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February 25, 2009 by Zsolt Kerekes
storage history - May 2000
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Will Hard
Disks Get Faster?
|SAN JOSE, Calif. - May 31, 2000 -
TrueSAN Networks today announced a revolutionary storage networking
platform that will redefine global data management by bringing robust
intelligence to open standards-based storage networks. At the SAN2000
conference, TrueSAN unveiled its SANengine storage networking platform,
combining storage domain management, adaptive caching, resource optimization,
and other technologies to empower open systems with carrier-class performance,
manageability, and availability.
"TrueSAN has brought something to the table that is sorely lacking in the burgeoning storage market: innovation," stated Jim Berlino, senior storage analyst with CIBC World Markets. "The SANengine product suite innovatively solves several of the problems that plague SAN managers, but, more importantly, it empowers MIS managers with the intelligence to craft storage architectures to meet their specific needs. This is a customer friendly product."
Today's storage-area network (SAN) implementations deliver higher performance, greater scalability, and increased resiliency for mission-critical internetworked enterprises. However, current SAN implementations fall short of delivering the promises of storage networking: networks of thousands of disparate devices, logical resource sharing, multi-platform data sharing, and comprehensive enterprise-wide storage management.
"The key to achieving true storage networking is to define a new type of SAN layer: the intelligence layer," stated Thomas Isakovich, President and CEO of TrueSAN Networks. "Bringing intelligence to storage networks is critical to developing the core foundation necessary for architecting global storage networks." The SANengine storage networking platform defines this new network paradigm. With the SANengine series, isolated islands of storage are unified, bandwidth barriers are broken, and vendor-independent SAN management is realized. The result of extensive software and hardware engineering, in-depth analysis of customer needs, and a strict adherence to open standards, the SANengine delivers the promises of storage networking. "We believe the market for this technology is huge, not only because it addresses the obvious issues of interoperability and virtualization, but also because it provides the storage specific application platform for the future," stated Steve Duplessie, founder of the Enterprise Storage Group. "TrueSAN is an early leader in this area."
TrueSAN is targeting OEMs, developers, and end-users with its complete family of SANengine systems. Pricing will begin at less than $15,000.
San Jose, CA, May 30, 2000 - CMD Technology, Inc, a recognized leader in advanced RAID controller technology, announced that it is now shipping its new CRD-7220 Fibre Channel/Ultra2 RAID controller. The CRD-7220 is the latest addition to the CMD Titan family of RAID controllers and provides end users with an entry-to-mid-level control solution for a variety of shared storage applications. The high performance CRD-7220 features hot-swappable, dual redundant controllers in a compact 5.25" full-height package, and delivers dual Fibre Channel host interfaces and dual Ultra2 SCSI disk interfaces, as well as support for up to 28 disk drives. CMD Technology has also made the CRD-7220 available as a board-level product for OEMs.
"CMD is pleased to announce the shipment of the Titan CRD-7220 RAID controller," says CMD President and CEO Simon Huang. "The CRD-7220 has been engineered and tested to exacting standards and directly addresses the critical demand from OEMs and system integrators for a high performance and scalable RAID controller solution." The CRD-7220 is ideal for creating high-performance SAN solutions requiring high-availability components. The RAID controller delivers a range of advanced features, including CMD's RAID Management System (RMS) software for easy controller configuration and management, automatic fail-over and CMD's exclusive AutoRebind (fail-back) for continuous access environments. The CRD-7220 will also possess new CMD SANmask LUN masking technology for secure disk access in shared storage environments and near instant RAID-set creation to deliver immediately usable data storage.
Zzyzx Peripherals, Consan/Arrow and SAG Electronics were recently selected as testing participants for the CRD-7220. President of Zzyzx Peripherals Steve Rosoff says of the CMD RAID controller, "The CRD-7220 helped us predict enterprise class fault-tolerance on a smaller scale with an extremely competitive price point. It's been a key part of our ability to deliver storage solutions to our many customers who run 24/7 operations and cannot afford downtime."
San Jose, CA, May 30, 2000 - Cambex Corporation today introduced the Centurion 2000 FF, a 'full-Fibre' Channel disk storage system, at the SAN 2000 Conference in San Jose. The Centurion 2000 FF outperforms all leading storage arrays in its class and offers the industry's best value for full Fibre Channel storage. The Centurion 2000 FF is targeted at enterprises running mission-critical Internet, e-commerce, on-line transaction processing, data warehousing, and multimedia applications. The full Fibre Channel RAID arrays delivers up to 360 MB/second sustained sequential reads and has the capability to scale up to a maximum storage capacity of 25 terabytes. Available immediately, Cambex's Centurion 2000 FF full Fibre Channel disk array delivers unprecedented price/performance with large configurations priced as low as $0.05 per MB.
May 30, 2000, Minneapolis, MN - Plasmon, a leader in optical and tape automation, and the Document Imaging Division of Kodak (FAR East) Ltd. for China, an Asia Pacific regional leader in document imaging and solutions, have signed a strategic distribution agreement, which is effective June 1, 2000, for China and Hong Kong. The partnership will focus on selling complete imaging and archival storage solutions to key Chinese customers in such markets as banking/finance, insurance, telecom and government. Chinese customers will be offered the latest technology solutions for such diverse applications as image storage and retrieval; archival storage of financial, insurance, legal, statistic, transaction and billing records; and hierarchical storage management. The partnership solutions will include Kodak scanners, capturing and storage management software, and Plasmon Magneto Optical (MO), CD and DVD-RAM storage libraries. On-site service, and support for all hardware products will be delivered through Kodak's Global Customer Service and Support division, Greater Asia Region, which has a reputation in the market for excellent service.
Gary Wu, general manager, Document Imaging division of Kodak (FAR East) Ltd. for the China market said, "Kodak is a market leader in China and continues to improve by offering the best capture and storage products to our Chinese customers. We are very pleased to build up the strategic relationship with Plasmon by supplying our customers with complete storage solutions from Magneto Optical (MO) and CD to DVD, that complements our world-leading document imaging products such as document production scanners."
Founded in 1987, Plasmon develops and manufactures its own optical drives, jukeboxes, autoloaders, libraries and optical media. The company now has the broadest range of removable storage products available for mid to high-end users, covering optical and tape technologies. Plasmon's architectural configurations provide the highest level of automated flexibility through the implementation of 12-inch TrueWORM (write once, read many), 5 1/4 inch MO (magneto optical), LTO-Ultrium, Magstar-MP, CD-ROM/CD-R, DVD-RAM and media. Plasmon also provides a range of storage management software and network-attach storage solutions. With world-wide headquarters in the UK and operations across Europe and the U.S., the company also has manufacturing facilities in the UK, and in the U.S. in Colorado and Minnesota.
Eastman Kodak Company is the leader in both traditional photography and digital imaging, with sales of more than $14 billion for 1999. The businesses of Kodak serve a wide range of consumer, professional, entertainment, commercial and health imaging needs. Through its Document Imaging division, Kodak is the number one worldwide supplier of high-speed production document scanners, as well as media and micrographics products and services. It offers a variety of capture components and media for imaging and document management applications that require digital, integrated, or micrographics imaging solutions.
Longmont, Colo., May 30, 2000 - Chaparral Network Storage, Inc. announced today a distribution agreement with one of North America's largest distributors of electronic components and computer products, Arrow North American Computer Products. Arrow NACP will distribute Chaparral's high-performance Intelligent Storage Routers and external RAID controllers throughout North America using its Arrow Industrial Computer Products (Arrow ICP), Consan, and Gates/Arrow Distributing selling groups.
According to Arrow NACP president Mike Long, the NACP companies involved will help facilitate Chaparral's STRATIS VAR Program to increase their presence in the SAN market. He said, "The VAR program offers comprehensive sales and technical training programs to help VAR partners increase business opportunities, provide training in custom integration and offer top-level support to end-users." Long added that Arrow NACP will provide expertise in SAN integration, sales and technical analysis and will help manage demo programs, market development funds (MDF) and lead generation programs.
Arrow NACP will offer the FS1310 router, which provides performance, reliability and fault tolerance required for today's data-centric applications. The FS1310 is platform independent and enables easy attachment of SCSI devices to Fibre Channel SANs. Arrow NACP will also distribute Chaparral's G-Series and K-Series external RAID controllers, giving end-users leading performance, data availability and protection in RAID environments. To support these products, Arrow NACP and Chaparral will work together with STRATIS VAR partners to offer technical and sales training programs and provide in-depth tutorials on installation and integration procedures.
