April 24th, 2013 by Josh Shaman
Exablox Announces OneBlox NAS
Exablox has announced the release of their OneBlox scale-out NAS with SMB and CIFS network protocols that includes cloud-based management as well as features such as inline deduplication, zero-configuration expansion and continuous data protection. With OneBlox, Exablox is trying to eliminate long installation times, flaky security and upgrades that require lots of configurations and changes. Instead, OneBlox offers an initial 5 minute installation with upgrades essentially on-the-fly while offering automatic AES-256 encryption and a host of other enterprise features. Exablox designed OneBlox to gather the best features from existing devices on the market together with their own enhancements. All of this can be managed using a multi-tenant cloud-based management service from Exablox called OneSystem.
April 24th, 2013 by Josh Shaman
HP Announces StoreVirtual Storage Updates
HP has announced new and updated StoreVirtual models which are the third generation of LeftHand Storage products and are part of HP's Converged Storage. The new model is the blade-based HP StoreVirtual 4630 Storage while the HP StoreVirtual models 4330 and 4730 have been updated to include Fibre Channel connectivity for scalable storage supporting virtualization growth. The HP StoreVirtual Storage line is a software-only Virtual Storage Appliance (VSA) or a Converged Storage offering that runs on rack or blade-based HP ProLiant Generation 8 hardware. HP is also launching a software-defined storage unit that combines its VSA with the new D2220sb Storage Blade.
April 23rd, 2013 by Josh Shaman
WD Announces 5mm WD Blue HDDs and WD Black SSHDs
WD is announcing the shipment of the very first 2.5" hard drives and solid state hybrid drives (SSHDs) in an ultra-slim 5mm form factor that are being offered in a 500GB capacity. The WD Blue comes in an HDD version while the WD Black is the hybrid model. WD has produced both of these new drives to fit the strictest minimal-space applications. They are targeted at use cases that are constrained by the physical room that the drive can use as well as their requirement to have solid performance in the case of the Black SSHD.
April 22nd, 2013 by Josh Shaman
WD Announces WD Xe Enterprise Hard Drives
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WD is announcing the immediate shipment of its new WD Xe 2.5" 10K SAS hard drive targeting the enterprise market. WD Xe drives are designed for data servers to replace legacy storage that is nearing end-of-life, and with the adapter they won't require organizations to lose their existing investments' value by completely turning away from 3.5" form factors. The drives sport up to 67% lower power consumption than 3.5" 15,000 RPM drives while offering up to 50 higher capacity and similar or greater sequential performance. This means that enterprises can save on energy costs, reduce drives' footprints or cram more data into the same area, and do it all without sacrificing performance.
April 17th, 2013 by Josh Shaman
Mellanox Announces ConnectX-3 Pro Adapter Cards
Mellanox is announcing its ConnectX-3 Pro 10/40 gigabit Ethernet adapter cards with hardware offload engines that are the first interconnect cards to support overlay networks found in cloud environments including VXLAN and NVGRE. ConnectX-3 Pro cards enable cloud providers to build much larger-scale infrastructures without having to rely overly much on CPU overhead. This is made possible since the overlay technologies are implemented within the interconnect hardware itself. Being the first cards to support overlay networks, the Mellanox ConnextX-3 Pro offers the unique positioning of scaling applications and essentially unlimited tenants.
April 17th, 2013 by Josh Shaman
Kaminario Announces K2 Version 4 with All Flash
Kaminario is announcing the release of their K2 all-Flash storage array that is now in its fourth generation and provides top-level performance to medium-sized businesses. The Kaminario K2 v4 is based on SPEAR (Scale-Out Performance Storage Architecture), which means that not only do the systems benefit from scaling-up capacities, but also enhanced compute power. This architecture enables enterprises to increase their capacity without decreasing their IOPS and bandwith and without raising their systems' latency. This level of performance makes the Kaminario K2 v4 perfect for just about any workload or application.
April 17th, 2013 by Josh Shaman
Nimble Storage Announces Private Cloud Reference Architecture
Nimble Storage is announcing its new validated reference architecture called SmartStack for private cloud deployments on Microsoft’s technology which consists of a Nimble Storage CS200 Series 3U system, Cisco USC C-Series rack-mount server platform, Microsoft Windows Server 2012 with Hyper-V and Microsoft System Center 2012. Microsoft's private cloud Fast Track is a reference architecture for building private clouds that helps to deliver the starting point for the building using validated configurations. Nimble's SmartStack has been validated in the Fast Track reference architecture for use with up to 75 virtual machines, and it leverages Nimble's CS-Series flash-optimized hybrid design and Cisco's UCS platform.
