Storage UPDATE, May 6, 2002

Storage UPDATE—brought to you by the Windows & .NET Magazine Network
http://www.storageadmin.com

THIS ISSUE SPONSORED BY

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(below COMMENTARY)

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May 6, 2002—In this issue:

1. COMMENTARY

2. NEWS AND VIEWS

3. ANNOUNCEMENTS

4. INSTANT POLL

5. RESOURCES

6. NEW AND IMPROVED

7. CONTACT US

1. COMMENTARY
(contributed by Elliot King, [email protected])

For years, the key buzzword in storage has been "more." As corporate data growth accelerated, storage administrators threw more hardware and software at the problem. As demand for storage capacity increased, the price for hardware and software fell, but the demand just grew further.

No sign indicates that data growth will abate anytime soon. In fact, with rich, new media becoming more commonplace, data growth should continue to accelerate. However, throwing more capacity at every problem is no longer the only response. Better use of existing capacity through storage-management software and storage consolidation has begun to top many storage administrators' agendas.

Several factors are fueling this trend. First, although storage hardware and software might be relatively inexpensive, managing the storage infrastructure isn't. Storage capacity has grown faster than the availability of experienced storage administrators. Consequently, although the initial price of hardware and software might look attractive, because IT staffing costs are high, both the total cost of ownership (TCO) and the long-term Return on Investment (ROI) are less appealing.

Second, enterprises are increasingly seeing their data as a corporate asset rather than merely a data-center asset. Companies are not only storing more data, which requires more backup capacity, but also archiving more data—and they must be able to access that data more quickly than ever before. To address their storage needs, companies are collocating storage infrastructure so that they can manage capacity from one center and setting up remote archival centers to ensure business continuity in the event of a disaster.

The pressure for storage consolidation has led library manufacturers to introduce enterprise-scale, automated-tape libraries with unprecedented capacity. Leading the charge is StorageTek (see URL below), which recently unveiled an automated-tape library with a mind-boggling total capacity of 13 petabytes (13PB) of storage. StorageTek has positioned its L5500 automated-tape library, with a total of 132,000 slots and 960 available drives, at the top end of its line.
http://www.storagetek.com

StorageTek developed such a huge tape-library system designed to work in an open-systems environment for a simple reason: Data continues to grow faster than tape capacity and data-transfer speeds. Large companies must be able to manage an ever-increasing number of tape cartridges. According to StorageTek officials, many of its midrange tape-library customers who use the company's L700e (which has a top capacity of 1340 slots and 40 drives) were clamoring for more capacity.

In addition to high-end, half-inch tape cartridges, the L5500 uses Linear Tape-Open (LTO) technology, which is making impressive gains in the midrange tape-library market. In late March, Gartner (see first URL below) reported that tape drives built using LTO technology out-shipped drives based on the more established Super DLTtape format (which Quantum developed) by more than two to one (see second URL below). IBM, Hewlett-Packard (HP), and Seagate Technology led an industry initiative to create an open industry-standard format for digital tape. The LTO format lets customers interchange tapes and drives from any manufacturer whose products adhere to the standard.
http://rss.seagate.com/newsinfo/newsreleases/srss_leads_2001_tape_drive_shipments_042302.html
http://www.dlttape.com

StorageTek is not alone in offering enterprise-class, automated-tape libraries. Both IBM (see first URL below) and Advanced Digital Information Corporation (ADIC—see second URL below) compete in that space. But the StorageTek announcement demonstrates that the industry is continuing to raise the bar for scalability and cost per slot.
http://www.storage.ibm.com/hardsoft/tape/3584/index.html
http://www.adic.com/us/scalar10k/overview/capacity.htm

The new automated-tape libraries also demonstrate the resiliency of tape as the medium of choice for backup and archival functions. Despite predictions of tape's demise, tape continues to outperform disk in backup and archival operations. According to Garter, using disks for backup costs many times more than using tape, and the capacity of optical media hasn't grown fast enough to be a viable contender. Large tape-library systems are currently the key to the storage consolidation that today's enterprises require. And, as StorageTek's L5500 demonstrates, storage vendors are using that window of opportunity well.

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2. NEWS AND VIEWS
(contributed by Keith Furman, [email protected])

Ushering in what the company calls a new era of "content-addressed storage" (CAS), EMC has launched its new EMC Centera storage architecture. The new architecture is designed to store unchanging data. This "fixed content" includes data such as electronic documents, digital images, and other multimedia (e.g., movies). According to a 1999 University of California at Berkeley survey, information doubles every year and more than 50 percent of all new digital information is fixed content.

EMC Centera systems store several terabytes of data and can scale up to petabytes of storage. Unlike EMC's other storage systems, which use higher-end, more expensive technology such as SCSI, the Centera storage systems use low-cost, PC-style ATA storage. Using ATA technology lets EMC offer the product at about two-thirds the cost of its top-end Symmetrix array.

