This week, Storage Expo hits London's Olympia exhibition centre, bringing with it announcements about the latest technology and partnerships in the world of storage.
IT PRO is on the ground for both days, bringing you all you need to know from the show floor, keynotes and more.
See below for a round up of Storage Expo news, and check back for more as it happens.
Hitachi unveils next-gen mid-range storage
Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) has launched the Adaptable Modular Storage (AMS) 2000 series, it's next-generation of mid-range storage.
The new series offers four times the performance of previous versions. The three models the 2100, 2300 and 2500 all offer 99.999 per cent uptime, HDS claimed. They feature what HDS claims is the industry's first 3Gb/s serial attached SCSI (SAS) backplane for a midrange platform, as well as a "spin down, spin up" power efficiency feature, which turns drives off when they're not being accessed for an application. Additionally, the series is virtualisation-friendly.
John Mansfield, SVP of global storage solutions strategy and development at HDS, said: "In the face of dwindling IT budgets and high energy costs, this is a very powerful value proposition that will enable Hitachi Data Systems to accelerate its penetration into the midrange storage market."
Survey: UK businesses need green IT
Despite 60 per cent of UK businesses feeling pressure to reduce their carbon emissions, some 67 per cent do not know how much power their data centre uses and nearly half don't make staff shut down computers overnight, according to a new survey released by Zycko at Storage Expo.
But seven out of ten have taken some green moves, including using video conferencing instead of traveling and encouraging remote working.
David Galton-Fenzi, Zycko's group sales director, said: "The fact that almost two thirds of businesses are committed to improving their green credentials shows how far we have come over the past few years, and demonstrates a real shift in attitudes towards climate change and the environment. This is a very positive sign."
ATTO to ship next-gen SAS tech in 30 days
ATTO Technology is set to ship its 6GB SAS/SATA host interface within the next thirty days for certification, the firm announced at Storage Expo, where the tech will be on display.
ATTO claimed the system offers the fastest available connect to such storage in Windows, Mac or Linux environments.
"ATTO is excited to offer the highest-performing SAS/SATA host adapters in the market with our next generation 6-Gb ExpressSAS products," said Tim Klein, president of ATTO Technology.
StorMagic and Boston partner to take on Europe with Igloo
StorMagic and Boston have announced a new partnership, which will see the iSCSI SAN software developer and the server and storage builder look to expand in Europe.
The pair unveiled their Boston Igloo 24T-StorMagic IP SAN at Storage Expo today. The storage area network solution offers a single interface to manage 24 terabytes of capacity, the firms claimed. "Today end users want to focus their resources on core activities and managing storage simply is not one of them," said Manoj Nayee, managing director of Boston. The Boston Igloo 24T-StorMagic SAN is available immediately from 9,999.
NetApp claims first to support native FCoE storage
NetApp is today claiming it is the first storage vendor to support native Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) SAN systems. The FCoE standard recently moved from development phase to review phase under the T11 standard.
John Rollason, solutions marketing manager for EMEA at NetApp, said:"Enterprise companies today are looking to transition to a converged data centre and FCoE is going to play a big part in that move. With companies keeping a closer eye than ever on their IT budgets, data centre convergence will enable them to reduce their costs and power requirements. As a leader in FCoE, NetApp will be at the forefront in helping customers realise the benefits of a more streamlined and efficient data centre."
NetApp also announced its support of the Cisco Nexus 5020 switch, which is available next month.
Hitachi Data Systems partners with Mimosa on email
Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) and Mimosa Systems have teamed up to create a next-gen email archiving system, by pairing the former's Content Archive Platform with the latter's NearPoint content archive. The solution is non-intrusive with no footprint on Exchange servers, the pair claimed.
"This joint solution is a response to a clear need in the marketplace," said Sean Moser, HDS vice president of software products. "The use of messaging products such as Microsoft Exchange in business environments has seen significant growth in recent years, with both the size and volume of emails increasing at unprecedented rates."
He added: "The sheer volume of this information places an incredible strain on a business's messaging and storage infrastructure and the combination of the Hitachi Content Archive Platform and Mimosa NearPoint will help reduce the challenges of email management, now a mission-critical part of the IT infrastructure."
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Check back for more as the show continues...
