InfoWorld Storage

& lt;!--paging_filter-- & gt; & lt;p & gt;Ever get the feeling that your backup system is behind the times? Do you read trade magazines and wonder if you & #039;re the only one still using an antiquated backup system? The first thing you should know is that you & #039;re not the only one. But your backup system could probably use some modernization. & lt;/p & gt;

& lt;!--paging_filter-- & gt; & lt;p & gt;Virtual appliances are great for the same reasons physical appliances took the IT world by storm: They make deployment a snap -- even instantaneous -- while at the same time reducing costs. It & #039;s a formula that made hardware-based appliances immensely popular for network security, backup, storage networking, file services, email, and many other single-focus solutions. & lt;/p & gt;

& lt;!--paging_filter-- & gt; & lt;p & gt;Hewlett-Packard has raised its offer for 3Par to $27 per share, outbidding Dell once more as the battle to acquire the California-based storage vendor continues. & lt;/p & gt; & lt;p & gt;The offer came just hours after & lt;a href= & quot;http://www.infoworld.com/d/the-industry-standard/dell-ups-offer-3par-16b-tops-hp-362 & quot; & gt;Dell raised its own bid to buy the company & lt;/a & gt;. Dell said Thursday morning that 3Par had accepted its raised offer, but the terms allowed HP to slip in with another bid. It & #039;s now done just that, putting the ball back in Dell & #039;s court. & lt;/p & gt;

& lt;!--paging_filter-- & gt; & lt;div style= & quot;padding: 8px; background: none no-repeat scroll center top #ffffff; position: relative; float: right; width: 243px; height: 182px; & quot; & gt; & lt;img src= & quot;http://www.infoworld.com/sites/infoworld.com/files/media/image/hewlett-packard_glass_hp.jpg & quot; alt= & quot;HP can & #039;t let 3Par get away & quot; width= & quot;243 & quot; height= & quot;182 & quot; align= & quot;right & quot; / & gt; & lt;/div & gt; & lt;p & gt;The & lt;a href= & quot;http://www.infoworld.com/d/the-industry-standard/dell-ups-offer-3par-16b-tops-hp-362 & quot; & gt;bidding war between Dell and HP & lt;/a & gt; over storage vendor 3Par may come as a surprise to the casual observer. & lt;/p & gt;

& lt;!--paging_filter-- & gt; & lt;p & gt;In just a few short years, storage virtualization, also known as block virtualization, has proven its worth in the large enterprise and traveled that well-worn path from pricey boutique solution to affordable commodity. As a standard feature in all but the most modest mid-tier storage systems, storage virtualization soothes a wide range of storage management woes for small and mid-size organizations. At the same time, dedicated solutions from top-tier vendors deliver the greatest ROI to large shops managing large SANs with intense data availability requirements. & lt;/p & gt;

& lt;!--paging_filter-- & gt; & lt;p & gt;3Par will open discussions with & lt;a href= & quot;http://www.infoworld.com/category/tags/hewlett-packard-hp & quot; target= & quot;_self & quot; & gt;Hewlett-Packard & lt;/a & gt; following that company & #039;s & lt;a href= & quot;http://www.infoworld.com/d/the-industry-standard/hp-offers-16-billion-3par-exceeding-dells-offer-864 & quot; target= & quot;_self & quot; & gt;unsolicited $1.6 billion cash bid & lt;/a & gt; for the data storage maker, which exceeded & lt;a href= & quot;http://www.infoworld.com/d/the-industry-standard/dell-buying-storage-virtualization-vendor-3par-12-billion-005 & quot; target= & quot;_self & quot; & gt;an earlier bid from Dell & lt;/a & gt;. & lt;/p & gt;

& lt;!--paging_filter-- & gt; & lt;p & gt;When faced with a storage capacity emergency, you almost always find yourself under enormous pressure to deploy a quick fix. & quot;That & #039;s OK, I & #039;ll fix it later, & quot; you tell yourself, only to live with the unfortunate consequences of your actions for years to come. I know -- it & #039;s happened to me. & lt;/p & gt;

& lt;!--paging_filter-- & gt; & lt;p & gt;After & lt;a href= & quot;http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9175690/Why_aren_t_SSDs_getting_cheaper_ & quot; target= & quot;_blank & quot; & gt;two years of inflated prices & lt;/a & gt;, NAND flash memory prices are expected to dip down to a key $1 per gigabyte level, according to a & lt;a href= & quot;http://www.isuppli.com/Memory-and-Storage/News/Pages/Will-1-Per-Gigabyte-NAND-Resuscitate-Solid-State-Drives.aspx & quot; target= & quot;_blank & quot; & gt;new report by research firm iSuppli & lt;/a & gt;. & lt;/p & gt;

& lt;!--paging_filter-- & gt; & lt;p & gt;Toshiba will detail a breakthrough in & lt;a href= & quot;http://infoworld.com/d/storage & quot; target= & quot;_self & quot; & gt;data storage & lt;/a & gt; later Wednesday that it says paves the way for & lt;a href= & quot;http://www.infoworld.com/t/drives-and-arrays & quot; target= & quot;_self & quot; & gt;hard drives & lt;/a & gt; with vastly higher capacity than today. & lt;/p & gt;

& lt;!--paging_filter-- & gt; & lt;p & gt;The fast-growing stores of information in many enterprises have made a variety of & lt;a href= & quot;http://www.infoworld.com/d/data-management & quot; target= & quot;_self & quot; & gt;data management & lt;/a & gt; tools necessary, but those many components are starting to come together. & lt;/p & gt;