About... Chaparral is a leading provider of high performance products that facilitate the movement of data between networked storage devices. Chaparral is focused primarily on developing products for use in the emerging market for SANs. Chaparral's Intelligent Storage Routers facilitate the interconnection of SANs with existing SCSI-based servers and storage systems. Chaparral's external RAID controllers distribute data across multiple hard disk drives to increase data transfer speeds and deliver fault tolerance. Chaparral's products are designed to provide a high level of performance, availability and functionality.
EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn., May 30, 2000 -- XIOtech® Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Seagate Technology Inc. today announced that it will commit significant resources to developing and implementing SAN standards through its inclusion in the Storage Networking Industry Association's (SNIA) workgroups. XIOtech's participation in SNIA is through its parent organization, Seagate, who is a voting member.
"With SAN standards still in the evolution phase, it is crucial for us to voice our opinions and share our SAN experience with the organization that will drive the solidification of these standards," said Richard Blaschke, executive vice president of marketing for XIOtech. "XIOtech's SAN solutions conform to all standards that have been set forth to date, and the inherent flexibility of our products makes it possible to conform to additional standards as they are set. Close cooperation with the organization that is leading the way in the SAN revolution is an important step for both XIOtech and our customers."
The SNIA is a not-for-profit organization, made up of more than 150 companies and individuals spanning virtually the entire storage industry. SNIA members share a common goal, to set the pace of the industry by ensuring that storage networks become efficient, complete, and trusted solutions across the IT community. To this end the SNIA is uniquely committed to delivering standards, education, and services that will propel open storage networking solutions into the broader market. The SNIA currently has multiple technical efforts under way.
See also:- industry trade associations - a directory of storage related ORG's.
Fort Lauderdale, Fla. May 30, 2000 DataCore Software Corporation, today announced the immediate availability of its SANsymphony storage domain server software. SANsymphony offers the first true cross-platform disk virtualization, realizing the any-to-any connectivity often promised, but rarely delivered, by Storage Area Network (SAN) products. SANsymphony consolidates a mix of storage devices into a shared, networked storage pool, providing storage to open system servers, including Windows, Solaris, Linux, Netware, HP-UX, IBM AIX, and Macintosh. This powerful yet economical software-based approach protects the investment customers have made in existing storage by freeing it from the control of individual servers and transforming it into a rapidly deployable network asset.
"Today, host operating systems have primary control over their storage, even when it is externally attached or SAN-connected, making it painful to move excess capacity to other servers where it may be desperately needed," said William Hurley, program manager at The Yankee Group. "The networked pool of virtualized storage created by SANsymphony enables 'storage on demand,' allowing storage to be allocated among servers from a centralized administrative console with minimal or no application disruption."
Unlike other disk consolidation approaches, SANsymphony applies high-performance caching to the storage pool it creates, dramatically improving read and write performance in most applications. High availability is supported using a network approach, rather than the expensive hardware approach found in most external storage solutions today. Software license price is based on the size of the storage pool and number of servers sharing the pool, and starts at $7,995. DataCore Software company profile
Chanhassen, MN. -- May 30, 2000 RAIDION Systems, a division of Peripheral Technology Group, Inc., announced that its RAIDION family of storage solutions are now available with 73GB drives, making RAIDION one the highest capacity fault tolerant storage systems on the market. The new drive modules are available on direct attached, network attached, and storage area network solutions.
"RAIDION Systems provides the entire data storage solution from accessing the customers storage needs to monitoring the entire systems after installation. With modular, scalable architecture for the open platform environment, we offer storage solutions that excel in both performance and value," said Jason Hall, product line manager. "We now offer up to 6.5 terabytes of data storage for the most demanding environments."
Santa Rosa, California - May 26, 2000 - Infortrend Corporation, today announced the production release of the 64-bit extreme performance SentinelRAIDTM 2000 controller. This 5.25" half-height controller provides four Ultra2 channels on the base. Additional channels can be added using one of three daughtercard options, offering a total of eight Ultra2 channels, four Ultra2 channels plus two Fibre channels, or six Ultra2 channels plus two Fibre channels.
"The SentinelRAIDTM 2000 offers state-of-the-art design with the highest performance in the market at a competitive cost," said Don Naples, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Infortrend Corporation. The controller can transfer data with burst rates of up to 533 megabytes per second (MB/S). The result is a controller which excels in applications that require both high sustained data rates and fast I/O turnaround.
May 24, 2000 SAN DIEGO, Calif - Overland Data, Inc. a technology leader in tape backup products, today announced that GE Access has signed up to distribute Overland's entire product range in the Benelux and Southern European countries. GE Access will distribute Overland's products to resellers throughout the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain and Italy, focusing on all business segments.
"We are very pleased to be partnering with GE Access," said Nick Charles, sales director for Overland Europe, Middle East, and Africa. "GE Access is known for providing excellent service to the channel and is a true value-add distributor. This combined with offering storage solutions based on Overland's hardware and Veritas' software products is making them an increasingly powerful distributor in the storage market."
As an Overland distributor, GE Access will enjoy a number of benefits, including: · Overland's marketing and sales support programs designed to help distributors drive business opportunities · Direct links to Overland's website and access to web-based training · Product support and technical training GE Access, formerly known as GE IT Distribution Group, is the premier value-added technical distributor of complex computer products, solutions and services in the world, and the number one distributor of Sun Microsystems products.
LOS GATOS, CA - May 24, 2000 - e-services companies netdrive.com and eframes.com today announced a partnership to give consumers a convenient way to get from the virtual world of digital images to a stylishly framed photograph. The new service gives registered users of netdrive.com easy access to e-frame it!, an eframes.com innovation for editing, printing, framing, and delivering digital photographs in hard-copy form. Without leaving the netdrive.com home page, and with a single mouse click, users can upload digital photographs stored in their free netdrive.com Internet hard drive to eframes.com. Users then can choose processing and handling options from a wide selection of photo printing, delivery and framing services. eframes.com's technology allows users to preview their photos in a variety of quality wood and metal frames before making their final choice. For a limited time, netdrive.com customers receive a free set of packaged prints with their frame order just for trying out eframes.com's service.
SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif., May 24 -- Seagate Technology today announced a transition in roles and responsibilities within its executive management team, as well as the appointment of two new members to the team. William D. Watkins, executive vice president and chief operating officer has been promoted to Company president and chief operating officer. In related actions, David Wickersham, senior vice president, Product Line Management, has been appointed executive vice president, Global Disc Storage Operations, and Brian Dexheimer, senior vice president, Global Sales and Marketing has been appointed executive vice president, Global Sales, Marketing, Product Line Management and Customer Service Operations. Dexheimer will assume his new role in August, succeeding Bernie Carballo who has announced plans to retire in late July.
Booth 535, Real Conference 2000, San Jose Convention Center - May 24, 2000 - SAN Appliance, Breakthrough Technology for Streaming Media Storage Area Networks, Demonstrated at Real Conference 2000 by DataDirect Networks. DataDirect Networks will be demonstrating their revolutionary SAN DataDirector, the world's first SAN appliance, simultaneously streaming Real, Windows Media and QuickTime media formats using a high-bandwidth heterogeneous Storage Area Network (SAN) consisting of Linux and Windows NT workstations sharing 3TB of storage. In extensive benchmarking tests in customer environments, the SAN DataDirector SAN appliance recently delivered over 136,000 concurrent data streams while streaming media at 38 kb/second. The SAN DataDirector SANappliance was also found to be capable of delivering over 17,000 concurrent data streams at the 300 kb/second rate employed in broadband applications.
The high-bandwidth, multi-format, centrally managed SAN displayed at Real Conference 2000 is made possible through the use of the revolutionary SAN DataDirector, first of a family of SANappliances by DataDirect Networks.
LOUISVILLE, Colo., May 23, 2000 StorageTek and BMC Software Inc. today announced the first products to result from their ongoing technology agreement COPY PLUS for DB2 with Instant Snapshot, RECOVER PLUS for DB2 with Instant SnapShot and SVA Reporter. The products improve application availability and streamline storage administration, and allow IT managers to focus on business functions that add to a company's bottom line.
BMC Software's Enterprise Snapshot and RESOLVE Storage Resource Manager (RESOLVE SRM) software offers additional enhancements to StorageTek's recently announced 9500 Shared Virtual Array (SVA) subsystem. BMC Software's COPY PLUS for DB2 with Instant SnapShot uses the StorageTek virtual disk architecture and creates instant copies of a database for faster recovery of critical information without the need to first restore from tape. With traditional disk systems, these operations cannot be accomplished without significant investments in additional hardware and time for a full restore prior to recovery resulting in an overly complicated management process. Virtual disk technology provides customers with the ability to produce multiple generations of these database copies making them instantly available on disk greatly reducing the size and complexity of the storage management infrastructure.
