An infusion of fresh blood for storage

http://weblog.infoworld.com/thestoragenetwork/archives/005100.html

Are you keeping up with the never ending sequel of merges and acquisitions in Storage? It gets difficult to follow, doesn't it?
Perhaps even more difficult is trying to understand (or guess) what kind of an impact the operation will have on the patient. Why the medical metaphor? Because after all blending two companies into one is somewhat similar to doing transplant surgery and there is alway a certain degree of uncertainty about the results.
Granted, when there is a big disproportion in size (IBM acquiring CIMS Lab, Inc. comes to mind) it's unlikely that the receiving body (IBM, in this case) will be significantly changed because of the new parts.
However, what will happen if the patient goes through tens of similar operations with different donors? Will the recipient transmute into a new and different body?

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Going virtual cuts costs at Florida college - Reduced workload and easier management

http://www.techworld.com/networking/features/index.cfm?featureid=2179

By Lucas Mearian, Computerworld
Palm Beach Community College is going virtual: virtual servers, virtual network and virtual storage.
The college, which has 49,000 students and 2,000 employees, has nearly completed the roll-out of a server and storage consolidation project that will eventually replace scores of servers with a new mainframe and two blade systems.

Though not yet complete, the $1.6 million project has already allowed the school to reallocate its 60-person IT staff and cut data backups from 24 hours to just five hours.

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Storage Clips: IBM adds e-mail support to CDP

By SearchStorage.com Staff23 Jan 2006 SearchStorage.com


Daily compilation of storage news:
IBM boosts CDPIBM announced that its Continuous Data Protection (CDP) for Files software will offer increased subfile backup for Lotus Notes and Microsoft Outlook files, new administrative tools to simplify management, as well as improved replication speed.
The new software also automatically senses which portions of massive end-user e-mail files change and moves only the modified pieces, rather than refreshing the entire archive every time the files change. A new settings panel allows users to "pause" replication, and lets users dictate how much bandwidth the software will use. Finally, a new remote space configuration field allows customers to control how many versions per file will be stored on remote targets.

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IBM Updates CDP (Continous Data Protection)

http://www.byteandswitch.com/document.asp?doc_id=87255&WT.svl=wire2_1

ARMONK -- IBM announced today a major upgrade to its Continuous Data Protection for Files software, offering increased subfile backup for Lotus Notes and Microsoft Outlook files and new administrative tools to simplify management.

The new software, which acts as a “data safety net” providing real-time backup of information stored on personal computers and servers, includes a number of capabilities designed to ease administration by improving replication speed and control.
Massive end-user email files present a challenge because it is not practical to backup the entire archive each time a change occurs. The new software automatically senses which portions of these large files change and moves only the modified pieces, greatly reducing network bandwidth and storage space at the target.

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see also
http://www.sda-asia.com/sda/news/psecom,id,6737,nodeid,4,_language,Singapore.html

College Majors in Virtualization

http://www.byteandswitch.com/document.asp?doc_id=86858&WT.svl=news2_1?doc_id=86858&WT.svl=news2_1

http://webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?SESSIONID=&aId=7982


Virtualization is one of those topics storage vendors talk a lot about while failing to convince customers.

Still, there are brave souls out there willing to give it a shot. Tony Parziale, CIO of Palm Beach Community College, has been virtualizing the college’s storage and servers since June. PBCC spent $1.6 million on IBM hardware, software, and services, to tie data kept on old mainframes and direct attached storage into one storage pool on a SAN.

PBCC’s new gear includes a zSeries 890 midrange mainframe running five SUSE Linux partitions, a 10-Tbyte IBM DS6800 connected to the mainframe, two BladeCenter blade server chassis, SAN Volume Controller (SVC) to bring all the storage into one pool, and Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) for backup.

“It’s a virtual world,” Parziale says. “The way I look at it, we have one opportunity every four years to make a major architectural change. The easier solution would have been to stay with the technology we had. But we achieved a lot of costs savings. Going to Linux eliminated proprietary software that was costing us $30,000 a month in licensing. We also eliminated storage and server sprawl and could consolidate our IT staff.”

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CAMINOSOFT’S INFORMATION LIFECYCLE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE SUPPORTS NEW IBM SYSTEM STORAGE DR550

CAMINOSOFT’S INFORMATION LIFECYCLE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE SUPPORTS NEW IBM SYSTEM STORAGE DR550

http://www.caminosoft.com/pr/pr078.html

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif--January 10, 2006 --CaminoSoft Corp. (OTC.BB:CMSF - News), a leading provider of Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) solutions for Microsoft Windows 2000/2003 and Novell NetWare & GroupWise environments, today announced that its enhancement of Managed Server HSM™ – Tivoli Edition operates with IBM’s System Storage DR550.

CaminoSoft’s solution enables customers to leverage the power of intelligent storage and file management with IBM’s newest data retention offering, helping customers address data archiving, corporate governance, and regulatory compliance requirements.

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--> read more from caminosoft
--> read more from IBM

Reporter's Notebook: Storage 2006

Briefs by Lucas Mearian , senior editor
http://www.computerworld.com/managementtopics/management/story/0,10801,107262,00.html

JANUARY 02, 2006 (COMPUTERWORLD) - Am I seeing 3-D?
IT managers should put holographic storage on a shortlist of emerging technologies to watch in 2006. The first production-grade products are expected to ship in the first quarter. This DVD-like storage medium uses a laser beam to write a hologram inside the substrate material of a platter. But unlike a DVD, where only the surface of the disk is burned, holographic images are recorded throughout the disk material and the transparent disks are enclosed in a cartridge. Random reads mean holographic storage will blow away digital tape in data restore speeds. With prices expected to start around $100 per disk, capacities beginning at 300GB and quickly soaring past 1TB per disk, and 160MB/sec. data transfer rates, you'd be crazy not to look at this technology -- or, at the very least, test it. Right now, holographic storage appears best suited for long-term data storage as well as nearline storage, because it's removable and is expected to be fitted for a standard cartridge that will work in tape libraries.
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Discovering SRM

Storage resource management products have reached a certain level of maturity, but they still need standardization to work well in heterogeneous environments. Look for advancements in standards in 2006.

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