2008/12/22
InfoWorld: Three deals symbolized storage trends in 2008
by Stephen Lawson
The storage story of 2008 was growth: An accelerating explosion of information, much of it in the form of video, led IT administrators to try to make better use of their capacity and staff.
Overall demand for storage capacity is growing by about 60 percent per year, according to IDC. Another research company, Enterprise Strategy Group, pegs the annual growth rate of data between 30 percent and 60 per
"Organizations are having a hard time getting their arms around all that data," said ESG analyst Lauren Whitehouse. Economic woes are making it even harder, with frozen or scaled-back budgets, while the downturn isn't expected to significantly slow data growth next year.
Stuck in that bind, organizations don't want to have to roll out a gigabyte of capacity in their own data centers for every new gigabyte that's created, analysts said.
"What we'll see more of in companies is a focus on efficiency," IDC analyst Rick Villars said. They're seeking to increase the utilization of their storage capacity as well as other IT resources.
A big part of that effort is virtualization of storage, which often goes hand in hand with server virtualization and became a mainstream technology in 2008, according to analyst John Webster of Illuminata. Storage vendors are offering more virtualization products and seeing more demand for them, he said. A virtualization capability such as thin provisioning, which lets administrators assign storage capacity to a new application without having to figure out how much it ultimately will need, helps make better use of resources, Webster said.
But in addition to the trend toward disconnecting logical from physical resources, there were a handful of acquisitions this year that signaled other trends in storage world.
TheRegister: Dogs and arson feature in top 10 data recovery disasters
by John Leyden
Crooks are increasingly becoming aware of the possibility that digital evidence might condemn them, raising the likelihood that devices containing potentially sensitive information will wind up being destroyed. For example, data recovery firm Disklabs successfully recovered images from a CCTV camera trashed by an arsonist attempting to cover his tracks following a fight in a nightclub.
"If a suspect has a hard drive/CD/DVD etc that cannot be accessed for any reason, (fire, water, electronic fault etc), then the police/prosecution cannot investigate the evidence," explained Simon Steggles, a director at Disklabs. "Sometimes, it's the digital evidence that is condemning for the suspect. We get the said device and get it working, following all ACPO's guidelines, ensuring evidential continuity and write blocking is used to ensure that the device is not subsequently written too."
Other times, Disklabs has to carry out data recovery after accidents or after a device is abused by a family pet. A YouTube video featuring Disklabs successful work recovering data from a RAID system following a fire at a factory can be found below. This incident was the result of an accident and unconnected to the nightclub fire, which created a separate job for Disklabs. ®
CNet: As Intel ships 160GB SSD, pricing nags buyers
by Brooke Crothers
Intel is now shipping 160GB solid-state drives as it vies with Samsung and Toshiba to deliver high-capacity SSDs that rival hard-disk drives in capacity. Price, however, remains a big obstacle for many consumers.
Intel said Monday that it will add 160GB versions of its X25-M and X18-M Serial ATA (SATA) solid-state drive. To date, Intel has limited shipments to its 80GB versions. Laptop-size 2.5-inch versions of the 160GB drive are shipping now; 1.8-inch models for ultraportable laptops will ship next month, Intel said.
Larger-capacity drives from other SSD suppliers are also on the way. In November, Samsung said it had begun mass production of 256GB SSDs. And Toshiba recently said it would show a 512GB drive at the Consumer Electronics Show in January that would ship in the second quarter of 2009.
Solid-state drives are generally faster at getting data than hard-disk drives (and in some cases, much faster) but pricing is a big hurdle for consumers. Toshiba indicated last week that sample quantities of its new solid-state will range in price from $220 for the 64GB drive to $1,652 for the 512GB drive.
That kind of pricing-even if it's for pricey sample drives-is hard to swallow when a laptop-class 500GB hard-disk drive sells for well under $200.
Pricing for the Intel 160GB solid-state drives wasn't immediately available. Currently, adding an Intel 80GB solid-state drive option to an HP EliteBook 2530p ultraportable laptop adds $659 over the cost of a 5400RPM 1.8-inch 120GB hard disk drive.
Adding a 128GB solid-state drive to an Apple MacBook Air ups the price by about $500.