COPY PLUS for DB2 with Instant SnapShot and RECOVER PLUS for DB2 with Instant SnapShot are database tools that provide greater availability of business-critical information by allowing faster copies and data set level recoveries which provide greater availability. SVA Reporter provides advanced reporting capabilities for the subsystem including the ability to report at the file level.
"By working with BMC, we expect continued development and delivery of additional breakthrough products in the areas of storage management and data sharing," said Roger Archibald, StorageTek vice president and general manager, Enterprise Business Group. "As a result of our collaboration with BMC, StorageTek is able to deliver critical tools that help customers significantly reduce storage management complexity allowing them to redeploy their IT resources to other IT priorities."
The 9500 SVA product is available with optional Fibre Channel connections and Virtual Power Suite system, replication and data movement software products. These new 9500 SVA platform capabilities broaden customer benefits by increasing data availability, allowing customers to develop and deploy new applications sooner, recover applications faster and simplify management of consolidated storage environments. With the 9500 SVA product, IT organizations can save time, money and resources with less complexity, hardware and cost. ...BMC company profile
PHILADELPHIA, PA, May 23, 2000 - IBM announced today that 50 of its Business Partner Storage Area Network (SAN) Solution Centers are opening for e-business, as part of IBM's $400 million initiative to harness the explosive growth of data. The SAN Solution Centers are opening at the rate of five per week in 20 countries around the world. The centers expand IBM's network of locally available SAN expertise and complement IBM SAN testing facilities in the US, Germany, France and Japan. By using the SAN Solution Centers, customers realize the benefits of linking storage products into networks. The centers offer other SAN services that include testing, designing, education and training.
These Solution Centers allow IBM and our partners to promote the widespread adoption of SANs, the best method for storing and managing e-business data," said Jill Kaplan, director of marketing and strategy, IBM Storage Area Networks. With these SAN solution centers, we show customers the business benefits of SANs." According to The Promise of SANs," a series of IBM surveys conducted by IDG Research, 64 percent of companies currently have or plan to implement SANs this year. SANs' growing popularity can be seen in the results showing an increase from last year of approximately 40 % in the number of companies considering SANs.
Berkshire, UK, May 23, 2000 - Chaparral Network Storage, Inc today announced a European OEM contract with Xyratex. Xyratex will incorporate Chaparral's second and third generation external RAID controllers into its Salient line of highly fault tolerant storage systems for enterprise networks, multimedia environments and other mission critical data storage applications.
Salient is an innovative family of high performance, modular, and scalable data storage products supporting the latest technologies, including 10,000 rpm 73GB drives, Ultra1/Ultra2/Ultra160 SCSI, SSA, and FC-AL. Xyratex Salient solutions are deployed by OEMs worldwide and are intended to meet the increasing demand for high performance multimedia and enterprise network storage.
Under the agreement, Xyratex has integrated Chaparral's G5312 (Ultra2-to-Ultra2) and G7313 (Fibre Channel-to-Ultra2) external RAID controllers, which are well suited for high performance, high reliability applications. In addition, Xyratex is in the process of integrating Chaparral's G6322 (Ultra160-to-Ultra160) and G7324 (Fibre Channel-to-Ultra160) external RAID controllers. The contract also includes cooperative development, value-added manufacturing services and integration for future products targeted for the enterprise, pre-/post-production, and video streaming industries.
PHILADELPHIA -- May 23, 2000 -- EMC Corporation and Tivoli Systems Inc. announced an agreement to integrate Tivoli Storage Manager with EMC's Symmetrix Enterprise Storage systems and software. The alliance, announced at the Planet Tivoli user conference, will provide customers with automated online information backup, restore and management capabilities for all of their enterprise information. Tivoli will join the EMC E-Infostructure Developers Program, which facilitates the integration of independent software solutions with EMC Symmetrix systems and software through a range of EMC application programming interfaces (APIs). As part of the alliance, EMC will also join the Team Tivoli program, and its systems will be qualified as part of the Tivoli Ready program, which designates third-party products that meet Tivoli integration standards.
Tivoli Storage Manager, the successor to the IBM and Tivoli ADSM storage management software product set, is utilized on more than one million systems worldwide as an integrated backup, restore, archive, storage management and disaster recovery solution. By integrating Tivoli Storage Manager with Symmetrix Enterprise Storage systems and software, including EMC TimeFinder for the creation of multiple copies of production data, mutual customers will be able to automate fast, non-disruptive backups of their enterprise information. The two companies will sell their respective products separately
Tivoli Ready products are those that have met key integration standards for manageability by Tivoli management software. To achieve Tivoli Ready certification, partners can either integrate their products with Tivoli software or embed the Tivoli Management Agent (TMA) within their solutions. Either approach allows a company's SAN devices to be discovered and managed by a Tivoli managed enterprise.
SAN JOSE, Calif. - May 23, 2000 -- TrueSAN Networks, Inc. today announced that it has recruited Louie Llamas to the position of Vice President of Sales. Louie brings to TrueSAN a strong and long-standing background in storage and disk technology sales leadership, team building, and strategic management. From 1998 through 2000, Louie served as the Vice President of Sales for Terastor, a developer of near-field recording (NFR) disk technology. Prior to Terastor, Louie was the Vice President of Enterprise Storage Sales for Western Digital, a manufacturer of rigid disk subsystems. Prior to Western Digital, Louie also served as Executive Director of Sales for the northwest region for Seagate Technology, the world's leading supplier of hard disks to the Fibre Channel storage networking industry.
"I'm excited about the opportunity to build a sales organization whose charter will be to provide the marketplace with what they have requested: a truly open SAN framework," stated Mr. Llamas. "Combined with its revolutionary storage networking infrastructure solutions and world-class support, TrueSAN will truly redefine the means by which customers leverage their most crucial asset: information."
BOULDER, Colo., May 23 /PRNewswire/ - Exabyte Corporation today announced IBM Personal Systems Group (PSG) has chosen Exabyte's Mammoth-2 (M2(TM)) tape drives as an option in its Netfinity line of e-business servers. IBM PSG chose M2 for its Netfinity line of enterprise servers because of features like SmartClean AME (Advanced Metal Evaporated) data cartridges with built-in cleaning tape, a feature that makes M2 the first truly self-cleaning tape drive. M2 automatically cleans itself without any prompting from an operator or administrator, resulting in reduced system down time, increased head life and unmatched reliability, thus resulting in an overall reduction of the cost of storage management. By dramatically reducing the number one reason for tape failures, lack of preventive maintenance, M2 ensures that the user's data integrity is never compromised.
WEST CHESTER, Pa., ENGLEWOOD, Colo.- (BUSINESS WIRE) - May 22, 2000 - StorNet, Inc. and Vangard Technology, Inc. today jointly announced the signing of a letter of intent for the merger of the two companies into a single entity which will operate under the StorNet, Inc. name. Terms of the merger were not disclosed. The merger, which is dependent on the execution of a definitive agreement and approval by the Board of Directors of each company, will create the largest independent storage solutions provider in the United States and a leader in the emerging Storage Area Network (SAN) markets.
Michael J. Phelan, President and Chief Executive Officer of StorNet, will be appointed Chairman of the new Company and focus on strategic development. Calvin G. Andre, President and Chief Executive Officer of Vangard, will be appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of the new company with responsibility for day-to-day operations. The Board of Directors of the combined companies will have equal representation by both shareholder groups.
Commenting on the announcement, Michael Phelan stated, "We believe the proposed merger is an excellent fit for all concerned. The merger presents the opportunity to quickly and significantly expand our customer base and nationwide presence. The merger combines two teams of highly experienced and dedicated personnel, with similar corporate cultures, values, and goals. The combined company will have the ability to provide customers with an expanded range of products, professional services, and engineering resources."
Calvin Andre, stated, "The merger of StorNet and Vangard would create an independent storage solutions provider powerhouse and considerably expand our geographic reach. StorNet and Vangard each have a blue chip client base with little overlap, one of the many reasons we believe this merger will benefit our respective shareholders. The combination of StorNet's sales and marketing strength and Vangard's engineering expertise will be a significant asset to both our customers and business partners."
The combined company will continue to maintain operations in West Chester, Pa. and Englewood, Colo., and will have a significant U.S. presence with 24 field offices staffed with over 100 sales and engineering professionals.
