun
was the co-inventor of Ethernet (along with Xerox and DEC).
(e) - Sun
invented RAID.
(f) - Sun invented RISC.
(g) - all of the
above.
(h) - none of the above.
This is just one of many
similar questions you'll find in our entertaining
Sun SPARC
Trivia Quiz | |
| . |
How
Do Solid State Disks Make Economic Sense?
When Some 3.5" Drives Cost
$20,000 or More? |
If your
application is speeding up an enterprise server with thousands or tens of
thousands of networked users then it's a mistake to think of the SSD as
replacing storage. In fact the SSD is replacing servers and software licenses.
SSDs can be used either to speed up the response time of existing applications
as an alternative to buying more servers, or to reduce the number of servers and
software licenses deployed. The economics can be compellingly in favor of an SSD
deployment and are discussed in our
case study articles.
Another
server use for SSDs is to prolong the life of server architectures which have
been end-of-lifed such as HP's Alpha. The SSD can work like a processor speedup
and buy the owners more years of useful life while they evaluate viable
alternatives. See the article:-
Out of the
Alpha Frying Pan into the Sun Fire?
...from -
the Solid State
Disks Buyers Guide | |
|
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NAS, DAS
or SAN? - Choosing the Right Storage Technology for Your Organization -
article by Xtore
It's 4 years since we published the
Storage Architecture
Guide a classic reference written by the world's first network storage
company Auspex. The new overview article from Xtore places the main storage
connection strategies in a current context. Here's an extract.
"Another
important consideration for a medium sized business or large enterprise is
heterogeneous data sharing. With DAS, each server is running its own operating
platform, so there is no common storage in an environment that may include a mix
of Windows, Mac and Linux workstations. NAS systems can integrate into any
environment and serve files across all operating platforms. On the network, a
NAS system appears like a native file server to each of its different clients.
That means that files are saved on the NAS system, as well as retrieved from the
NAS system, in their native file formats. NAS is also based on industry standard
network protocols such as TCP/IP, FC and CIFS. " ... read the article,
...Xtore profile | |
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