& lt;!--paging_filter-- & gt; & lt;p & gt;Micron Technology today said it is shipping what it calls the fastest & lt;a href= & quot;http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9140456 & quot; target= & quot;_blank & quot; & gt;enterprise & lt;/a & gt;-class solid-state drive (SSD) on the market. The & lt;a href= & quot;http://www.micron.com/products/solid_state_storage/enterprise_ssd.html & quot; target= & quot;_blank & quot; & gt;RealSSD P300 & lt;/a & gt; is aimed at servers, storage arrays, and high-end workstations. & lt;/p & gt; & lt;p & gt;The SSD is available in 50GB, 100GB and 200GB capacities. & lt;/p & gt;

& lt;!--paging_filter-- & gt; & lt;p & gt;Toshiba on Tuesday introduced a new hard drive feature that can wipe out data after the & lt;a href= & quot;http://www.infoworld.com/d/storage & quot; target= & quot;_self & quot; & gt;storage & lt;/a & gt; devices are powered down. & lt;/p & gt; & lt;p & gt;The Wipe feature in Toshiba & #039;s SED (Self-Encrypting Drives) will allow for deletion of secure data prior to disposing or repurposing hard drives, Toshiba said in a statement. This feature prevents secure data from getting lost or stolen. & lt;/p & gt;

& lt;!--paging_filter-- & gt; & lt;p & gt;IT spending has shown some hefty recovery after the economic travails of previous years. According to research from IDC, global sales of software and hardware have recovered from the low point of the recession and, consequently, the analysis company has revised its spending forecasts for the year. & lt;/p & gt; & lt;p & gt;According to the research, services expenditure is set to rise two percent, software spending by four percent and hardware spending by a whopping 11 percent. IDC is projecting an overall increase in expenditure of six percent. & lt;/p & gt;

& lt;!--paging_filter-- & gt; & lt;p & gt;A new company founded by & lt;a href= & quot;http://www.pancetera.com/Team & quot; target= & quot;_blank & quot; & gt;former executives & lt;/a & gt; from data deduplication vendor Data Domain today announced they & #039;ve emerged from development with a new product aimed at simplifying the management of & lt;a href= & quot;http://www.infoworld.com/t/backup & quot; target= & quot;_self & quot; & gt;backups & lt;/a & gt; in virtual server environments. & lt;/p & gt;

& lt;!--paging_filter-- & gt; & lt;p & gt; & lt;a href= & quot;http://www.infoworld.com/t/ibm & quot; target= & quot;_self & quot; & gt;IBM & lt;/a & gt; on Thursday said it had agreed to acquire data compression technology company Storwize for an undisclosed sum. & lt;/p & gt; & lt;p & gt;The acquisition is expected to close in the third quarter of this year, IBM said in a release. & lt;/p & gt;

& lt;!--paging_filter-- & gt; & lt;p & gt;Data storage needs continue to grow unabated, straining backup and disaster recovery systems while requiring more online spindles, using more power, and generating more heat. No one expects a respite from this explosion in data growth. That leaves IT profession & amp;shy;als to search for technology solutions that can at least lighten the load. & lt;/p & gt;

& lt;!--paging_filter-- & gt; & lt;p & gt; & lt;a href= & quot;http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9138245/EMC_Update & quot; target= & quot;_blank & quot; & gt;EMC & lt;/a & gt; announced three new products, including a new midrange Data Domain deduplication appliance, a new disk archive system with deduplication for mainfames and a disk library series with arrays that scale from 8TB to 1.4PB. & lt;/p & gt; & lt;p & gt;EMC & #039;s new deduplication storage system, the Data Domain DD670, offers the fastest data compression to date with up to 5.4TB per hour of inline deduplication throughput. & lt;/p & gt;

& lt;!--paging_filter-- & gt; & lt;p & gt;Gripe Line reader Joan wrote in to warn readers about trusting important financial and business documents to Web storage services. & lt;/p & gt; & lt;p & gt; & quot;About a year ago, my business partner embezzled the remaining assets of a trucking company we founded together, & quot; Joan says. & quot;We had been storing our invoices and trucking contracts on a secure site using the & lt;a href= & quot;http://www.ureach.com/ & quot; target= & quot;_blank & quot; & gt;uReach & lt;/a & gt; virtual faxing service. & quot; & lt;/p & gt;

& lt;!--paging_filter-- & gt; & lt;p & gt;QNAP & #039;s iSCSI-enabled NAS solution is a perfect match for the growing small office, especially one expanding beyond the internal storage of a VMware or Windows Hyper-V virtualization server. Of course, no sub-$1,000 box is going to be as fast as an enterprise SAN, but the QNAP is a snap to set up (even the iSCSI), and it & #039;s packed with software bells and whistles. With a long list of features, QNAP add-ons, and QPKG community extensions available, the QNAP Turbo NAS is truly a jack-of-all-trades. & lt;/p & gt;

& lt;!--paging_filter-- & gt; & lt;p & gt; & lt;a href= & quot;http://www.infoworld.com/t/dell & quot; target= & quot;_self & quot; & gt;Dell & lt;/a & gt;announced that it plans to acquire Ocarina Networks, a maker of hardware and software designed to reduce the amount of & lt;a href= & quot;http://www.infoworld.com/d/storage & quot; target= & quot;_self & quot; & gt;storage & lt;/a & gt; capacity enterprises need, for an undisclosed sum. & lt;/p & gt;