FREMONT, Calif., May 22, 2000 Mylex, a leading supplier of RAID storage controllers, today announced the Ultra 160 SCSI-based AcceleRAID 170LP, the world's first low-profile RAID controller designed for the new breed of low-profile, high-density rack-mounted Intel processor-based servers. The controller is ideally-suited for environments that require banks of servers housed in limited space, such as those of Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Dot.coms and Application Service Providers (ASPs.) The AcceleRAID 170LP adheres to the PCI low profile form factor specified by the Low Profile Engineering Change Notice (ECN) to the PCI 2.2. It can be used directly in 2U-high server enclosures without a riser card. Further, its small form factor makes it an excellent choice for 1U-high server applications with a riser card where space is at a premium.
"As the Internet economy continues to boom, ISPs are expanding their user base at an exceptional rate; this translates into the need for more storage and servers," said Robert Gray, analyst for IDC Research. "However, companies are running out of space to house the units. The most efficient solution is to develop smaller, low-profile units, allowing more servers to be located in the same area."
Carlsbad, Calif. - May. 22, 2000 - Knox Software, a Southern Calif.-based developer of enterprise network backup software, announced today that it has shipped Arkeia® for Oracle8i Recovery Manager (RMAN), a network backup solution for enterprise-class Oracle8i databases running on the Linux platform. Arkeia for Oracle8i RMAN provides Oracle® database administrators with a seamless, Oracle-tested solution for backing up Oracle8i (versions 8.1.6 or later) on Linux. Unlike conventional backup products that require Oracle8i to be taken offline prior to backup, the tight integration of Arkeia for Oracle8i RMAN with Oracle's RMAN data management API enables database administrators to both backup and restore databases while leaving their mission-critical production servers online. For Oracle8i applications that require 24/7 availability, Arkeia for Oracle8i RMAN provides the only Oracle-tested backup solution available today for Oracle8i in the Linux environment.
"As proof of the growing acceptance of Linux in the enterprise, Oracle8i for Linux is seeing significant deployment in heavy-duty production environments," said Doug Kennedy, vice president, Intel division, Oracle Corp. "Arkeia for Oracle8i RMAN gives Oracle8i administrators working with Linux the professional backup and restore capabilities that they've come to expect from running Oracle on other enterprise-ready platforms. In shipping this new product, Knox Software has taken a significant step in accelerating the adoption of Oracle8i on Linux in the enterprise."
Arkeia for Oracle8i RMAN is available immediately. - more info - ...Knox Software company profile
COSTA MESA, Calif., May 22 /PRNewswire/ - Seagate Technology, Inc. today announced that it has launched an improved line of certified Travan(TM) data cartridges for use specifically in Travan-format tape drives. The Seagate 8-Gbyte and 20-Gbyte Travan data cartridges are certified for optimal performance and reliability in Seagate Hornet(R) Travan tape drives and TapeStor(R) Travan tape backup solutions.
"Seagate has shipped more than 10 million tape drives, and these drives demand reliable, high-performance data cartridges to protect, backup and restore the valuable data our customers rely on every day," said Kevin Perry, executive director of marketing and business development, Seagate Removable Storage Solutions. "Seagate's new Travan data cartridges are an extension of Seagate's Six Sigma quality initiative to continually improve and enhance all levels of product development. Seagate Travan data cartridges undergo a comprehensive certification process in order to offer our customers an even more robust, reliable backup solution."
Seagate Travan data cartridges are designed and engineered to maximize performance and reliability for use in Seagate Hornet Travan 8 and 20 ATAPI drives as well as Hornet NS8, 20 and NS20 SCSI drives.
DUSSELDORF, Germany - (BUSINESS WIRE) - May 22, 2000- Eurologic Systems today announced that they will be jointly demonstrating with Agfa a pre-press application in a SAN environment at the DRUPA exhibition in Dusseldorf, Germany, May 18-31. The demonstration, which can be seen at Agfa's booth in PrintCity in Hall 6 (booth #C27), will show how pre-press imaging data can be transferred across the storage area network at high rates of speed utilizing fibre channel technology, resulting in increased scalability, improved efficiency of output, and uninterrupted flow of data.
The demonstration will feature Eurologic's SAN-ready Fibre RAID network storage subsystems and Agfa's Apogee pre-press workflow imaging software interoperating within the SAN environment. Host isolation requirements will be provided through JNI(R) Corporation's Host Bus Adapters and EZ Fibre(TM) LUN-Level Zoning/Mapping technology. Performance management will be provided through Vixel's 7000 Series Switch and SAN InSite(TM) 2000 Management Software. Data sharing across the SAN's storage subsystems will be enabled by Tivoli's SANergy(TM) software.
San Jose, CA; May 22 - GENROCO, Inc. announced that it will be sponsoring and chairing a "Birds of a Feather" (BOF) session on Storage Area Networks (SAN) over Gigabit Ethernet (GigE) at the SAN 2000 Conference being held here this week. The session, which will be held in the San Juan Room at the San Jose Doubletree Hotel from 7 to 8 PM on Tuesday, May 30th, will be led by Donald D. Woelz, Vice President of Marketing for GENROCO. Mr. Woelz is the author of the ANSI T10 Specification for SCSI over Scheduled Transfer (SST) Protocol and functions the Vice-Chairman of the ANSI T11.1 group that is responsible for Scheduled Transfer, Gigabyte System Network and other high performance networking standards.
Fibre Channel's capabilities have enabled the development of SANs which are high-speed networks of shared storage devices (including disk arrays and tape drives) and computers (including servers and clients). SANs enable fast, efficient and reliable direct transfer of data between multiple storage devices and clients without intermediate server gateways. Heretofore, in order to get SANs to interoperate with Local Area Networks (LANs) and Wide Area Networks (WANs), servers have needed to be employed as portals and a SAN's FC data streams needed to be repackaged into TCP/IP messages for LAN and/or WAN clients to be able to store and retrieve information. This translation results in increased server overhead and decreased data transfer speeds.
GENROCO has demonstrated the ability to operate SANs directly over LANs and WANs using SST technology and cur- rently is shipping hardware and software that accomplishes this. Proposals by Adaptec, Cisco, IBM, and others describe different methods for encapsulating SAN data stream into LAN/WAN protocols such as TCP/IP. GENROCO, Adaptec, Gadzoox, Hewlett-Packard, Q-Logic, and 3Com are expected to be among the presenters at the Ethernet SAN BOF.
"When we pioneered the concept of seamlessly interfacing SANs, LANs, and WANs over two years ago, very few people understood the benefits of encapsulating SCSI over message passing networks," declared Mr. Woelz. "I am delighted to see the increasing interest in expanding the benefits of SAN beyond Fibre Channel."
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CHANTILLY, Va.- (BUSINESS WIRE) - May 18, 2000 - Network Storage Solutions, Inc., today unveiled NASengine, a scalable, high performance NAS appliance requiring 1.75 inches of rack space. The 2nd generation NASengine improves upon the performance and capacity of the award winning uSTOR, recognized as the fastest NAS appliance for the workgroup and departmental markets. Powered by the SPANStor multi-protocol kernel, NASengine supports up to 2 Terabytes of RAID storage and delivers data to networks faster and more efficiently than general-purpose servers.
NASengine's ultra thin 1U rackmount package and simple installation make it the choice for ISP's and network administrators who require scalable, high performance storage. NASengine supports 2GB of cache. NASengine appliances are specialized network attached devices, optimized to deliver data with quick response times to UNIX and Windows clients concurrently. Available now, NASengine enabled RAID subsystems can deliver a terabyte of high performance NAS storage in 12 inches of rack space for under $0.10 cents a megabyte. NASengine will be demonstrated at the ISPCON conference in Orlando May 22-25.
MILPITAS, CA., May 17, 2000 LSI Logic Corporation and IntraServer Technology, Inc. today announced an agreement in which LSI Logic will acquire IntraServer in a purchase agreement valued at approximately $70 million. The strategic acquisition is expected to be immediately accretive to LSI Logic and provide significant benefits to IntraServer's rapidly expanding customer base. The agreement is expected to close during the course of LSI Logic's second quarter ending June 30.
"LSI Logic has been very active in seeking and completing strategic acquisitions that enhance the company's intellectual property offerings and engineering skill sets to better serve customers competing in rapidly growing markets," said John D'Errico, LSI Logic executive vice president of Storage I/O Components and Colorado Operations. "Upon completion of this agreement, IntraServer's strengths will be utilized by LSI Logic for host adapter board and other product offerings in the network computing and communications markets."
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OCEANPORT, N.J., May 17, 2000 - CommVaultSystems, Inc.® today announced that it is extending its strategic alliance with Microsoft Corp. to provide customers with advanced data protection and data management solutions for enterprise computing environments. The objective of the alliance is to accelerate the deployment of the recently announced CommVault® Galaxy storage management suite on Windows 2000. Microsoft will work closely with CommVault and has made a limited equity investment to achieve this objective.
