Enterprise Storage Snapshots – 1/16/04

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Enterprise Storage Snapshots offers a weekly wrap-up of what’s going on in the storage industry.Here are our storage news highlights for the second week of January: NetApp and Decru team on a secure storage option for IBM’s new electronic records management solution, DataCore launches a new SANmaestro tool for SANsymphony, NovaSTOR updates its flagship NovaBACKUP software with “Maximum Data Protection,” and Storage Computer announces it will demo its CyberNAS software at next week’s Linux World 2004 conference.



NetApp and Decru Team to Deliver Secure Storage Solution

Network Appliance and Decru have partnered on a storage security option that integrates with IBM’s new electronic records management solution. The option, a combination of Network Appliance storage systems and Decru DataFort storage security appliances, was demonstrated to the United States Department of Defense Joint Interoperability Test Command (JITC) during certification testing of IBM’s DB2 Records Manager Enabler for Content Manager V8.2.

Customers can leverage the NetApp-Decru option to rapidly deploy a complete, certified e-records solution with secure storage. The companies describe a typical deployment wherein IBM DB2 Records Manager and DB2 Content Manager software is mounted to Decru DataFort storage security appliances. The DataFort appliances secure data transmission and storage at wire speed using secure access controls, authentication, AES-256 storage encryption, and cryptographically-signed logging.

“Governmental organizations as well as regulated enterprise users are demanding integrated, secure, and compliant solutions for managing their most valuable data assets. The NetApp-Decru option for IBM’s DoD 5015.2-STD-certified records solution addresses all of these requirements in a certified, tested package,” says Peter Gerr, analyst at the Enterprise Storage Group. “ESG believes that encryption of data-at-rest and in transit along with secure electronic file shredding, are becoming must-have features for a wider range of applications.”

Many U.S. government agencies, and the vendors who supply them with software solutions, are seeking compliance with DoD 5015.2-STD regulations. The DoD 5015.2-STD certification is a records management application (RMA) test with rigorous requirements for systematic control of the creation, maintenance, use, reproduction, and deletion of records.

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DataCore Launches SANmaestro Tool for SANsymphony

DataCore Software has released a new analysis package for SANsymphony that monitors and analyzes how application servers consume valuable storage resources over time, defined in terms of disk capacity, physical ports, I/O bandwidth, and throughput.

The new SANmaestro tool gathers SAN-wide instrumentation provided by SANsymphony in real-time, and then aggregates and charts workloads, capacity utilization and access frequency, among other parameters. Security-conscious customers tend to prefer the off-host monitoring, according to DataCore, because the requirement for vital statistics can be met without granting special privileges on the application servers.

“Customers complain that traditional host-based monitoring techniques are difficult, if not impossible to maintain across numerous servers and different operating systems. In many cases they’ve given up trying to piece the big picture together,” says Arun Taneja, of Massachusetts-based Taneja Group, an analyst and consulting firm specializing in storage and storage-centric server technologies.

“By combining SANsymphony’s centralized storage pooling with SANmaestro’s non-intrusive probes and charting capabilities,” Taneja continues, “IT can gauge which applications are the most resource hungry, then factor these figures into billing, charge-back, capacity planning, and budget justification. An export facility makes it simple to further process results in Excel, SAS, SAP, Oracle, SQL Server, and other familiar packages already used for those purposes.”

The SANmaestro option is designed for companies that consolidate their IT infrastructure under the SANsymphony open storage networking platform. SANsymphony and SANmaestro operate in heterogeneous networks consisting of mixed storage devices, switching infrastructure, and major open operating systems, including Windows, UNIX, NetWare, MacOS, and Linux.

SANmaestro is currently available, with pricing starting at $15,000 per storage pool. DataCore also offers site-specific customization for SANmaestro.

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NovaStor NovaBACKUP Goes for ‘Maximum Data Protection’

NovaStor is claiming the latest release of its flagship NovaBACKUP software, version 7.1, is the first backup software solution to offer ultra-fast backup for all CDs, DVDs, tapes, and hard disks – plus local and network servers – in a single package.

Interfaces supported by NovaBACKUP include IDE/EIDE, SCSI, USB, and FireWire, while the list of devices supported now includes all hard drives and tape drives; DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, and DVD+RW drives; CD-R and CD-RW drives; CD and DVD combination drives; and JAZ, ZIP, and other popular removable media.

NovaBACKUP 7.1’s feature list includes a step-by-step Backup and Restore Wizard that enables NovaBACKUP users to easily perform tasks, support for hundreds of plug and play devices, fast data compression, password protection, secure file encryption, peer-to-peer support, virus scanning, and file filtering.

Version 7.1 is currently available in two versions: a $79.95 Professional Edition and a $149.95 Server Edition. The Server Edition runs on Windows-based server operating systems and securely performs scheduled backups even while administrators are logged out and the server is securely locked down.

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Storage Computer to Demo CyberNAS Software at Linux World 2004

Storage Computer Corporation has targeted the high performance computing (HPC) market with its new CyberNAS 64/Cluster network-attached storage (NAS) software.

“Breaking out of the limitations of 32-bit architectures allows our customers to move to the next level of storage performance and functionality,” states Ricardo Velez-McCaskey, CTO of Storage Computer. “It is imperative for HPC environments to have strong storage options designed to accommodate their challenging needs. CyberNAS 64/Cluster is available now to compute cluster manufactures on an OEM basis.”

“The AMD Opteron processor with its advanced Hypertransport technology powers CyberNAS 64/Cluster software into ground-breaking storage management
terabit performance and petabyte usable online capacity,” says Sean Murphy, VP Product Development. “CyberNAS 64/Cluster software supports up to 300 storage nodes per cluster with projected aggregate bandwidth up to 10 terabits per second on multiple 10 Gigabit Ethernet connections. Its capacity
is scalable to 9 petabytes.”

Storage Computer will be showcasing CyberNAS 3.0 at Linux World 2004 in New York, NY, January 21-23. Storage Computer has also released a free feature-limited version of the CyberNAS software called CyberNAS RED, which can be downloaded at www.storage.com.

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