Earlier Storage
Watch out, chaps, it's another storage sync 'n' share produ-ARRRGH
Object-storage flogger HDS has upgraded its object storage platform to provide firewall-guarded file sync 'n' share access to BYOD users.
The Hitachi Content Platform Anywhere product is the sync 'n' share version of the original Hitachi Content Platform (HCP).
With the Anywhere product, data is kept on HCP, where it is secure …
Bunging servers in disk arrays achieves nothing. There, I said it
Blocks and Files A while ago in-array compute was going to be a big thing, with apps running inside VMAX and VNX arrays using spare controller engines and getting rid of network-lagged data access latency.
DataDirect Networks went down the same development avenue, and Lustre and the GPFS stack certified to run in its storage arrays.
Bringing …
NetApp: We laid off 100s, profits dived - and it's all YOUR fault
Analysis Storage giant NetApp has reported unremarkable revenue growth and falling profit for its 2013 financial year. It signals that NetApp is now a mature company and not a high-growth stock.
But, behind the numbers, the firm has laid off hundreds of employees to help it stay in the black and keep investors at bay. The recently …
Our new 1.5TB lappie drive isn't thick, it's just the densest - HGST
Western Digital subsidiary HGST is touting a 1.5TB notebook drive with three platters inside a standard 9.5mm-thick 2.5in form factor.
HGST claims the drive has the highest storage density of any hard disk drive available, in terms of megabytes per cubic millimetre. Generally 9.5mm-tall, 2.5in drives have two platters, not three …
New 4TB drive spaffs half a telly season into your eyes AT ONCE
Seagate has a new 4TB 3.5in hard disk for digital video recorders, TV set-top boxes and other such entertainment gear.
The Video 3.5 HDD can operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with an initial 0.55 per cent chance of drive failure per year. It has a wide range of capacity points - 250GB, 320GB, 500GB, 1TB, 2TB, 3TB and …
Flailing QLogic's boss gives up CEO, president gigs
Simon Biddiscombe, server adapter maker QLogic's CEO and the driver of its Mount Rainier flash-enhanced HBA program, has resigned "to pursue other opportunities," with a search for a new CEO underway.
Biddiscombe's departure comes after two years of falling revenue and a decline in profitability. He has also left his position as …
NetApp boffins first to go in 'WORKFORCE DECIMATION' plan
Storage array biz NetApp has laid off 300 people at a research and development centre in India and “hundreds” more in the US, according to industry sources.
The Times of India reports that anonymous insiders at NetApp's Bangalore operation - which is the company's largest R&D facility outside of the US - have been given their …
Is it time for the great Jihad against networked storage?
Blocks and Files Dheeraj Pandy is running Nutanix as if the company is on a crusade against networked storage. Data delivery latency from networked storage is plain unacceptable, it seems, and clustered virtualised servers should run and present their local storage as part of a pool.
There's more of course with big-iron converged systems being …
Look behind you, NetApp: Angry investor is coming for YOU
Activist investor Eliott Management, of Emulex fame, always pushes to have its voice heard - especially when it thinks bosses of its "investment companies" don't put shareholders first. Now the fund has actually taken on storage giant NetApp.
According to a Bloomberg report, Elliott is pushing NetApp to change its board. We can …
EMC vuln gives mere sysadmins the power of storage admins
EMC has warned a flaw in the Control Station software for its VNX and Celerra arrays could allow just about anyone logged into them to do just about anything.
EMC's described the fault as stemming from “Script files in affected products exist with ownership permissions for the nasadmin group account.”
The nasadmin group is …
Have your users managed to force iOS devices on you?
NetApp has used its acquired IonGrid technology to provide iOS mobile devices with access to file data stored on its FAS arrays, along with browser access to business apps.
Apple iPad and iPhone users will have an App Store app they can use to log into their corporate system, using Active Directory or a multi-factor …
Honey, I BLEW UP the International SPACE STATION - in full 3D
A few years ago the idea of accelerating a BlueArc filer would have seemed bizarre; it's got its own hardware acceleration. But now media special effects processing can be so mind-blowingly intensive that the hardware accelerated filer itself needs accelerating.
The case that's illustrating this point is the new George Clooney …
Fusion-io turns up wick on its product development cycle
Take note competitors; under new management Fusion-io is going to introduce major product developments every 12-14 months with mid-life kickers every 6-7 months.
This is a bit like Intel's tick-tock cadence, with a Fusion tick being a basic product architecture change, and a tock being a mid-life kicker or refresh.
In the …
Quantum lurches Starboard: Vigorous investor comes aboard
Blocks and Files Struggling storage biz Quantum has been in a quandary about how to react to aggressive shareholder Starboard Value.
Now the tape and disk data protection vendor has decided to play nice and invite three Starboard nominees onto its board.
It works like this: the board goes up from eight seats to nine. Jeffrey Smith, Starboard's …
Overland Storage may acquire Tandberg
Overland Storage may be about to acquire Tandberg Data.