"Data and storage management have never been more important to our customers, especially as the number of business-critical applications deployed on Windows 2000-based servers is accelerating," said Brian Ball, general manager of Enterprise Server Products at Microsoft. "These applications impose requirements for high reliability, scalability and manageability. CommVault is known for best-of-class data management solutions for Microsoft applications in large-scale heterogeneous environments. The Galaxy solution brings that same level of application integration and scalability to the Windows 2000 platform."
CommVault Galaxy is the only enterprise class data protection product specifically designed to provide heterogeneous storage and data management from a Windows platform. This is especially important with the increasing popularity of new data-centric computing models such as Network Attached Storage (NAS) and Storage Area Networks (SAN). The business benefits of Galaxy to customers are: more reliable data protection on a much larger scale than previously available; advanced data management and faster access to business critical data through Galaxy's tight integration with key Microsoft applications such as Exchange and SQL Server; faster deployment and easier management from a single, unified Windows 2000-based console; and the ability to assist in the migration from previous Windows operating systems and applications to Windows 2000 operating systems and applications. For example, Exchange 5.5 data can be backed up today from either Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000-based servers and recalled later for use in Exchange 2000.
NEW YORK, May 16, 2000 PC EXPO will feature two conferences dedicated to Clustering and Storage Area Networks produced Creative Expos and Conferences. The conference sessions are scheduled as an intensive One Day Program on June 26. Also included are several 45-minute Sponsor Spotlight Theater Presentations on June 27, on the PC EXPO exhibit floor. PC EXPO will be held June 27-29, 2000 (pre-conference workshops will begin on June 26) at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City.
Creative Expos and Conferences, a leading conference and trade show organizer in the Information Technology field, will host the Clustering and SAN conference program, which will feature many of the leading Clustering and SAN vendors and solution providers including: Compaq, Veritas, Imation, Exabyte and many more. IT executives and other professionals will debate the hottest storage issues including, load balancing, database integration, Windows 2000 services, architecture alternatives, fibre channel connections and 24x7 non-stop operations.
Senior IT executives are mesmerized by the potential of SANs, clusters and load balancing, because they provide a dramatic return on their server investments, said Cherif Moujabber, president, Creative Expos. "Since these new technologies can deliver high-value e-commerce solutions, it is critical that the user IT community knows how to exploit them in their systems and network environments."
Attendees are expected to come from the financial, telecommunications, manufacturing, retailing and government sectors. The summits will concentrate on supporting mission critical applications such as online transactions, data warehousing, electronic commerce and intranets. Additionally hardware, software and networking requirements as well as deployment, integration, security and management issues will be debated. More than 85,000 qualified corporate technology buyers from around the world are projected to attend and see more than 500 IT companies display the latest corporate computing products and services. A dynamic conference program will feature scores of conference tracks and seminars that will educate attendees on the latest IT trends and applications. PC EXPO will also feature special events such as keynote presentations, Live RFP's and shoot-outs between competing IT vendors.
EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn., May 16, 2000 - XIOtech® Corporation today announced that the XIOtech MAGNITUDE(tm) SAN was chosen by Novell (UK) Ltd. to form the central information infrastructure for Novell's high-availability 'Business Availability Showcase' cluster located in Bracknell, UK. Storage specialist, BI-Tech Solutions, employed the MAGNITUDE and NetWare Cluster Services (NWCS) 1.01 for NetWare 5.1 to deploy a fully operational, highly available 12-node cluster. Novell's 'Business Availability Showcase' demonstrates how NWCS maximizes network uptime by linking together 12 Fujitsu Siemens PRIMERGY 470 network servers (nodes), to enable the servers to access shared volumes, applications and services and then automatically back each other up in case of node failure, a process known as failover. Deploying NCWS in conjunction with a SAN simplifies data management as data and applications can be manually or automatically migrated between clustered servers without disruption to users. BI-Tech is a leading integrator of information storage management solutions and storage area networks, and the exclusive distributor of the XIOtech MAGNITUDE and other SAN products for UK markets.
According to Simon Lidgett, who is responsible for Novell's showcase, "Our customers are looking to us for Net services solutions to enable them to succeed in the Net economy. Our vision of a world in which all types of networks work together as one Net demands powerful, high-availability solutions demonstrated by our 'Business Availability Showcase.' When building this showcase, we couldn't afford to take any chances on the storage architecture that would provide the base for our product demonstrations and future software release testing strategies in the UK. The MAGNITUDE's suite of intelligent business availability and business productivity software combined with its unique virtualized storage architecture compliments Novell's high availability products. With the XIOtech MAGNITUDE, we know that our data will always be available for all of our testing needs."
About the MAGNITUDE Storage Area Network:- The XIOtech MAGNITUDE is a complete, architected SAN that conforms to open systems standards, supporting as many as 192 heterogeneous servers. The MAGNITUDE incorporates all the components of a SAN in one centralized, easy-to-manage configuration. These components include a high-performance RAID controller, logical volume management software and up to 64 physical disc drives for up to 4.6 terabytes of storage. With its cluster-ready architecture, redundant components and the ability to hot swap disks and servers, the MAGNITUDE can help businesses improve uptime of critical systems. The MAGNITUDE supports point-to-point, FC-AL and switched fabric topologies.
BOULDER, Colo., May 16 Exabyte Corporation today revealed that its Mammoth-2 (M2(TM)) tape drive scored the highest in performance during an independent competitive analysis by KeyLabs. M2 consistently outperformed DLT8000 and AIT-2 technologies in "real-world" scenarios, confirming that M2 is three times faster than other midrange tape drives. According to the KeyLabs test report, "M2 outperformed Quantum's DLT8000 and Sony's SDX-500C tape drives in all tests. Across all file types and platforms, M2 had the strongest test results, in some cases, it backed up data in one third the time it took the two other competing products."
The three tape technologies were tested using Sun Solaris, Red Hat Linux and Microsoft Windows NT operating systems on Sun Enterprise 450, Dell PowerEdge 6300 or 6350 servers with TAR, Legato Networker 5.5.1, EST BRU 15.1, CA ARCserveIT 6.61 or VERITAS Backup Exec 8.0 backup software applications. Data sets ranged from 33 GB of Oracle data, 31 GB of Apache Web files or 17 GB of Exchange files. Backup and restore testing was completed for each scenario with M2 achieving the highest performance in every test.
Milpitas, California, May 15, 2000 - LSI Logic Storage Systems, Inc.today introduced the MetaStor E4400 storage system, designed for high-performance computing environments such as video editing/post production, e-commerce, CAD/CAE and data warehousing. A full Fibre Channel storage system designed to handle the ever-growing storage needs of today's enterprise applications, the MetaStor E4400 system offers dynamic scalability, high availability, and optimal performance for both transaction- and throughput-oriented workloads. In addition, the centralized storage management software of the MetaStor E4400 product further supports enterprise storage consolidation in storage area networks (SANs). Features:-
The MetaStor E4400 system, targeted at the high-end enterprise, is priced in the $120,000 - $525,000 range (U.S. list), depending on configuration. The MetaStor E4400 system is available immediately.
Tustin, CA, May 15, 2000 - Ricoh Company's Disc Media and Systems Center (DMS-C) Division today announced the technological development of "RICOH CD-RW 74 minute 10X media", the world's fastest CD-RW disc. Ricoh has developed this new disc compatible with writing/rewriting speeds of 4x to 10x to conform with the most recent version of the CD-RW standard, Orange Book Part III, Volume 2, Ver. 1.0. Simultaneously, Ricoh DMS announced it has developed a multi-function drive that records CD-RW at 10X. Announcements on both products will follow pending general availability sometime during the second quarter. The recently established new CD-RW standard Orange Book Part III, Volume 2, Ver. 1.0 allows writing and rewriting of 4x to 10x to meet the needs of higher speed CD writing and rewriting. (The existing Orange Book Part III, Volume 1, Ver. 2.0 enables 1x, 2x, and 4x writing/rewriting.) Applications will include video, imaging, internet, software development, multi-media presentations and more.
"This breakthrough in development was accomplished by fine-tuning the original phase-change recording material used for the conventional Ricoh CD-RW discs and by optimizing the film thickness of the recording materials," according to Tadatoshi Sakamaki, director and general manager DMS Division of Ricoh Company LTD, Japan.
