Legato shores up portfolio with OTG acquisition
Legato Systems says its planned acquisition of OTG Software, a developer of data storage, data access, and e-mail management software, will result in tangible benefits for end users as early as next quarter. The combined company will reportedly unveil a detailed integration plan and product road map at the close of the deal, which could be as early as May.
Intel ships iSCSI host adapter
Next month, Intel is expected to begin shipments of a Gigabit Ethernet adapter that is optimized for iSCSI storage applications, enabling the creation of IP-based storage area networks (SANs). According to International Data Corp., the iSCSI market is expected to ramp up later this year, growing to almost $2.5 billion by 2005. Eventually, iSCSI is expected to provide an alternative to Fibre Channel at the low end of the SAN market.
Netreon addresses low-cost SAN management
Recently spun off from parent corporation Peerless Systems, Netreon is eyeing the midrange storage area network (SAN) market--a segment it claims has not been serviced by more-established SAN management software vendors.
StorageNetworks bets on software
StorageNetworks put another feather in its software and services cap with a contract win from IT services company EDS, but it also hopes the contract will make a strong impact on the network storage management software market.
Software turns PC servers into NAS
One-year-old San Francisco-based Mountain View Data (MVD) has created a software kit that allows OEMs to turn a standard PC server into a network-attached storage (NAS) appliance that supports Windows, Unix, and Macintosh files in addition to offering high-end features such as snapshots
New Products
Inrange Technologies recently began a "controlled introduction" of a 256-port Fibre Channel director-class switch, which is part of the company's IN-VSN FC/9000 family
New optical drive, media boost capacity
Within the next quarter, TDK will ship a 2GB CD-RW burner with a custom MultiLevel (ML) integrated circuit (IC) built into the drive
Network storage options: FC vs. IP
This year, IP will emerge as an alternative to Fibre Channel for building storage area networks, presenting end users with new options
NDMP acceptance growing
The Network Data Management Protocol (NDMP) is expected to gain a stronger foothold in the end-user community as several vendors plan to ship products compliant with the latest Version 4.0 specification over the next quarter
Make way for the Serial ATA interface
The new disk drive interface is designed for PCs as well as low-end servers and network-attached storage file servers
Holographic storage on the horizon
The race is on to commercialize holographic data storage technology. However, products may still be a few years away
Former SSPs target backup/recovery
While storage service providers (SSPs) have shrugged off the SSP business model and label, they are focusing on backup-and-recovery services, which provide one-half to two-thirds of all SSP revenue, according to Adam Couture, senior analyst at the Gartner Inc. consulting firm, in San Jose, CA
Early adopters make the case for virtualization
Despite a strong push by nearly a dozen vendors to promote the technology and an almost year-long media/analyst campaign to educate users about its varied benefits, storage virtualization has yet to gain a solid footing in the IT community
Business Briefs
<b>Vixel</b> and <b>BlueArc</b> have signed an OEM agreement, whereby BlueArc's Si7500 Storage System will incorporate Vixel's Fibre Channel switches to provide high-speed connectivity and path redundancy between servers and storage arrays