Storage Digest: News from Fujitsu, U3, Engenio, Memorex, BakBone Software, PolyServe

U3 introduces USB smart drives, Memorex adds a U3 smart drive to its TravelDrive family, Engenio teams with Oracle, Fujitsu adds 120GB ATA mobile hard drives, BakBone adds a Mac interface to NetVault and PolyServe introduces utility computing for Linux-based server and storage clusters.

• Fujitsu Introduces High-Capacity Mobile Hard Disk Drives

Fujitsu Computer Products of America Inc., based in Sunnyvale, Calif., has announced two new mobile hard disk drives with capacities of 120GB.

Both the MHV2120BH and the MHV2120AH are 120GB drives with 5400 RPM rotational speed, 12 to 14 milliseconds average seek time and 5.56 milliseconds average latency.

Both use NCQ (Native Command Queuing) to coordinate up to 32 instructions to be queued and reordered by the hard disk controller. But while the MHV2120BH is a SATA (Serial ATA) drive, the MHV2120AH is a PATA (Parallel ATA) drive.

Get more information here.

• U3 Introduces USB Smart Drives

U3 LLC of Redwood City, Calif., has introduced a USB smart drive and accompanying software applications that allow people to plug the smart drive, carrying personal files and settings, into a PC to launch applications and access data.

The smart drives will be available from several vendors. In the United States, Kingston Technology Company Inc. will introduce 512MB and 1GB DataTraveler I smart drives; Memorex Products Inc. will launch the Memorex Mini TravelDrive in several capacities; SanDisk will unveil the Cruzer Micro product line in 512MB and 1GB capacities, and Verbatim will introduce the Stor n Go 1GB.

Get more information here.

• Memorex Introduces TravelDrive with U3 Support

Memorex of Cerritos, Calif., has announced the U3 Mini TravelDrive, a portable storage device with built-in U3 support. The U3 smart drive, part of Memorexs line of TravelDrive devices, is available in capacities ranging from 256MB to 2GB and contains a personal workspace of data, files software, programs, personal preferences, passwords and settings.

The U3 smart drive comes with four software applications: Migo, which synchronizes the Mini TravelDrives data and settings when plugged into another PC; the Mozilla Thunderbird e-mail client; McAfee anti-virus for USB smart drives; and U Safe password protection.

The U3 smart Mini TravelDrive will be available on October 15 at prices ranging from $29.99 to $179.99.

Get more information here.

• Engenio, Oracle Demonstrate High-Availability Best Practices

Engenio Information Technologies Inc. of Milpitas, Calif., has partnered with Oracle Corp. of Redwood Shores, Calif., to determine best practices using Oracles Maximum Availability Architecture with Oracle Database 10g Release 2 on Engenio storage solutions including the Engenio 6998 Fibre Channel storage array and the Engenio 2822 Fibre Channel SATA (Serial ATA) storage system.

The goal, said Juan Loaiza, vice president of systems technologies for Oracle, is to allow customers to achieve more resilient database deployments.

Get more information here.

• BakBone Announces NetVault for Mac OS X Server

BakBone Software Inc. of San Diego, Calif., has released a new version of its NetVault data protection software for Mac OS X Server version 10.4 “Tiger.”

NetVault 7.3.1 is intended for use in Mac OS X Server environments such as those built around XServe G5, XServe RAID and Xsan. It is available in three configuration options—entry, midsize and departmental.

Get more information here.

• PolyServe Introduces Utility Computing for Linux Environments

PolyServe Inc. of Beaverton, Ore., has introduced a utility computing product designed for server and storage clusters.

PolyServe Matrix Manager creates a visual grid by mapping applications against server and storage resources available in the computing utility, allowing data center managers to monitor multiserver and multi-application status and adjust capacity by dragging and dropping servers on applications, according to PolyServe CEO Mike Stankey.

Get more information here.

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