This new Ricoh CD-RW disc is directly writable/rewritable at high speed on CD-R/RW drive units compatible with the latest standard soon to be released by Ricoh and other major drive manufacturers. It also has high compatibility with various other types of drive units so that disc data can be read on conventional CD-R/RW drive units, MultiRead-enabled CD-ROM drive units, DVD-ROM drive units, and DVD-RAM drive units. Other characteristics for both the drives and media include high-speed packet writing capabilities, allowing direct writing/rewriting in CAV (constant angular velocity) mode, as well as conventional CLV (constant linear velocity) mode. The media achieves high-reliability in writing/rewriting by reducing the jitter rate (time axis fluctuation) and error rate through a wide power margin design. The CD-RW disc is rapidly spreading as a common storage media. The world market volume of CD-RW media has been estimated as approximately 39 million discs in 1999 and is expected to reach 132 million discs in 2000 (source: Japan Recording-Media Industries Association). The CD-RW media's projected MSRP is $4 per disc.
MAY. 15 2000 - XIOtech® Corporation, announced today that the XIOtech MAGNITUDE SAN will be featured in the Server Clustering and SAN Mastery Training Series held by Novell Inc.'s Advanced Technical Training group. The Mastery Training Series delivers in-depth, up-to-date information about how to design, implement and maintain Cluster Services in a Novell NetWare environment. Cluster Services keep critical network resources available by tying several servers together in a cluster, so if one server fails, all of its services are shifted automatically and virtually transparently to another server. The course will also provide an overview of SAN technology. These courses are held specifically for Novell customers and partners who have extensive experience with Novell products. The courses are prepared and taught by Novell's most skilled networking experts.
"These types of demonstrations are perfect forums for highlighting the extensive capabilities of the MAGNITUDE," said Richard Blaschke, executive vice president of marketing for XIOtech. "Our relationship with Novell is stronger than ever, and we are honored to be included in this highly technical training tour. It is a great tribute to XIOtech and our technology for Novell to choose us time and again for partnering in these types of technical demonstrations."
"We're pleased to be working with XIOtech to demonstrate NetWare clustering in our Server Clustering and SAN Mastery Training Series," said Dan Veitkus, Novell Education director. "Attendees will come away with a better understanding of NetWare clustering principles and how to use Novell Net services software to accelerate their companies' transformation to secure eBusiness." The Server Clustering and SAN Mastery Training Series will take place during the months of May, June, July and August in 11 major cities across the United States.
May 10, 2000 - Ithaca, NY Pathlight Technology announced today that its SAN Gateway and SAN Router devices and SAN Director end-to-end SAN management software are among the first shipping products available delivering support for the new FibreAlliance Management Information Base (MIB) specification version 2.2. This support extends Pathlight's leadership as the premier provider of fully managed interoperable SAN solutions for OEMs and enterprise developers.
Pathlight Executive Vice President Said Rahmani said, "Throughout the development of Pathlight's products, SAN management has remained a top priority. Our long-standing participation in developing and implementing the FibreAlliance MIB specification gives our OEM customers a strategic advantage. The incorporation of the MIB 2.2 enhancements into Pathlight's products helps ensure that we are continuing to provide our customers with the broadest control over every aspect of the SAN regardless of what hardware and software components are deployed."
Pathlight's SAN Director end-to-end SAN management application is a key element of every SAN Gateway and SAN Router deployment and provides unrestricted access for viewing and controlling every element of a heterogeneous SAN environment regardless of platform, interface, or manufacturer. Pathlight's exclusive VPS (Virtual Private SAN) technology enables administrators to exercise that control down to the individual LUN level on every storage device in the SAN.
AUSTIN, Texas May 10, 2000 People's Bank, Connecticut's premier financial institution, has selected Tivoli Enterprise as its information technology (IT) management software suite. The primary challenge for this mid-sized bank was to well manage the operation and availability of its multi-platform environment. People's Bank is currently managing approximately 300 UNIX® and Windows NT® servers and 3,500 desktops in more than 130 locations across the state of Connecticut. Day-to-day operations supported by this technology infrastructure include fully integrated online banking and brokerage services, credit card customer service, retail customer service plus internal operations such as accounting. Reliable server back up and fast restore of business data was the first challenge addressed in the People's Bank implementation. Tivoli Storage Manager allows the bank to back up data from its servers and quickly restore data that has been corrupted or deleted.
In addition to Tivoli Storage Manager, People's Bank is also using Tivoli Workload Scheduler to automate scheduling and execution of applications across its multiple platforms, including MVS. Tivoli Enterprise Console, Tivoli Distributed Monitoring and Tivoli Manager for Network Connectivity are used to actively manage availability of systems. People's Bank can automatically configure and deploy policy-based resource monitors to its servers and automate actions to be taken in response to exceptions or exceeded thresholds. The bank is also able to pinpoint the root cause of problems, sometimes before any downtime has occurred. In addition, Tivoli Remote Control helps its desktop support analysts to effectively support thousands of desktop users.
The Tivoli solution is helping the bank provide better service to internal customers and, directly or indirectly, its outside customers, whether they are visiting a branch, on the phone or on the Web, according to Lena Zoghbi, manager of Enterprise Systems at People's Bank.
Sunnyvale, CA - May 10, 2000 -- Network Appliance, Inc. today announced that Network Computing magazine for the second straight year has named the NetApp® F760 filer the best Network Attached Storage system in the Servers and Peripherals category. The award was presented to Network Appliance as part of Network Computing's 2000 Well-Connected Awards, announced this week at Networld+Interop in Las Vegas. According to Nelson, the products singled out in the Network Computing Well-Connected Awards are unique because "they are not a measure of popularity they are quality offerings tested over a networked enterprise firsthand by editors themselves. So we know that the NetApp F760 filer is truly an innovative solution."
The F760 filer is NetApp's most powerful enterprise storage solution, providing multi-terabyte capacity. NetApp filers consolidate storage for Windows® and UNIX® systems, reducing storage costs and providing access to multi-terabyte enterprise data. By eliminating the need for specialized set-up and administration, customers deploying NetApp filers can experience significant reduction in administration and support costs.
PALO ALTO and MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - May 9, 2000 - Sun Microsystems, Inc. and VERITAS® Software Corporation today announced that Sun will package VERITAS NetBackup software with Sun StorEdge tape libraries to deliver a comprehensive and fully automated backup management solution for data center environments. This integrated solution delivers on the expanded strategic relationship announced on January 25, 2000 between Sun and VERITAS Software to further enhance the high quality and reliability of combined solutions for enterprise customers.
The Sun StorEdge tape libraries, combined with VERITAS NetBackup software, address the needs of high-end Sun Enterprise 6500 and Sun Enterprise 10000 server environments where enterprise-class tape backup solutions are essential. The VERITAS Software NetBackup Data Protection Suite increases application availability and simplifies administration of database backup and recovery. In addition, the Sun StorEdge tape libraries and VERITAS NetBackup deliver high-end data center backup in pre-integrated solutions for easy procurement. Included with the software are a VERITAS NetBackup Master Server license, a client license, a robotic support license with unlimited drive support, and the customer's choice of a Database Extension for Oracle, Sybase or Informix.
May 9, 2000 - IDC reports that storage has a new role in many organizations. No longer is it thought of as a tactical, add-on technology. It has gained importance and is now often considered a critical strategic issue. As a result of its increased prominence, storage is creating lucrative opportunities for vendors that provide storage services, including consulting, integration, management, and support. IDC forecasts worldwide storage services spending will exceed $40 billion in 2003. In 1999, it was a bit more than $21 billion. As IT implementations have become more distributed and dispersed within organizations - often across regional boundaries - IT managers have become less in touch with their organizations' storage needs," said Doug Chandler, program manager for IDC's System Support Services research. "Their unfamiliarity, combined with the increasing strategic importance of storage, is propelling demand for outside providers of storage services." According to IDC, Internet-based applications such as ecommerce and customer relationship management are contributing to storage's elevating role because they require quick access to large amounts of data.
In the United States, IBM is benefiting the most from the provision of storage services. It was the top storage services U.S. vendor with an estimated $3.6 billion of the market's revenues in 1999. Hewlett-Packard placed second with 1999 revenues of $1 billion. Storage consulting will be the fastest-growing services category through 2003, increasing at a 1999-2003 compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 32.6%, compared with the overall market's CAGR of 19%. Storage management or outsourcing will be a close second with a CAGR of 31.8%. Storage support services, however, will remain the largest segment of the market through 2003, according to IDC. The storage area network and the storage utility segments will be particularly hot throughout IDC's forecast. "Along with the increasingly strategic importance of storage in general, the advent of storage area networks (SANs) is a key driver behind the growth in the storage services market today," Chandler said. "At the same time, the storage utility or storage-on-demand model could potentially transform the business of delivering storage capacity and associated services."
IDC's new report, Storage Services: An Analysis of Market Opportunities and the Competitive Landscape , analyzes the market for services that relate directly to storage devices. Analysis of storage area network and the storage utility outsourcing model is included. The report forecasts companies' spending on storage services through 2003 and provides historical data back to 1997.
