PRODUCT NEWS: V-locity 3 takes off for virtual disk duties

SAN storage area network schematic

Diskeeper takes wraps off V-locity 3 Virtual Platform Disk Optimizer

By ECM Plus staff

ECM Plus +++ Diskeeper has just released the latest version of V-locity 3 virtual platform disk optimizer for VMware, proffering invisible background optimisation for maximum I/O performance on virtual servers.

Gyron grows datacentre space with new 8MW Hemel facility

New high availability ‘Maylands’ secure data centre to open in New Year

By ECM Plus staff

ECM Plus +++ Gyron has just started work to bring online an additional data centre in Hemel Hempstead, in the South East of England.

According to the company, when open for customer occupation in Q1 2012, the new Maylands facility will complement the existing Centro facility, also in Hemel Hempstead, that was opened by the company in 2009.

Disaster recovery driving virtualization – survey

Virtualization: outsourced power

IT personnel not aware of hidden costs – including I/O bottlenecks

By ECM Plus staff

ECM Plus +++ A new survey by Coleman Parkes and commissioned by CA Technologies has found that downtime costs businesses more than 127 million man-hours per annum.

However, more that 30 percent of both VMware and Microsoft virtualisation users identified backing up VM data as a challenge, and also indentified storage management, I/O bottlenecks and server availability monitoring as major virtualisation challenges.

Oracle database disasters a thing of the past with Kroll’s recovery drive

Fried disk drive with burnt chips

Ontrack data recovery spins to the rescue

by ECM Plus staff

ECM Plus +++ Kroll Ontrack has taken the wraps off its latest Ontrack Data Recovery service for Oracle systems, which now includes popular virtual environments.

According to Kroll, recovery efforts can now be further complicated when databases are hosted inside virtual machines or in the cloud. 

Kroll Ontrack avows varied virtualisation systems

Kroll Ontrack now supports range of virtualised systems for data recovery

Media that has suffered a catastrophic electronic malfunction

ECM Plus – Kroll Ontrack has just confirmed it can now support virtualisation products from a range of other vendors, including Hyper-V, Oracle VM VirtualBox and Citrix XenServer, as well as VMware vSphere virtual systems.

The support will be via its in-lab and remote Ontrack Data Recovery services, the comany said.

British website speeds trounce Europeans in mobile retail report

Internet mobile and cloud monitoring firm tracks best and worst in wireless retailing performances

Mobile retailers across Europe performing vastly differently

ECM Plus – Monitoring firm Keynote says that mobile website performance of 17 of the top retailers across five countries shows widely varied perfomances.

According to the firm, consumers are looking to their mobile handsets as their first port of call when making an online purchase, while retailers, it says, are investing heavily in making sure that their mobile offerings meet this new demand.

DOC does smallest SSD on chip storage

The incredible shrinking drive

Foremay claims OC177 as world’s smallest SSD Disk on a chip – 32Gb and 64Gb for both IDE and SATA

By PAUL QUIGLEY

ECM Plus – Foremay has just introduced a disk-on-chip solid state hard drive into the OC177 SSD range featuring a tiny dimension of only 22 x 22 x 1.8 mm.

According to the company, the storage device is thin and light, yet robust and the disk chip is being marketed as DOC.

FEATURE: Key considerations for ‘cloudsourcing’ contracts – CAMM

Cloud computing sample architecture

BY JOHN WALKER

Economics dictates that the CEO, and CFO have a balancing act delivering security, and quality operational services, whilst at the same time, attempting to reduce the organisational and operational costs of delivering the business’ mission.

One opportunity in focus is that of ‘CloudSourcing’, where, depending on the size and type of business, they may be considering engaging in a contract in which part, or all, of their operations are placed into the hands of a Cloud Provider, be this SaaS, PaaS, IaaS or any other such ‘Anything-as-a-Service’ that may accommodate the operational model.

OnApp takes the wraps off latest cloud management software

Image: Samibu

OnApp 2.1 enables hosting providers to offer private cloud, extends cloud resource billing capabilities and KVM hypervisor support

BY PAUL QUIGLEY

ECM Plus – Cloud management software specialist OnApp has just launched its new Version 2.1 software for hosting providers, enabling cloud services without huge up-front costs.

According to the company, OnApp 2.1 has introduced features that make cloud hosting accessible to a wider range of hosts, with options for private clouds, cloud resource billing and resilience, and also KVM hypervisor support.

There is also a free 12-month trial of OnApp 2.1 for deployments of up to 100 CPU cores followed by a low monthly license fee, the company said.

OnApp’s managing director and chief architect Carlos Rego said: “In 2.1 we’ve made it easy for hosts to offer private clouds, as well as public, hybrid and VPS cloud offerings. We’ve expanded our hypervisor support, and introduced utility billing for IOPS. OnApp is the only cloud management tool designed specifically for hosts, and this release extends our leadership in this market.”

