DataDirect shows new high-density graphics storage system ... BakBone, Mirapoint partner on new secure backup/restore suite ... EMC, Penn State start new storage technology curriculum ... Fujitsu reveals Q2 HDD shipment numbers.Normally, as summer rolls on in the Northern Hemisphere, data storage news—along with lots of other IT business news—slows down to a mere trickle. Not so in the summer of 06, however; the flow of new products and services announcements and other items of note is just as steady as it was during the busy winter and spring months.
DataDirect Networks Shows New High-Density Graphics Storage System
DataDirect Networks, of Chatsworth, Calif. introduced its new, ultra-high-density S2A9550 storage system Aug. 2 at SIGGRAPH, the annual international conference on computer graphics and interactive techniques, which is being held in Boston through Aug. 3.
The S2A9550 allows content creators, animators and editors to perform true real-time post-production collaboration in CGI, animation and digital intermediate service applications, DataDirect President Paul Bloch said.
The S2A9550 provides independent and simultaneous access to native HD and 2K (2048x1080) and 4K (4096x2160) high-resolution content, as well as to hundreds of SD streams—all in real-time, Bloch said.
It will deliver up to 3GB per second throughput, with enhanced and automated data protection and 560TB in a single storage system, Bloch said. The S2A9550 storage platform is based on DataDirects S2A (Silicon Storage Appliance) technology, which integrates a parallel, non-blocking architecture with SAN (storage area network) functionality in one scalable, intelligent device, he added.
The block level and file system performance design supports a broad range of NAS (network-attached storage) and SAN systems that power some of the video, graphics and animation industrys notable suppliers—including Autodesk, IBM, Dell, Sony SGI, Thomson and Matrox, Bloch said.
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BakBone, Mirapoint Partner on New Secure Backup/Restore Suite
Messaging vendor Mirapoint, of Sunnyvale, Calif., and data protection specialist BakBone Software, based in San Diego, have partnered to offer a combination of BakBones NetVault suite of backup and restore software solutions and Mirapoints Secure Messaging Infrastructure.
The two products are integrated via NetVaults Network Data Management Protocol agent for e-mail backup. The resulting suite will be called Secure Messaging Infrastructures with integrated NetVault Backup.
"Our research shows that message stores are growing at more than 40 percent annually," Michael Osterman of Osterman Research, in Black Diamond, Wash., told eWEEK.
For SMBs (small and midsize businesses), the IT time spent on backup, as well on other messaging management tasks, is typically higher on a per-seat basis than for larger organizations, yet backup is a critical and necessary component, Osterman said.
"Anything that can be done to streamline the backup process or make it more efficient and less consuming of IT staff time will be very useful. The integration of Mirapoints and BakBones solutions makes life a bit simpler for Mirapoint customers, because it relieves customers of having to do this integration themselves," Osterman said.
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EMC, Penn State Start New Storage Technology Curriculum
EMC, of Hopkinton, Mass., and Penn State Universitys College of Information Sciences and Technology have jointly announced a new open-standards storage technology curriculum designed to provide IT professionals and students with a foundation for designing and managing a storage infrastructure.
A serious shortage in qualified storage technology professionals was cited as the reason for this initiative, Tom Clancy, vice president of EMC Education Services, told eWEEK.
This new curriculum will be offered through EMC Education Services at Penn State, in State College, Pa., and via the EMC Academy Program and Learning Partners. Completing the curriculum will result in an EMCST (EMC Proven Professional/Storage Technologist) Certification.
"A need for professionals in this increasingly important IT discipline is leaving no other option for managers but to ensure [that] staff are highly skilled and trained in this area," Clancy told eWEEK. "We are helping by providing the widest and most comprehensive set of education offerings to our customers, partners and now, the IT industry at large."
EMC Storage Technologist courses also will be offered through EMC itself and leading training companies, including Global Knowledge Training and Learning Tree International. Several other institutions in the United States, Europe, India, China and Mexico also have introduced this curriculum in to their programs.
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Fujitsu Reveals Q2 HDD Shipment Numbers
Fujitsu Computer Products of America, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., one of the worlds largest suppliers of hard disk drives, peripherals and biometric security solutions, announced its second-quarter hard disk drive shipment results.
During the second quarter, Fujitsu shipments of mobile hard disk drives surpassed 5.24 million units, an increase of nearly 18 percent over the same quarter in 2005. In addition, "strong execution on the enterprise side," a Fujitsu spokesperson said, resulted in a improvement of 18 percent from the previous quarter, with shipments of enterprise HDDs totaling 1.42 million units.
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