April 12th, 2013 by Brian Beeler
Dell EqualLogic Family Hands-On
We recently spent a few days at the Dell EqualLogic headquarters in Nashua, NH to experience a deep dive on the EqualLogic family, management software and performance capabilities of the arrays. The EqualLogic full-immersion treatment was to prepare us for the latest generation EqualLogic PS6110 array to hit our lab for full review in the coming weeks. We split time between detailed briefings on features like Linux management and VMware integration and several hours of in-lab time working hands on with the entire PS (peer storage) family ranging from the entry-level PS4110 to the full-on PS6110 hybrid array that combines flash storage with 15K hard drives.
April 10th, 2013 by Josh Shaman
NetApp and Cisco Announce Updates and Validation for FlexPod
NetApp and Cisco's joint converged infrastructure system called FlexPod is one of the first validated solutions for Windows Server 2012 and System Center 2012 SP1, and it now features a lot of technological updates. Those updates are significant and include: more advanced switching capability, an update to the platform, and 8 new reference architectures - 4 of which are designed for Oracle workloads. FlexPod's Microsoft validation and new Oracle workload-oriented architectures demonstrate NetApp's commitment to deepening their integration. Furthermore, the FlexPod enhancements build on the trend of many enterprise users shifting their datacenters toward implementing converged infrastructures.
April 9th, 2013 by Josh Shaman
Micron M500 Enterprise SSD Review
The Micron M500 is part of the new SSD family created by Micron and Crucial geared toward personal storage applications with the Micron M500 slotted as an enterprise-class SSD that ranges in capacities up to a robust 960GB, uses 20nm MLC NAND, a Marvell controller, interfaces over SATA 6Gb/s, and features a slim 7mm drive height. The Micron-branded M500 is also targeted at Cloud and Web 2.0 segment. As we mention in our review of the near-identical consumer-oriented Crucial M500, the Micron brand is established and is known for its long-term reliability and its compatibility. Adding to that is the robust capacity and value offered by Micron. On that note, while Crucial's M500 offers top capacity in the consumer-market, there are existing enterprise SSDs that meet and exceed 1TB. Yet, what Micron brings to the table is affordability. While other drives might range up to $4,000, the Micron M500 960GB comes in low at less than a quarter of the price.
April 9th, 2013 by Josh Shaman
Nimble Storage Announces InfoSight
Nimble Storage announced InfoSight which is a new set of services for Nimble's storage arrays which utilize the cloud and deep data to streamline activities. The InfoSight data collection engine securely gathers data every five minutes, which comes to a total of 30 million sensor values per array daily. InfoSight analyzes that data so that users can not only monitor their arrays and check reports, but also forecast their future storage needs. This new InfoSight system is being announced in conjunction with an online community forum called NimbleConnect. NimbleConnect offers a wide range of articles and posts about best practices, while also putting peers in contact with one another to bounce ideas about improving their systems' performance capabilities.
April 9th, 2013 by Josh Shaman
LenovoEMC Announces New Network Video Recorders
LenovoEMC is announcing their new line of high performance network video recorders (NVRs) that feature expanded surveillance with high performance in capturing, sharing and storing digital video files. The new line of NVRs is designed for use in SMBs that utilize under 20 IP cameras and have an existing network of surveillance or are upgrading from their analog-based systems. Analog users can optionally continue using their system by adding a PCIe accessory to utilize that existing network. The system is easy to get going with automated setup that should have most users up and running in minutes. All of the new NVRs also include Milestone Arcus multi-platform video management software (VMS).
April 9th, 2013 by Josh Shaman
Bocada Announces Prism 8.0
Bocada is announcing updates to their Prism software which enables users to utilize a single console to comprehensively obtain reports and analysis on backup, replication and snapshot functions. Bocada Prism 8.0 features significant enhancements and added support compared to previous versions of the software. Prism 8.0 has new and enhanced reports, architectural updates, and support for Commvault Simpana 9, IBM TSM 6.3 and 6.4, and EMC Networker 8.0. Prism 8.0 also adds support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 10. Bocada has also reworked and improved plug-ins that cooperate with virtual environments.
April 9th, 2013 by Josh Shaman
HGST Announces 12Gb/s SAS SSD
HGST is announcing a summer release for their new 12Gb/s MLC SAS SSD family, the first 12Gb/s SAS SSDs on the market. Three models comprise the new line including the Ultrastar SSD800MH, Ultrastar SSD800MM and Ultrastar SSD1000MR. The new SAS SSDs utilize co-developed Intel/HGST controllers as well as high endurance 25nm MLC NAND. HGST designed these new drives for the most performance demanding applications such as high-frequency trading, online banking, cloud computing, online gaming, and big data analytics. These applications will benefit from hot caching delivered by the new 12Gb/s SAS SSDs.