A crippled tape and disk data protection and NAS storage supplier bleeding cash, Overland Storage is looking for respite from its financial woes by acquiring, on a basis of equals, the newly recovered Tandberg Data.
The news is laid out in an SEC form SC 13D/A filing …
Atlantis raises 20 million greenbacks to flog virty desktop software
Privately-owned Atlantis Computing has just raised $20m to flog its Atlantis ILIO desktop virtualisation software around the world.
ILIO – In Line Image Optimisation - has virtual machines running inside a server's RAM and delivers virtual desktops at less than $300 per desktop.
The company's second CEO, Bernard Harguindeguy, …
Skyera hires flashy Western Digital veep as chief architect
Flash array startup Skyera, which counts Western Digital among its investors, has recruited a WD flash product exec as its new chief architect.
According to a story in the Sacramento Bee, Skyera recruited Andy Tomlin as its chief architect. Tomlin was WD's vice presidnt of SSD Development responsible for all firmware, software …
Virident tempts EMC flash boss over, creeps up on Fusion-io
Server flash card upstart Virident has recruited Ken Grohe, EMC's flash business general manager, to run its worldwide customer operations, while it strengthens its position against flash supremos Fusion-io
The recruitment is open for anyone to see on Grohe's LinkedIn page.
Concurrent with Grohe's hire, Virident, which used to …
It's all gone to Schmitt: New OCZ boss rips 'n' replaces execs
Flash storage biz OCZ's new CEO has replaced almost a dozen executives - and he's banging on about quality as he strives to resuscitate the near-dead OCZ flash business.
OCZ over-extended itself drastically under founder and previous CEO Ryan Petersen, who was ousted last year, leaving the company with far too many under- …
Whiptail CEO: Big Blue's flashy BEELLION doesn't faze us
Interview Undaunted by IBM's billion dollar investment in flash, all-flash array startup Whiptail is banking on new investor SanDisk, says Whiptail CEO Dan Crain.
Whiptail's plans also include introducing 3D chips into its arraysand developing "revolutionary" array software and management products.
It has no intention of entering the …
EMC's ViPR: Is it really that venomous?
Storagebod There’s a lot of discussion about what EMC's ViPR is and what it isn’t. How much of this confusion is deliberate and how much is simply the normal of fog of war which pervades the storage industry?
Firstly, it's a messy announcement; there’s a hotch-potch of products here, utilising IP from acquisitions and from internal EMC …
EMC hits flash leader Fusion-io where it hurts: Low-cost server cards
Storage, virtualisation, info and cloud giant EMC is set to widen its attack on server flash card leader Fusion-io by releasing a low-cost flash card for hyper-scale data centres.
Server flash card cache coherency is also set to appear for Oracle RAC environments, according to Stifel Nicolas analyst Aaron Rakers, who was at EMC …
Hm, disk drive maker, what's that smell lingering around you?
The disk drive vendors have been utterly screwed by mismanaging the disruptive force of solid state drives: that's the view of Mike Shapiro - lately a storage bigshot at Sun and Oracle.
Mike Shapiro was a Sun Microsystems Distinguished Engineer, CTO, and VP of Storage for Sun and then Oracle. He is most recently a founder at a …
Google pools cloud storage
Google has changed its approach to cloud storage, with individuals and business users of its apps now offered a pool of storage rather than silos dedicated to different services.
Announced in an inevitable pair of blog posts, the Chocolate Factory is calling the new arrangement “unified storage”. Storage wonks wondering why …
Xyratex shrinks ClusterStor to prop up sinking revenues
Xyratex has downsized its ClusterStor high-performance computing storage array with the scale-out storage 1500, hoping to add much-needed revenue growth by flogging departmental HPC storage.
Like the existing 6000 and 3000 models it is a Lustre system with scale-out capability through modular building blocks. Xyratex's idea is …
Storage-slinger: Sales down for 6th year running? Blame TAPE
Storage biz Quantum's position couldn't be further from that of rival CommVault. Revenues down? Yes. Both annually and sequentially? Yep. Losses deeper? Mmhmm. Annually and sequentially? Yes indeed.
It's the same old, same old for Jon Gacek's crew at Quantum, where unreeling tape revenues overtook slowly growing disk revenues. …
Former Fusion-io CEO just wasn't that into operations, says new broom
Fusion-io CEO and co-founder David Flynn resigned because he realised he didn't have the operational management skills needed to grow Fusion-io into a global business. That, in a nutshell, is what we understand after talking to replacement CEO Shane Robison.
First Robison, who is also Fusion-io's chairman and president, wanted …
Inside EMC's software-defined ViPR storage tech
EMC spent much of this year's EMC World talking up ViPR, its new system for managing, automating, and controlling storage infrastructure.
