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Storage World Conference Provides Surprising New Entrants

Storage World Conference Provides Surprising New Entrants

Written by Brian Sherman

(Long Beach, CA)--- I've written recently about the relevancy decline in IT trade shows, with many vendor product announcements being made outside of the big events. Storage World Conference (SWC), hosted by ASNP (Association of Storage Networking Professionals) June 6-9, proved to be outside the norm. Even with several of the big storage manufacturers absent, the show provided a good forum for the current issues, including compliance and the debate over using tape or disk for backup.

While many people consider storage boring, a new (to the United States) industry upstart looked to change that impression with their interactive booth and major SWC sponsorship. Njini was the talk of the event, with the launch of its U.S. marketing efforts and its executives appearing everywhere to discuss their technology. The company's Information Asset Management Services identify the value of a data object at its moment of origin and use this to determine where it should be stored, how long it should be stored, who should have access to it, and how many copies to keep. Hosted on Linux or Solaris, as data streams it is identified with a value and stored outside the database. "It differs from metatagging in that the underlying data structure is left untouched, without the data degradation that occurs with traditional ILM (information lifecycle management) processes," said Mike Swoboda, senior VP of sales and marketing for Njini. It is scalable, working with storage capacities as low as 4 TB, and can free up a large amount of storage starting with its implementation. Each search engine will support up to 250 users per Linux server for customers' future growth.

Breece Hill showcased its iStoRA backup and recovery solution at the show. iStoRA is targeted to SMB (small to midsize business) and integrates disk and tape storage, network connectivity, servers, and software into one complete system. Its features include easy installation, functionality for high availability and centralized backup methods, and 30% lower cost than comparable D2D2T (disk to disk to tape) solutions.
For additional information on Breece Hill's products and services, click here.

CommVault Chairman and CEO Bob Hammer provided his insights on the IT storage industry. "End users are focusing more on managing data comprehensively, including the requirements of all departments and business units in a unified structure," said Hammer. "There is a movement to unstructured data retrieval, and compliance is increasing the retention periods required of stored information." These diverse demands of data storage are driving the development of CommVault's integrated suite of product offerings.

CommVault's Galaxy software, with its ability to manage complex storage networks, was accentuated at the show. Galaxy's claim to fame is its policy-based actions that map client data to storage resources, which eliminates the data administrator's need to identify the physical location of data before a restore.

Eastman Kodak showcased its service offerings for data storage resellers. The company offers multivendor storage services to resellers wanting to supplement their portfolios. Using the Kodak brand name may reinforce a VAR's commitment to service. For example, a reseller may lead sales presentations to its clients with HP services, but could add Kodak services for a customer's multiple vendor product storage components.
For additional information on Eastman Kodak's products and services, click here.

Sony Electronics presented a new SAIT (super advanced intelligent tape) compact tape library attached to its high-capacity format SAIT-1 drives for SMB. The new mini library is targeted to large database applications, such as video production, broadcast applications, medical imaging, and e-commerce transactions.

Two models are available, accommodating as many as two SAIT-1 tape drives with up to 20 high-capacity SAIT cartridges. The system features a 10 TB native storage capacity (26 TB compressed using 2.6:1 compression) and a 60 MB/s sustained native transfer rate (with two SAIT drives). "This library offers consolidated backup and disaster recovery for companies with storage needs at the multiple terabyte level, and at an affordable cost," said Brett Schecter, senior manager, tape storage solutions for Sony.

The suggested list price is $17,995 for the one-drive CSM-20S/S1 model and $25,990 for the two-drive CSM-20S/S1-2 model.
For additional information on Sony Electronics' products and services, click here.

Qualstar's IPSmart iSCSI (Internet small computer systems interface) continued to gain momentum at SWC with the ability to connect RLS- and TLS-series automated tape libraries with IP SANs using iSCSI protocol over IP networks. Available for tape libraries with capacity of 2 to 300 TB and data transfer rates up to 2.2 TB/hour, it is scalable with the addition of multiple IPSmart units.
For additional information on Qualstar's products and services, click here.

EMC demonstrated its new storage virtualization platform, Invista, for show attendees. Based on intelligent switch platforms, it is non-disruptive (never takes the application down) and performs network-based volume management and volume migration across EMC and third party companies' storage devices. Invista also creates heterogeneous point-in-time copies across multiple types of storage for additional backup and recovery options.

Princeton Softech demonstrated its compliance and unstructured data-driven archiving solutions at SWC. The company recently announced release 6.1 of its Archive for Servers, a database archiving solution that integrates directly with HP StorageWorks Reference Information Storage System (RISS) to manage information retention policies. Princeton Softech develops enterprise solutions with complex ERP system vendors, such as Siebel, Oracle, PeopleSoft, Amdocs, and Edward Jones. Archive for Servers Siebel Edition and Archive for Servers JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Edition Release 1.5 are two examples of these relationships. "Many ERP (enterprise resource planning) vendors don't want to get involved in developing lifecycle management solutions, so we work with them to build fully integrated product offerings," said Jim Lee, VP of marketing for Princeton Softech.

Quantum has developed a new DLTtape Technology roadmap for customers to provide them with a foundation for future storage media strategies. This plan charts the available technologies for meeting the needs of compliance and backup issues companies may encounter. Quantum's product lines featured at the show included DLTSage, for manageability and diagnostic architecture, and DLTIce, a WORM (write once read many) compliance solution.
For additional information on Quantum's products and services, click here.

Wasabi recently announced several new OEM relationships for its iSCSI storage solutions, including PCS Systems, Inc., DSG Storage, Inc., and Xyratex LTD. Wasabi's Storage Builder for iSCSI is a software solution that allows OEMs to create an economical IP-enabled SAN, disk-based backup, and near-line storage appliances for backup and recovery.
For additional information on Wasabi's products and services, click here.

Brian Sherman is chief editor of ECM Connection and Data Storage Connection