April 8th, 2013 by Josh Shaman
AC&NC Announces JetStor 712U Unified Storage Systems
AC&NC announced the JetStor 712U suite of ZFS-based unified storage systems that can function simultaneously both as NAS and SAN and are designed for SMBs. These systems support both SAS and SATA drives so that businesses can achieve performance and capacity to meet the needs of archiving and application speeds. These 12-bay 2U Jetstor platforms offer real-time data compression, thin provisioning and block-level data deduplication which takes place in the cache. The devices are designed to be a truly unified storage system and as such offer lots of compatibility. The JetStor 712U work with both clients and servers in VMware, Windows, UNIX, Mac, Novell or even mixed environments. They also support several protocols (Windows CIFS, NFS, AFP, FTP, WebDAV, iSCSI) which helps users to reduce costs - a significant factor for budget-conscious SMBs who don't want to purchase servers for each protocol.
April 8th, 2013 by Josh Shaman
Promise Technology Announces VTrak A-Class
Promise Technology announced its new turnkey SAN storage device, the VTrak A-Class designed to be used by creative professionals in storage-intensive applications such as post-production, broadcast, data asset management and archiving. Multiple clients running a variety of operating systems (Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux) can access a shared SAN over Fibre Channel. To meet the needs of users who want to integrate their storage devices using a simple system, the idea behind the VTrak A-Class is that users won't have to buy a separate RAID subsytem, servers and storage devices. Instead, users can easily deploy the VTrak A-Class.
April 8th, 2013 by Josh Shaman
LSI Announces MegaRAID Part of Intel RAID Line
LSI announced an expansion of their OEM relationship with Intel that will make LSI's Nytro MegaRAID PCIe flash adapter techonology built on LSI SandForce Flash Storage Processors available as part of Intel's RAID product line. This news is being announced on the heels of flash technology picking up pace at an increasingly fast rate in the enterprise server market. This paradigm shift relates to customers' desire to retain their existing HDD and DAS infrastructure and thus investment while still creating and operating within an integrated single architecture. Flash based solutions enable "hot" data caching to increase overall system performance.
The StarTech 2636 cabinet is a 15U server rack that ships fully assembled and is ready to go right out of the box. The growing rack space requirements of the 
The SAS 616iSD 10G is part of an extensive line of block-level storage arrays offered by JetStor. The iSCSI 616iSD offers up to 48TB of storage via 16 3.5" bays in a 3U enclosure. JetStor features dual redundant active/active RAID controllers and four 10GbE ports, two per controller. Each controller is powered by an Intel IOP342 64-bit Chevelon dual-core storage processor, and includes features like parity-assist ASIC, iSCSI-assist engine and TCP Offload Engine (TOE). Should 48TB prove insufficient, the 616iSD can be expanded with four JBOD shelves (SAS716J) for a maximum capacity of 240TB per array.
The Mellanox SX1036 is a 1U managed Ethernet switch that provides up to 2.88Tb/s of non-blocking throughput via 36 40Gb/s QSFP ports that can be broken out to achieve up to 64 10Gb/s ports or offer a mixture of 40Gb/s and 10Gb/s connectivity. As a backbone to the .jpg)
The Lenovo ThinkServer RD630 represents a calculated entry into the server market: an affordable server with specifications that support database applications and virtualized infrastructure. The RD630 was announced earlier this year as part of an initiative to expand the ThinkServer brand into enterprise cloud and virtualization deployments. It is a scalable 2U rack server solution featuring hardware RAID and eight to sixteen 2.5-inch hot-swap SAS or SATA drives. Powering the ThinkServer is the Intel Xeon E5-2600 processor family with the Intel C602 Chipset. New products like the RD630 are positioning Lenovo to take on other OEMs like Dell and HP that already operate in the enterprise server market.
Eaton’s Advanced Monitored family of ePDUs are designed to allow administrators to remotely monitor the power usage of individual outlets or sections over the network. Out-of-the-box web monitoring is built into the ePDU, and SNMP allows integration with third-party management systems. The eAM001 Advanced Monitored ePDU brings 20 C13 outlets and 4 C19 outlets to the 
