Storage News Digest: 05-Jan-03

Enterprise Storage

Start-up Beats IBM for Linux Drive Management

A revamped version of key disk drive management software in Linux will be based on a project from start-up Sistina Software rather than Big Blue. Sistinas LVM 2.0 will be included in the upcoming version 2.6 of the Linux kernel. IBMs programmers, who had been working on competing software, have refocused their work on volume management administration tools. The software in question is Linuxs "logical volume manager," which governs how multiple hard drives are joined so they appear as one.

Read the full story on: CNET News.com

NXRAID Updated to version 1.1

NYRO Technix Inc. has released NXRAID 1.1, a new version of their software-based RAID 5 solution for Mac OS X. With NXRAID installed, a RAID 5 array can be set up on Macs using separate hard disk drive mechanisms and software. RAID 5 systems use data striping and stripe error correction information. NXRAID works with IDE, FireWire, SCSI and Fibre Channel-based hard drive systems running Mac OS X 10.2.1 and higher (both the regular desktop and server versions).

Read the full story on: MacCentral

Personal Storage

IBM Laying Storage-Brick Foundations

IBM researchers are working on a new storage system prototype that packs hard-drive modules into a dense, Rubiks Cube-like structure. The companys Collective Intelligent Bricks project builds variously sized three-dimensional stacks out of the eight-inch modules, each filled with 12 hard drives and six network connections to keep data coursing through the collection. By the first quarter of 2003, IBM hopes to have built a three-by-three-by-three-brick prototype with a total of 32 terabytes of storage, said Jai Menon, an IBM fellow and storage research manager at Big Blues Almaden Research Center in California. Big Blue believes the resilient design will permit a single administrator to manage about 100 times as much storage capacity.

Read the full story on: CNET News.com

Storage Business

Study Highlights Data Storage Trends

The role data warehouses play in the enterprise is changing, and businesses need to alter the way they deal with data storage issues, according to a study released by Aberdeen Group Inc. Data storage is no longer looked at in isolation, but rather as part of a companys "information utility," which encompasses servers and other communications platforms, the study says. As enterprises aim at systems integration, the data warehouse comes greatly into play, says David Hill, vice president of storage research at Aberdeen Group.

Read the full story on: destinationCRM.com