April 16th, 2013 by Josh Shaman
WD Announces SmartWare Pro Software
WD unveiled their new SmartWare Pro software that enables users to easily back up files to any USB external hard drive or the cloud using their personal Dropbox. The software also provides users with the ability to restore or retrieve backed-up data. SmartWare Pro is compatible with popular WD products such as My Passport and Elements portable hard drives, NAS devices such as My Book Live, or other external storage devices. With the software installed, the setup is quick and easy, and from there the software presents external drives and Dropbox accounts in a unified control center for management.
April 16th, 2013 by Josh Shaman
HDS Announces Hitachi Data Instance Manager
Hitachi Data Systems announced its integrated Hitachi Data Instance Manager (HDIM) software that maps and enhances copies of data throughout the data lifecycle and is designed for midmarket and larger enterprises. With HDIM, businesses can form an information protection strategy that matches their company's use cases, as opposed to trying to fit within an existing strategy. HDIM streamlines and creates efficiency in backup, versioning, replication, dedupe, archiving and continuous data protection. Hitachi also announced that later in the year it will integrate HDIM with Hitachi Content Platform to enable better archiving, search and recovery, and improved data analysis.
Read moreApril 16th, 2013 by Josh Shaman
EMC Announces Updates to Data Domain
EMC is announcing updates to its EMC Data Domain deduplication storage systems and EMC SourceOne archiving software. Data Domain software helps to keep data recoverable and accessible within a budget. The new version of the EMC Data Domain software includes a load of updates including improved performance, wider support, and Oracle optimized deduplication. With these updates, EMC is also announcing its Data Domain systems are receiving updates to make them faster and increase their support. Meanwhile, EMC SourceOne 7's updates revolve around file, email, and Sharepoint archiving features.
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The Samsung SSD 840 is an entry-level consumer SSD and is the first to be made with TLC (Triple Level Cell) NAND. This differs from the MLC (Multi Level Cell) NAND used in every other consumer SSD. Up to this point, TLC NAND has only been used in less critical applications like USB thumb drives and memory cards, but its acceptance in the SSD space is emerging in large part because of the reduced cost of the NAND packages. Of course the tradeoff for the lowered price-point is endurance, but as consumers are coming to accept, most of them really don't write all that much data to their drives. The Samsung SSD 840 is built off of the same platform as the Samsung SSD 840 Pro with the Samsung MDX triple-core ARM 9 controller which is clocked at 300MHz and leverages Samsung's NAND and proprietary firmware.
The OWC Envoy Pro EX is a USB 3.0 bus-powered portable storage device that offers capacities up to 480GB and is pre-formatted and primarily designed for Apple systems, though PC users can reformat and use the drive as well. The OWC Envoy Pro is the bare unit, while the EX models add SSD storage using 
The WD My Passport Ultra, announced today, is a USB 3.0 portable storage device with capacities from 500GB up to 2TB that features local and cloud backups. The My Passport Ultra includes software for automatic backups to the host system or to the My Passport Ultra as well as the ability to use Dropbox to backup to the cloud. The Ultra, WD's latest My Passport iteration, also enables users to setup password protection and hardware encryption to keep data stored on the device secure from unauthorized access. Cosmetically-focused, the WD My Passport Ultra is available in four different colors (titanium, red, blue and black).
HP has been going through a transformation recently when it comes to the 
The Kingston MobileLite Wireless is the company's latest portable wireless storage device that ships without embedded storage and instead enables users to use memory cards (SD/SDHC/SDXC and microSD with included adapter) or USB flash drives to increase storage for tablets, phones and other mobile devices. MobileLite Wireless provides a battery life of up to 5 hours for playback and viewing files, and it conveniently charges over USB. The 5-hour life is 25% more than on the previous generation Wi-Drive portable wireless flash drive that Kingston continues to offer in 64GB and 128GB capacities. Uniquely, the MobileLite Wireless also offers the ability to serve as an emergency charger for mobile devices such as phones.
Newer Technology's miniStack MAX functions as an external storage device, optical drive, SD media card reader and USB hub simultaneously while matching the footprint and taking styling cues from the Mac Mini. This design makes it a great companion to the Mac Mini or any desktop or notebook. The miniStack MAX interfaces over USB 3.0, two Firewire 800 ports or an eSATA connection. The machine also features a USB hub with a total of three USB 3.0 ports, two of which have been designed to charge less power-hungry devices while one offers 2.1Amp power to charge tablets and other devices. The miniStack MAX is designed for backup and general storage as well as the needs of creative professionals.