Tucci and the gang were scolded for the premature nature of the announcement – ViPR won't launch until late 2013, and it'll be late 2014 when it gets the features that truly differentiate it …
Rivals tout antidotes to EMC's ViPR bite
Comment How do you avoid a snakebite from the ViPR that EMC has let loose in the storage jungle? El Reg storage desk has spoken to some of its competitors about their "software-defined" antidotes.
ViPR is a layer of storage virtualisation software that separates upper-level storage management functions (which EMC calls the "storage …
Fallen flash flogger sTec says direct sales will save its bacon
Flash disk maker sTec isn't looking healthy. Its revenues have declined by over a third from the last quarter and net losses exceed revenues for this quarter - as they have done for the last 18 months.
Revenues from storage array manufacturers are falling away faster than the company's alternative revenue-generating efforts are …
Bolshy investors launch yet another assault on Emulex board
Angry investor Altai Capital Management has written an open letter to Emulex CEO Jim McCluney demanding the resignation of Emulex's board after it rejected a takeover offer from Broadcom.
That's the view put across by activist investor Altai Capital Management in a public letter to Emulex CEO Jim McCluney.
Background
Emulex …
Seagate CTO hangs up his hard disks
Seagate's chief technology officer Bob Whitmore has retired, at the same times as the company has launched its third generation flash products.
A company statement read:
Bob Whitmore Bob Whitmore
On May 7, 2013 Robert W. Whitmore, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Seagate Technology plc (the "Company") …
IT spending squeeze? Are you joking, cackles cash-flush CommVault
Quarterly revenues up? Check. Annually and sequentially? Check. Annual revenues and profits? The same pattern. Any problems? Nope. Just another year at CommVault.
The company, which supplies Simpana backup, archiving and data data management software, operates like a Swiss watch and makes business look like child's play.
For …
Over ONE-THIRD of PCs will have SSDs in 2017 - analyst
As hard disk drive (HDD) shipments into PCs continue their downwards slide, solid-state drive (SSD) shipments should rise at least 600 per cent between 2012 and 2017, say market researchers.
Of course, solid-state drive sales represent only a small proportion of the market currently, which means that by 2017, vendors will sell …
Symantec: We 'stubbed our toe' on Backup Exec, but we'll be fine
Analysis Symantec's new broom CEO has presided over record final quarter - at least for revenues - and full year 2013 results. This is despite the company being in the middle of a management clear-out, profits droop and wholesale sales operation revamp.
Revenues for the fourth quarter, which finished on 29 March, were $1.75bn, a record …
Fusion-io founders flee, ex-HP hotshot takes the wheel
Right out of the blue, flash memory-maker Fusion-io has lost its CEO co-founder David Flynn, as well as its chief marketing officer, co-founder Rick White.
Board member Shane Robison has been named chairman, president and CEO. Messrs Flynn and White are resigning to pursue other entrepreneurial early-stage investing activities …
Acronis co-founder slips into driving seat after CEO picks up P45
Backup and recovery specialists Acronis's latest CEO, Alex Pinchev, has left the firm and has been replaced by one of its founders.
Pinchev became Acronis's CEO with much fanfare in November 2011, replacing Jason Donahue. Pinchev, an ex-Red Hat sales leader, was described as a visionary CEO, and became an Acronis board member in …
Seagate: Who us... no flash cred? Check out our PCIe card, suckers
Seagate has opened up fresh fronts in its assault on the flash market and announced SATA and SAS SSDs as well as a PCIe flash card, signalling for the first time in a product sense just how serious it is about becoming a major league flash product supplier.
There are basically four products: the 600, 600 Pro and 1200 SSDs and X8 …
Isilon OneFS snorts dedupe magic
EMC World 2013 EMC is preparing the next version of its Isilon OneFS NAS operating system, and is giving the technology a deduplication capability and support for object storage.
The next version of Isilon will integrate with EMC's ambitious software-defined storage ViPR technology, along with support for APIs from Amazon S3 and Atmos, Hadoop …
EMC: 'Hardware? We stopped doing that YEARS ago'
EMC World 2013 Storage titan EMC doesn't really believe in hardware any more – the value is in the software.
The company has been on a shift for the past decade to wean itself off of a dependency on proprietary gear, and has instead been pouring resources into developing clever software, EMC head honcho Joe Tucci told The Register at EMC World …
Micron brandishes sharp new flash blade, lunges at Fusion-io
Micron is touting a new server flash drive that's apparently significantly faster than Fusion-io's market-leading ioDrive 2.
Micron is believed to be supplying its PCIe-format drives to EMC for the storage giant's XtremSF flash cards. (EMC's other supplier is Virident.)
Micron's P420m flash drive comes in both PCIe and 2.5in …
EMC, VMware dangle axe over 1,804 workers around the planet
In the week of EMC's self-congratulatory EMC World extravaganza in Las Vegas, the storage giant revealed it will slash 1,004 jobs.
The cuts will be felt worldwide in the company's Information Storage, RSA Information Security and Information Intelligence divisions, according to EMC. The redundancies will cost the biz $80m. This …