EMC Centera is available immediately, and prices start at $204,700 for 5TB of protected storage (10TB of raw storage).
http://www.emc.com/products/systems/centera.jsp

Quantum has launched its new Guardian family of enterprise-class Network Attached Storage (NAS) products. The first product in the Guardian family is the Guardian 14000 NAS server. Quantum is well known for its family of low-cost workgroup-class Snap Servers.

A Linux-based OS powers the Guardian 14000, which provides multiplatform support for Microsoft, UNIX, and Macintosh environments. The NAS system also supports Microsoft Active Directory Service (ADS) and UNIX Network Information Service (NIS).

Available this summer, the Guardian 14000 supports RAID 5, RAID 1, RAID 0, hot-swappable and redundant disk drives, power supplies and cooling fans, and dual Gigabit Ethernet ports with load-balancing and failover capabilities. The system offers a raw capacity of 1.4TB in a 3U (5.25") configuration. Other enterprise features include Kerberos 5.0 authentication, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) 3.0, SNMP support, and embedded backup clients for major third-party backup software. The Guardian 14000 will cost $24,900.
http://www.quantum.com

3. ANNOUNCEMENTS

Which companies and products do you think are the best on the market? Nominate your favorites in four different categories for our annual Windows & .NET Magazine Reader's Choice Awards. You could win a T-shirt or a free Windows & .NET Magazine Super CD, just for submitting your ballot. Click here!
http://www.winnetmag.com/readerschoice

High-availability networks, systems, and applications are crucial to every business. Sign up for our free Webinar taking place on May 14 (sponsored by MKS), and find out how to achieve 24 x 7 availability on Windows 2000. Windows & .NET Magazine author Tim Huckaby shares his expertise on load balancing, monitoring, and more. Register today!
http://www.winnetmag.com/webinar/availability.cfm

4. INSTANT POLL

The voting has closed in Windows & .NET Magazine Network's Storage Admin Channel nonscientific Instant Poll for the question, "How concerned are you about SNMP's security vulnerabilities?" Here are the results (+/-2 percent) from the 59 votes.

The current Instant Poll question is, "What type of storage content are you most interested in?" Go to the Storage Admin Channel home page and submit your vote for a) New technologies and protocols, b) Hardware and software reviews, c) Management strategies, d) Backup and recovery, or e) Other.
http://www.storageadmin.com

5. RESOURCES

What aspects of storage management are most important to you? Backup and recovery? Microsoft Exchange Server storage? News about recent storage-related hardware or software? The most up-to-date protocols?

Windows & .NET Magazine's Storage Admin Channel has a new focus section: Storage Highlights. Look for regularly updated articles about a variety of storage topics, including management, products, technologies, and product-specific storage. While you're there, be sure to check out the discussion forums.
http://www.storageadmin.com

( contributed by John Savill, http://www.windows2000faq.com )

Q. How can I use Windows XP's NT Backup to back up files to CD-RW?

A. XP can write data to CD-RW, but not directly from NT Backup. However, you can place backup files in the XP CD-RW write subsystem's spooler, which effectively writes the data directly to CD-RW. To add files to the spooler, perform the following steps:

C:documents and settingsLocal SettingsApplication DataMicrosoftCD BurningBackup.bkf 

If you aren't sure what the variable needs to be, go to a command prompt and type

   echo %userprofile% 

to check your %userprofile% environment setting.

After you specify the location of your files in the CD-RW cache, right-click the "CD write" icon in Windows Explorer and select "Write these files to CD" to write the backup files to CD-RW.

Make sure the size of your backup doesn't exceed the capacity of your storage media.

6. NEW AND IMPROVED

(contributed by Carolyn Mascarenas, [email protected])

Procom Technology released NetFORCE 800, a file server for smaller data environments that can store as much as 1.28TB of data. The server features hardware-based RAID, a journal file system that lets you roll back changes to the file server in case of accidental deletion, and integration with Active Directory (AD). Pricing starts at 1.3 cents per megabyte. Contact Procom at 949-852-1000 or 800-800-8600.
http://www.procom.com

FIA Storage Systems Group released POPnetserver 4500, a Network Attached Storage (NAS) appliance with 640GB of storage capacity, Gigabit LAN, load balancing, dual LAN failover, and multiple RAID-volume support. The system also features four hot-swappable front-load removable drives, a 1GHz CPU, and 512MB of RAM and caching capability. POPnetserver 4500 is available in 480GB and 640GB models priced at $3499 and $4499, respectively. Contact FIA Storage Systems Group at 949-940-6565.
http://www.popnetserver.com

7. CONTACT US

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