SAN JOSE, Calif. - May 9, 2000 -- TrueSAN Networks, Inc today announced the opening of its multifunctional SAN Application and Interoperability Lab (SAIL), a fully equipped facility dedicated to the research and testing of SAN solutions and components. The new lab enables the advancement of open SAN technologies while accelerating the adoption of heterogeneous, globally managed storage networks. TrueSAN develops scalable storage-area network technologies and solutions for next generation network infrastructure applications. By replicating end-user scenarios in-house, TrueSAN consistently delivers optimized and proven SAN solutions. Furthermore, the lab provides a hands-on forum for customers to interact with TrueSAN's engineering team, products and technology.
TrueSAN's SAIL features multiple terabytes of storage capacity, LAN-free tape backup options, advanced networking equipment, and a multitude of redundant servers and workstations running Windows NT/2000, Sun Solaris, Linux, Netware, SGI IRIX, and Macintosh operating systems. Additionally, the lab provides customers with the opportunity to test component configurations from other vendors in an adaptable environment to ensure the flawless integration of SAN components and applications.
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA May 9, 2000 nStor Technologies, Inc. announced today that it has entered into an agreement with a private investment group granting nStor an option for a one-year $15 million equity line. The Company said the agreement does not obligate nStor to take down any of the funds and the pricing is based upon the market value of the Company's stock when each portion of the line is taken down. nStor can draw down portions of the funds from the line in amounts determined by the Company. Mr. Larry Hemmerich, Chief Executive Officer and President of nStor, stated, "The Company intends to draw down $3 million of the commitment to meet expanded working capital needs resulting from a projected increase in sales commencing in the third quarter. We do not expect to draw against the remainder unless a desirable acquisition becomes available. Our current projections do not reflect the need for additional funds."
DALLAS, Texas, May 9, 2000 -- Interphase Corporation is demonstrating its innovative 5570 SlotOptimizer Storage Networking Adapter in a high-end video server environment at the Networld+Interop 2000 conference in Las Vegas, May 9-11. The 5570 is the industry's first server host adapter that combines both Fibre Channel and Gigabit Ethernet connectivity on a single PCI adapter, providing extremely high bandwidth and a more efficient use of system resources for Internet connectivity and storage networking applications. The Interphase demonstration illustrates a point-to-multipoint streaming video application being fed from a video server running the Windows 2000 operating environment. Enabled by the 5570 SlotOptimizer adapter, content is retrieved from a RAID storage unit over a full duplex 1Gbps Fibre Channel connection and then delivered to the subscriber via a "fat" Gigabit Ethernet distribution network.
The 5570 SlotOptimizer Storage Networking Adapter provides an innovative solution that responds to the market's need for high throughput connectivity for web servers, rack-optimized servers and other enterprise systems tasked with delivering multimedia content "on-demand." By utilizing Fibre Channel, the 5570 adapter provides up to 200 MBps data storage throughput. And with Gigabit Ethernet connectivity, the 5570 SlotOptimizer Adapter provides a "fat" data pipe to support high-end Internet network architectures, delivering added performance to the LAN while working with the existing Ethernet LAN infrastructure.
Boulder, CO - May 8, 2000 - Ecrix Corporation today announced the VXA RakPakTM, the first rack-mountable tape subsystem that takes advantage of VXA®, the most significant tape technology innovation over the last decade - featuring the power of packets. Ecrix has packaged two VXA-1 tape drives in a single rack unit (1u), resulting in a system that ensures the best data protection available for rack-optimized servers and storage. Half the height of any comparable device, the RakPak stores up to 132 GB of data at a 12 MB/sec. transfer rate (2 drives at 2:1 compression).
"Our existing customers view the VXA RakPak as essential to reducing their floor-space costs through consolidation while taking advantage of VXA's advanced recording and restore technology," said Kelly Beavers, president of Ecrix. "In 1U of rack space, the VXA RakPak offers commercial-level data backup and restore capabilities at workgroup-level pricing, making the network backup process convenient, efficient, cost-effective, and much more reliable."
Early units of the Ecrix VXA RakPak ship in June 2000 with an MSRP of $1,299 for a one-drive unit and $2,229 for a two-drive unit. Cooling, power, and grounding requirements are built in. All media is easily accessible at the front of the rack and all tape drive-unit LEDs are clearly visible for easy monitoring.
SCOTTS VALLEY, CA 08 May 2000 Storage industry analysts today confirmed that Seagate's U Series is the most popular disc drive family of all time. The U Series has sold more units than any other disc drive ever: more than 26,900,000 U Series drives have shipped for integration into the industry's top computer brands and the world's best-selling Personal Video Recorders and Consumer Electronics devices. Seagate is currently shipping its fourth generation of U Series disc drives designed specifically for use in consumer electronics, Internet appliances, entry-level computers and terminal-based environments.
Protected by Seagate's exclusive 3D Defense System to withstand 350Gs nonoperating shock, the U Series is the industry's most robust 3 1/2-inch drive. Seagate's 3D Defense System is the most comprehensive set of protective features in the industry. Unique advantages, such as the SeaShield and SeaShell, protect the drive from accidental damage that may occur during the integration process. SeaShell is a clear, recyclable clamshell package that protects the drive from 1000+ Gs of nonoperating shock, resists ESD and simplifies barcode scanning. SeaShield is a unique, integrated PCB cover that enhances handling protection, reduces returns and lowers service costs. SeaTools software helps the end-user diagnose problems and determine whether they are drive-, hardware-, or file system- related, helping customers to quickly and intuitively find solutions to system issues.
London, May 5, 2000 LaCie today announced the availability of the new Dupli-123 CD Duplicator, which is equipped with one CD-ROM drive and three 8x20x CD-R drives, enabling the simultaneous recording of 3 full CD-Rs in less than 9 minutes. Especially designed to cope with professional needs, the Dupli-123 can function in both autonomous mode or connected to a workstation. The Dupli-123 includes the same user-friendly interface as the award winning Dupli-121, with the addition of an error reducing smart controller which automatically detects and recognises the type of CD inserted, resulting in less errors and higher productivity.
The Dupli-123 is ideal for companies that require copies of identical CD-ROMs but do not wish to invest in highly specialised systems, such as Advertising departments who may require logos, fonts and images as well as IT Departments who need to copy and transfer data.
ALISO VIEJO, Calif. and EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn., May 8, 2000 -- QLogic Corp., a leading supplier of Fibre Channel connectivity solutions, today announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Ancor Communications, Incorporated , a leading provider of Fibre Channel switches. Under the terms of the agreement, which have been unanimously approved by the Board of Directors of both companies, QLogic will exchange 0.5275 shares of common stock for each share of Ancor common stock. Upon the closing of the merger, Ken Hendrickson, Ancor's CEO, will be nominated to become a member of the QLogic Board of Directors.
Based on the closing market price for QLogic of $99.94 as of Friday, May 5, 2000, the transaction value is approximately $1.7 billion. The acquisition of Ancor will extend QLogic's extensive portfolio of products based on Fibre Channel technology. Ancor's SANbox(TM)family is recognized as one of the broadest lines of Fibre Channel switches in the industry, delivering the hardware and fabric management software essential for SAN infrastructures. The two companies are expected to leverage key customer relationships to produce synergistic Fibre Channel solutions for the rapidly growing SAN marketplace.
MINNEAPOLIS, MN, May 8, 2000 Ciprico Inc. is showcasing the new NETarray Storage System at NetWorld+Interop 2000 in Las Vegas, May 9-11 in the Fibre Channel Industry Association booth (#2955) at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Attendees will see the NETarray in a multi-stream media playback demonstration developed by Ciprico using Microsoft Windows Mediaä Technologies on a Windows NT server. The NETarray is a complete, end-to-end Fibre Channel digital storage solution, SAN-enabled, and supporting RAID levels 0, 1, 0 + 1, 3, 5 and 5 + 1. It's designed to provide sustained data transfer rates near the maximum capabilities of the Fibre Channel host interface's 100 MB/sec. limit. with sustained performance at up to 200 MB/sec. (2 Gigabits/sec) and processing speeds of up to 15,000 I/Os per second. NETarray offers the reliability, availability and servicing features demanded by today's most sophisticated computing applications, including a web-enabled Storage Manager to manage literally any number of storage devices from local or remote workstations.