“The cloud hosting market is growing rapidly, and the window of opportunity is shrinking for hosters to take advantage of the low CPAs and high margins our customers are seeing today” Rego added. “Hosts have three basic choices when moving to the cloud. They can build their own management system, or try to customize a generic cloud framework: however, the time, cost and complexity of these approaches is usually prohibitive. The alternative is to use OnApp, and have a cloud up and running in as little as a day.”

OnApp 2.1’s feature include availability zones: hosts can now group cloud resources into zones that make it easy to offer private clouds to end users – one of the fastest growing segments of the cloud hosting market. This is also significant for small hosts that don’t always have the resources to build their own cloud. They can buy a private cloud from a larger host and use it to resell cloud hosting to their own customers. Zones also enable hosts to segment their datacenter infrastructure for added cloud resilience.

It also boasts IOPS billing: hosts can now monitor and charge for IOPS, as well as the utility billing for CPU core, CPU priority, disk space and network resources already supported. This improves control over cloud storage resources, and provides new options for cloud hosting service design.

KVM hypervisor support is also now included: OnApp 2.1 now supports hypervisors using KVM virtualization technology, which is increasingly popular in the hosting industry. OnApp already supports Xen hypervisors and will add support for VMware and Hyper-V in future releases. www.onapp.com.

Private cloud push as Platform proffers ISF2.1

Duke, the Java Mascot

Platform Computing announces industry’s most complete
application-centric software for private cloud management

BY PAUL QUIGLEY

ECM Plus – Platform Computing has just taken the wraps off its new ISF 2.1 software for private clouds.

According to the firm, the software can run multi-tier applications as well as providing IaaS infrastructure and PaaS platform middleware as services.

ISF 2.1 also uses what they call a ‘single cloud pane’ for cloud administrators and delegates with support for Hadoop, Jboss, Tomcat and WebSphere. 2.1 also has policy driven automation for high availability across multiple data centres.

“Adopting an open cloud management solution that supports flexibility and choice is critical” opined Jay Muelhoefer, vice president of enterprise marketing for Platform Computing. “ISF enables companies to benefit from the cloud, not stitch it together across multiple vendors like a systems integrator.”

Platform said ISF2.1 automates delivery of complex enterprise infrastructure and production applications across heterogeneous virtual, physical and public cloud resources.



Survey reveals private clouds rising fast

Platforms survey taps HPC cloud demand

HPC users experimenting with private and public clouds

BY PAUL QUIGLEY

ECM Plus – Sixty-two percent of high performance computing (HPC) users have experimented with private or public cloud, according to a new survey by Platform Computing.

Platform found that HPC users cited a number of ways they are evaluating private cloud infrastructure, including building so-called ‘shared infrastructures’ (36 percent) as well as bursting existing workloads (15 percent).

Users said they were also experimenting with offloading applications or workloads to run on public cloud infrastructure (23 percent).

“Until recently, HPC users have been sceptical of implementing HPC cloud environments due to potential performance issues stemming from virtualisation and the need for proper load balancing and fast compute times. The data we collected from delegates at this year’s Supercomputing Conference show that the tide is turning for private cloud within the HPC community. Our customers are also reflecting this trend with more beginning to explore capabilities that help them better manage workloads while keeping an eye on their costs,” said Randy Clark, CMO, Platform Computing.

Platform Computing surveyed 100 IT executives across research, government, education, manufacturing and other industries at the conference to determine why HPC organisations are evaluating cloud bursting solutions and their current and future plans for HPC cloud initiatives. Of those delegates already evaluating cloud strategies, 45 percent report a positive experience with using cloud bursting.

Among the reasons cited for HPC users to evaluate cloud bursting solutions were the following: the ability to have a more flexible infrastructure – 33 percent; the ability to provision resources more quickly – 15 percent; the ability to address problems that were previously difficult to solve – 12 percent; more cost-effective – 9 percent.

For those that had not yet evaluated cloud bursting, the survey also found that 26 percent said they intended to do so over the next 12 months.

HP grabs security firm to boost risk resources

ArcSight's Cupertino HQ

Acquisition to widen HP’s security portfolio, monitor real-time events and threats

ECMPlus – HP has today acquired ArcSight, the security and compliance management company, for $1.5 billion.

According to HP, ArcSight’s technology was superior to theirs and will now be ‘highly complementary’ with its existing security hardware and software.

Tom Reilly, President and CEO at ArcSight said: ‘By combining ArcSight’s Enterprise Threat and Risk Management Platform with HP’s breadth of application development and operations management solutions, HP will be able to offer an integrated security platform that delivers broader visibility, deeper context, and faster remediation of enterprise wide security and risk related events. In a world where perimeter security is no longer enough, businesses need this holistic approach to securing their networks, applications and sensitive data.”

