InfoWorld Storage

Storage start-up ParaScale is heading into general availability with software that aggregates disk storage on standard Linux servers to create pools of storage that can be used by cloud services providers and to build private clouds.

Solid-state drives based on flash memory are turning up in products from seemingly every hardware vendor these days, signaling that the technology may be inching closer to mass adoption.

Dell is set to update on Wednesday the virtualized storage line it acquired in its purchase of EqualLogic last year, now aiming at the needs of larger enterprises.

Hosting company The Planet has teamed up with Nirvanix to bundle widely available cloud storage with high-speed hosted capacity.

The world of low-rent key-value storage silos is exploding. Here's a list of some of the more prominent new projects:

So you've got some data to store. In the past, the answer was simple: Hook up an official database, pour the data into it, and let the machine sort everything out for you while you spend your time writing big checks to the database manufacturer. Now things aren't so cut and dry. A fresh round of exciting new tools is tacking the two letters "db" onto a pile of code that breaks with the traditional relational model. Old database administrators call them "toys" and hint at terrible dangers to come from the follies of these young whippersnappers. The whippersnappers just tune out the warnings because the new tools are good enough and fast enough for what they need.

Cisco#39;s biggest challenge in gaining market acceptance for its new Unified Computing System is to convince datacenter managers to buy blade servers from the router giant instead of from traditional, incumbent suppliers.

Oracle is set to release two highly anticipated products within the next several months -- Oracle Database 11g Release 2 and Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g -- company President Charles Phillips revealed during the vendor#39;s#160;third-quarter earnings call #160;Wednesday.

Oracle on Wednesday said its third-quarter revenues were $5.45 billion, a 2 percent hike, but net income fell 1 percent to $1.3 billion.

With a purchase of Sun Microsystems, IBM would eliminate its biggest competitor in the high-end tape storage systems market, gain middleware to help manage increasingly complex storage networks, and possibly get a leg up on new innovations in solid-state disk technology.

IBM and Sun Microsystems are said to be in acquisition talks, and if such a deal actually happens, it could change the course of not only IBM's but Oracle's and SAP's use of Java.br clear=both style=clear: both;/ br clear=both style=clear: both;/ a href=http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=f92d1476dc81e3979d7ca5e0c3428110p=1img alt= style=border: 0; border=0 src=http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=f92d1476dc81e3979d7ca5e0c3428110p=1//a

Cisco Systems just might be charting the course to a new way for IT to buy servers, storage, and networking hardware.br clear=both style=clear: both;/ br clear=both style=clear: both;/ a href=http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=6a943ddb3c7bbd1aae2c60f53c167e2dp=1img alt= style=border: 0; border=0 src=http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=6a943ddb3c7bbd1aae2c60f53c167e2dp=1//a

In keeping with the ongoing trend of IT cost-cutting, CA on Monday detailed new storage software that it claims reduces administration expenses while also improving data protection.br clear=both style=clear: both;/ br clear=both style=clear: both;/ a href=http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=09574dbd943edc71a175f5b90daf77d8p=1img alt= style=border: 0; border=0 src=http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=09574dbd943edc71a175f5b90daf77d8p=1//a

A startup called Cloudera on Monday publicly released its distribution of the open-source Hadoop distributed computing framework, hoping to sell enterprise users on the system employed by Google, Yahoo, and others to process large data sets.br clear=both style=clear: both;/ br clear=both style=clear: both;/ a href=http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=4fcefba2dc50776b8b3c67a791ba817bp=1img alt= style=border: 0; border=0 src=http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=4fcefba2dc50776b8b3c67a791ba817bp=1//a

Tough times call for tough measures. Layoffs and cutbacks are rampant. Even if your IT budget is relatively stable, you will probably be asked to do more with less.br clear=both style=clear: both;/ br clear=both style=clear: both;/ a href=http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=d283e0db01d6e7b2f1d8cb61c6aa9d85p=1img alt= style=border: 0; border=0 src=http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=d283e0db01d6e7b2f1d8cb61c6aa9d85p=1//a

Contrary to previous reports, Cisco#39;s datacenter vision does not seem to be a largely solo effort.br clear=both style=clear: both;/ br clear=both style=clear: both;/ a href=http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=69ac75b7a3666f2a9554ef447b9f4ad7p=1img alt= style=border: 0; border=0 src=http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=69ac75b7a3666f2a9554ef447b9f4ad7p=1//a

Pat Beemer, IT director for Seattle Lighting, has a lot of orphaned computer hardware and unused software licenses on his hands -- the result of what he calls quot;seriousquot; layoffs at the company.br clear=both style=clear: both;/ br clear=both style=clear: both;/ a href=http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=7ba73698e15425af7c2976d9695e14c1p=1img alt= style=border: 0; border=0 src=http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=7ba73698e15425af7c2976d9695e14c1p=1//a

Sun has laid out more of its plans for using solid-state drives in its servers, which it says will help customers to reduce energy costs and improve application performance in the datacenter.br clear=both style=clear: both;/ br clear=both style=clear: both;/ a href=http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=2c3137ff194cfee392304c52ffa17094p=1img alt= style=border: 0; border=0 src=http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=2c3137ff194cfee392304c52ffa17094p=1//a

Hewlett-Packard aims to cut the total cost of storage while allowing enterprises to keep adding capacity and forging ahead with virtualization projects in tough economic times.br clear=both style=clear: both;/ br clear=both style=clear: both;/ a href=http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=22c31b6befe00acfc5ac409054acd971p=1img alt= style=border: 0; border=0 src=http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=22c31b6befe00acfc5ac409054acd971p=1//a

Next week#39;s Microsoft Convergence conference in New Orleans will likely be light on new product announcements but heavy on talk about how the vendor#39;s ERP and CRM software can help companies adapt to change and save money in challenging economic times.br clear=both style=clear: both;/ br clear=both style=clear: both;/ a href=http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=06229d80e008cae71fe1c51aa7b6e6d1p=1img alt= style=border: 0; border=0 src=http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=06229d80e008cae71fe1c51aa7b6e6d1p=1//a