Cisco Systems, the 800-pound gorilla of networking, said last week that it's jumping into the Fibre Channel storage area network arena with its own switches and directors. The move poses the first major challenge to Brocade Communications Systems and McData, which together claim about 86 per cent of the switch marketplace.
Sun Microsystems this week plans to introduce advances to its storage-area network (SAN) management software, including the first use of two standards that are the cornerstone of an industry-wide effort to bridge the interoperability gap in multi-vendor SANs.
For companies seeking to store mission-critical data, disk arrays configured with SCSI-attached drives have typically been the only game in town. Lower-cost drives based on the Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA) standard, while plentiful in PCs, lacked the performance and reliability needed at the data centre level.
Microsoft last week disclosed that it no longer plans to build an InfiniBand management capability into the upcoming Windows .Net Server operating system, dealing another blow to the new high-speed I/O architecture.
Rivals EMC and Hewlett-Packard have agreed to expand a cross-licensing agreement for certain storage system application programming interfaces (API), a move that will eventually allow the development of storage management software capable of controlling each other's storage devices.
EMC announced yesterday the creation of a business unit, Information Solutions Consulting, that it will operate in a five-year partnership pact with Accenture.
Earlier this week, IBM announced in the US that its virtual tape servers will soon be able to connect disk storage to mainframes via fibre connectivity (FICON), a move that could increase performance by about 75 per cent.
IBM announced on Thursday an emerging technology that would allow PCs and servers to access operating systems via IP networks, which could eventually lead to computers devoid of hard drives.
In a move that some experts say is a blow to the emerging InfiniBand market, Intel yesterday announced to partners that it has killed plans to produce silicon chips that would allow for high-speed server clustering and communication with other devices, such as storage arrays.
The post-merger Hewlett-Packard announced plans today for a new storage division, dubbed Network Storage Solutions (NSS), that will include merging some products while phasing others out completely during the next five years.
Cisco Systems today announced the release of a new iSCSI/Fibre Channel over IP storage router that industry experts say firmly points to the company's direction in the storage networking marketplace.
Continuing to look for ways to jump-start its sales EMC announced last week a relatively inexpensive disk array for storing fixed data, such as check images, software source code and medical X-rays. Prospective users said the device could provide a speedier alternative to tape storage.
A number of storage technology breakthroughs were announced this week, including the doubling of hard disk and tape memory capacity, vendors said.
Data storage company EMC reported a $US77 million first-quarter loss on revenue that totalled $1 billion less than the same quarter a year ago.
Wall Street IT executives are hammering home the point that hacking and cyberterrorism is a mounting threat best fought by the private sector and government through creation of a centralised way of alerting and disseminating information about attacks -- most likely via a private Web site.
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By Adam LePeilbet, Senior Director & General Manager, Data Centre Sales, Dell Technologies, ANZ