Minneapolis, MN, May 4, 2000 - Ancor Communications, Inc. and Datalink Corporation announced today they have formed a partnership to deliver data-intensive storage area networks (SANs). Ancor Communications is a leading supplier of high-performance SANbox Fibre Channel switches for SANs. Datalink, a premier provider of networked data storage solutions for more than thirteen years, develops, implements, and supports heterogeneous SANs. Under the terms of the agreement, Datalink will integrate the Ancor product family into its suite of storage area network solutions. These SANs link multiple servers to multiple storage devices, increasing end-user productivity as multiple servers gain high-speed "any-to-any" access to previously isolated storage. Interoperability testing, conducted by both Datalink and Ancor, supports the successful delivery of robust heterogeneous SAN solutions. These production-tested solutions enable 24 X 7 access to business-critical data.
MILPITAS, Calif., - May 4, 2000 - Adaptec, Inc. today announced EtherStorage. This new technology enables block-based storage traffic to be efficiently and reliably transferred over existing IP and Ethernet-based networks, and is the result of over two years of research and development at Adaptec on future storage fabric architectures. Because EtherStorage leverages the existing Ethernet infrastructure and provides storage levels of performance, it is a major step forward in bringing the benefits of SANs to a broader market.
Because EtherStorage runs over Ethernet and IP, it retains all the existing networking, interoperability, manageability, compatibility, and cost advantages that have made Ethernet so successful. Customers will now be able to use inexpensive, readily available Ethernet switches, hubs, and cables to implement low cost, low risk, EtherStorage based SANs. In addition, EtherStorage will leverage future advances in Ethernet performance and features.
SAN DIEGO, CA - May 3, 2000 - /BUSINESS WIRE/ - Zzyzx Peripherals Inc., a leading manufacturer and distributor of innovative disk and tape storage solutions, workstations, and peripherals for UNIX and NT environments, today announced an ambitious international expansion that will make the company's products and services available to the Australian marketplace. Under an agreement with AustStor Pty. Ltd., a leading Australian distributor of high-end data and storage technology products, AustStor will begin marketing Zzyzx's line of RAID storage solutions to its customers, and retain exclusive rights to the Australian and New Zealand territories. The agreement positions AustStor to add to its existing optical and tape offerings by providing Zzyzx's full range of feature-rich RAID products supporting Workgroup, Departmental and Enterprise applications from 18GB to 4TB. These include fully redundant and hot swap components adding Fault Tolerance, according to the specifications of the RAID Advisory Board, an industry standards group. The companies will also leverage the burgeoning Storage Area Network (SAN) marketplace, with AustStor selling Zzyzx's complete line of Fiber Channel and SCSI attached RAID products, which are integral building blocks to SAN systems. In addition, AustStor will provide complete sales and technical training to customers on Zzyzx products, which are backed by a three-year warranty plus 24-hour telephone support.
"The international market potential for storage products and services has become so enormous that we simply cannot ignore it," said Steve Rosoff, president of Zzyzx. "Australia is a particularly compelling market for us because of the widespread use of multimedia applications. Working with AustStor will be our springboard towards additional global expansion."
SANTA MARGARITA, Calif., May 3, 2000 - Viking Components, one of the world's largest and fastest growing manufacturers of component technology, today announced it is now a registered CMTL (Computer Memory Test Labs) Gold Certified Memory Module Manufacturer. CMTL developed the Gold Certification Program in order to establish a higher level of memory module testing that now includes meeting certain PCB structural integrity specifications and manufacturing requirements. The program allows memory module customers to buy modules that have been qualified beyond normal functionality and compatibility testing.
"Viking is one of only three memory module manufacturer's that has the ability and resources committed to meet the CMTL Gold Certification Program requirements," said John Deters, president, CMTL. "As a Gold Certified Module Manufacturer, Viking now also has the advantage of having memory modules Advanced Qualified on all Intel desktop, workstation and server platforms prior to releasing product to customers."
EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn., May 2, 2000 - XIOtech® Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Seagate Technology and a Storage Area Network (SAN) pioneer, announced today that it will now offer the Gadzoox Capellix 3000 Modular Fibre Channel switch as a high-speed connectivity option for its MAGNITUDE SAN customers. XIOtech is also expanding its relationship with Gadzoox Networks Inc. by officially becoming a part of that company's GAIN (Gadzoox Associates in Networking) channel program. The growing partnership between these two leading global providers of SAN products ensures interoperable, high-performance and scalable solutions that meet the stringent demands placed on today's enterprise storage architectures.
"XIOtech is moving toward delivering a complete, end-to-end SAN solution for our MAGNITUDE customers," said Richard Blaschke, executive vice president of marketing at XIOtech. "Our objective is to make the customers' SAN implementation as effortless as possible and that often includes helping them simplify their purchase process. By partnering with Gadzoox through its GAIN program, we can offer and provide technical support for a complete SAN solution that now includes Gadzoox's scalable, high-performance fibre channel switch. We believe this can greatly reduce the customer's burden of selecting, purchasing, installing and maintaining an enterprise SAN."
Sunnyvale, Calif., May 2, 2000 Amdahl Corporation and McDATA® Corporation have teamed to bring vendor-neutral SAN education to the IT industry worldwide through SAN University. SAN University has extended its successful 1999 pilot program offering a structured and systematic curriculum to meet continuing customer demand. SAN University helps IT professionals build the infrastructure to handle the exploding amounts of data generated by e-commerce, network globalization, mergers/acquisitions, and accelerating data digitization. At SAN University, IT professionals also learn about high-value disciplines, such as backup and recovery, business continuance, and data integration that a SAN environment can provide.
Santa Clara, CA May 2, 2000 - Solid Data Systems today announced a strategic reseller agreement with CTC, a subsidiary of Itochu Corporation. Under the terms of the agreement, Solid Data Systems becomes CTC's preferred solid-state storage vendor. The agreement expands the depth and breadth of CTC's product offerings, which currently include servers and storage products from vendors such as Sun Microsystems and Network Appliance. CTC is also a major reseller of network equipment from vendors such as Cisco Systems, and of software from Oracle, SAS, Siebel, Veritas Software and others.
ALISO VIEJO, CA, May 2, 2000 -QLogic Corp., a leading designer and supplier of Fibre Channel controllers for systems and storage devices, today announced that its FibreFAS440 Fibre Channel controller is now shipping in the Exabyte, Mammoth-2 (M2() tape drive which offers direct native Fibre Channel connectivity. Exabyte, a performance leader in network backup systems, recently announced it is sending the drive to key Fibre Channel industry partners including Chaparral Network Storage Inc. for certification with its DM1000 Storage Area Network (SAN) appliance. The first midrange tape drive to incorporate Fibre Channel, Exabyte's M2 is positioned as the fastest, highest capacity midrange tape drive for Fibre Channel-based SAN architectures. The distance capabilities and throughput characteristics of Fibre Channel make the Exabyte M2 drive an ideal backup solution for the emerging SAN market. In addition, with storage capacities of up to 60GB and internal data transfer rates of up to 12 MB/sec (all specifications uncompressed), the M2 offers the advantages of a full Fibre Channel environment and improves the overall performance of the SAN.
"The Fibre Channel-ready M2 drive opens up a whole new world of storage options for customers in the midrange tape market," said Ken Cruden, director of marketing for Exabyte. "QLogic delivers the crucial Fibre Channel connection with the FibreFAS440 single-chip embedded transceiver controller, making it possible for us to provide customers with a high-performance SAN architecture backup solution at a very affordable price." The FibreFAS440 Fibre Channel controller allows the Exabyte drive to connect directly to any number of Fibre Channel topologies including arbitrated loop or switched environments. The product is part of the QLogic family of high performance, low-cost, single chip, Fibre Channel and SCSI controllers. It provides external devices with high speed, low overhead, Fibre Channel access and automated protocol handling. The FibreFAS440 is compliant with several Fibre Channel topologies including Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop-2, Fibre Channel Private Loop Direct Attach and Fabric Loop Attachment, and supports the latest Fibre Channel Tape Profile (FC-Tape).
SAN DIEGO - May 1, 2000- /BUSINESS WIRE / - JNI Corporation today announced it has reached a three-year agreement to supply EMC Corporation with JNI FibreStar(TM) Fibre Channel adapter cards, for EMC CLARiiON(R) storage systems attached to SBus-based Solaris servers. The agreement extends and broadens JNI's relationship with EMC, a world leader in information storage systems, software, networks and services. The agreement extends and broadens JNI's relationship with EMC, a world leader in information storage systems, software, networks and services.
JNI's relationship with EMC confirms the demonstrated performance and reliability of JNI products in mission-critical environments. In addition to the CLARiiON contract, EMC has also qualified JNI as an authorized supplier of both PCI and SBus host bus adapters (HBAs) to EMC customers, for Solaris server attachment to EMC's Symmetrix(R) Enterprise Storage systems.
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