---

HP KO’s Dell in 3Par cloud handbagging

Cloud sourcing

Phyrric victory as $33 per share bid doubling on original offer for storage minnow outstretches Dell

ECM Plus – BY PAUL QUIGLEY — The compelling desire to do cloud has just seen HP overbid by a country mile for a small unprofitable data storage company with big ambitions.

Now, it would appear that Dell decided to walk after a relatively short struggle for supremacy. HP now has the lofty challenge of integrating the smaller firm into its wider virtualization and cloud-orientated lines-of-business which will doubtless take the largest US computer manufacturer quite some time to achieve in time for serious cloud-based investment from clients.

The hunger for cloud is set to hot up later this year with industry chatter of other storage business up for grabs and the digital cumulus nimbus craze continues. Watch this space.

3Par tug-of-war not over until fat lady sings

HP back for more

Squabble turned tiff spiralling into boardroom bun-fight

by Paul Quigley

ECMPlus — Just when you thought it was safe to assume Michael Dell’s boys had won the day in the tug-o-war love tussle against Hewlett-Packard, it has been reported that HP is not done yet.

According to sources close to California-based storage bellwether 3Par, which has yet to make a profit, the deal with Dell has been put on ice once more as the new suitor gets another go to match the $2 billion valuation the unprofirable storage firm can now command. While other data storage players such as Compellent are already strong in the space, they are currently not open to outside buyout offers, hence the interest in 3Par, as is had indicated it was ‘available’ a Dell source said on Friday last. If HP does manage to pip Dell at the post, the upshot for the loser will be uncertain as PC sales worldwide decline and the move to cloud-based storage increases exponentially. In a recent report on data storage by GRC Analytics, the market for data storage in private and public cloud is set to top $10 billion by 2012.

Avid unveils ISIS 5000 for media shared storage

Improves allocation of creative resources, streamlines admin

ECMPlus – Avid has just taken the wraps off the new Avid ISIS 5000 open shared storage solution to store, share and manage large quantities of digital media assets.

According to the company, customers can also improve allocation of creative resources and support changing project needs with an open shared storage platform that offers access to high-performance ISIS File System technology on lower cost hardware, support for third-party applications and streamlined administration to create more content more affordably.

Ian Burling, head of technical services at Films at 59 Ltd., a post-production house in England, beta tested the new Avid ISIS 5000. “Our clients use a variety of editing systems, so in order to meet their needs, flexibility is a number one priority for us. We were looking for a solution that would allow us to consolidate high and low resolution clients and move media with greater agility and ease. We are extremely impressed by how well the ISIS 5000 has tested. It’s proven to be a flexible, easy-to-use, high-performance standard-bearer—great for post production houses like us that need to integrate third-party editing systems such as Apple Final Cut Pro to handle a variety of workflows.”

ISIS 5000 is designed to address the specific needs of workgroups requiring 40 or fewer client connections and looking for greater flexibility to accommodate ongoing changes and new business opportunities, the ISIS 5000 shared storage solution is fully tested and qualified with Apple Final Cut Pro, as well as support for an end-to-end Avid workflow. Major features include:

• The ISIS file system: Enhances collaborative workflows by delivering centralized media access with guaranteed real-time performance—optimized for digital media file sharing. As a result of Avid’s industry-leading ISIS File System running on lower cost hardware, an enterprise-class, workflow-enabling shared storage technology is now available to organizations for which this level of capability was previously out of reach.
• The ISIS 5000 engine: Offers the ability to cost-effectively create compelling content by increasing the capacity to handle more projects and content in both SD and HD.
• Support for Avid and Apple Final Cut Pro editing systems: Enables customers to work with a variety of project workflows and leverage existing investments–as a result of an open architecture.
• Ethernet connectivity: Delivers high-performance networking that is more cost-effective to acquire, scale and support.
• FlexDrive: Enables customers to respond to changing project requirements and new business opportunities by allowing storage to be resized in real time without interrupting operations.
• Streamlined administration: Reduces overhead with easy set-up, user and storage management, monitoring and diagnostics powered by the intuitive ISIS Management console. Customers can also support a growing business by easily incorporating additional switches and clients without sacrificing performance. 

ISIS 5000 is available from July 2010 in a 32TB or 64TB switched configuration, or a 32TB Direct Connect configuration that offers four direct client connections and the ability to add a third party switch. All configurations support Mac or PC clients and include 40 seat licenses with either one or three years of Avid Priority or Avid Uptime Support.

Welcome to ECM Plus

Enterprise content management, document management, knowledge management, digital asset management, compliance, governance, rich media management, web content management, it’s all here..