In the past 2 months, I've been in the R&D and had the chance to do my own evaluation on some of the major players in the data deduplication industry -- EMC's Avamar, EMC's new acquisition DataDomain and Symantec's NetBackup PureDisk. These products have been in the market for sometime and have proven their strengths in data deduplication in their very own rights.
Our major problem is the short backup window and the ever increasing data that needs to be backed up. To shorten our backup time we tried several solutions -- from deploying more Netbackup Media servers, to using 1GB backup network, to dumping data to SATA disks then scraping them later to tape. With the maturity of deduplication technology and the competitive price that each product has to offer, I start to look into this side of data management.
.... to be continued
JonQBX
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Friday, August 21, 2009
EMC Gets Serious About Small Business Storage
EMC Gets Serious About Small Business Storage
By Drew Robb
August 18, 2009
Over the last five years, many companies have proclaimed their SMB-friendliness through various press releases, conferences and new product lines. Yet when you looked closely, you’d usually find a catch such as “prices starting at $50,000.” These firms were dumbing-down their high-end gear and calling it a small business version – though typically at a big business price. Fortunately, those days are largely behind us, and the enterprise storage world appears to be finally coming to grips with the needs of smaller, more nimble operations.
This became clear at EMC World this year. A few years back, EMC was one of the main culprits. One of its sales people did a presentation that tried to put the square peg of enterprise storage into the round hole of small business. This year, though, they got it right: an entire line of tiny portable hard drives and inexpensive Network Attached Storage (NAS) boxes, as well as a wider range of online backup services.
Many of these devices were fairly dinky in the past, but now the market is gravitating toward larger devices that SMBs can make full use of.
“While the overall market is maturing, growth is shifting toward higher-capacity models,” said Joyce Putscher, an analyst at IT research firm In-Stat. “The 1.5TB+ segment is forecast to see the highest growth, exceeding 100 percent annual growth.”
Iomega is the best known of its new conquests. Part of the EMC fold for just over a year now, it is famous for the Zip Drives that were considered state-of-the-art a decade ago. Now the company has a range of consumer and SMB drives and NAS appliances that are tailored to small business.
“One of our goals is to take the technology that EMC has developed to solve security and data storage needs and channel it to consumer and small business customers at the right price point and in a manner they can adopt,” said Jonathan Huberman, president of Iomega. “Our customers generally don’t have sophisticated IT resources.”
For instance, Iomega has harnessed EMC LifeLine NAS software in conjunction with the Linux operating system in a line of StorCenter network storage appliances. The Iomega StorCenter Pro ix4-100 is a NAS box that a small business can get up and running with four clicks of the mouse once it is plugged in. It provides up to 4TB of capacity and includes anti-virus and encryption software. The 2 TB version costs $800 and the 4 TB unit costs $1,300 (a smaller StorCenter ix2 provides 1 TB for $300). These units support PC, Mac and Linux desktops and laptops.
"The ix4 features the EMC LifeLine operating system, and it incorporates other EMC storage technologies used by the world's largest organizations,” said Huberman.
The ix4-100 can also accommodate up to three video cameras for video-capture purposes and includes EMC Retrospect backup software. A backup schedule is established during set up, and it automatically backs up new data. Further, a rack-mountable version of the StorCenter is available for SMBs that already own a rack to house multiple servers. The StorCenter Pro ix4-200r can hold up to 4 TB at a price of $2,800. The ix2 can deal with about 50 users while the ix4 can accommodate 100 or more.
Huberman explained that EMC’s traditional lower-end storage product pricing bottoms out around $10,000, whereas Iomega products typically don’t range higher than $3,000 and offer no more than 6 TB of space. “If your business needs EMC disk arrays, you can’t get away with one of our units,” said Huberman. “But if you really don’t require that level of sophistication, we offer plenty of options.”
For instance, if a business cannot afford any downtime and calls for very high performance, an EMC box would be required, he said. But if you can live with a few hours of downtime to replace a spare part, an Iomega machine would fit well.
At the low end of the Iomega line come a series of eGo portable hard drives that are super simple to use. You plug it into the USB-port of your computer – just like a thumb drive – in seconds it recognizes the system and is ready for use. These are available in four colors with up to 500 GB of capacity. The dimensions are half an inch thick, 5.375 inches long and 3.5 inches wide, and it weighs in at seven ounces.
While these see devices heavy use in the consumer market, they are also popular among professionals who want to take their data on the road with them. They can be looked upon as a more robust repository compared to thumb drives, which are relatively flaky and not to be trusted with backups, for example. They come with McAfee VirusScan Plus anti-virus software (six months free) included, and they can survive a drop of 51 inches without failing.
This is quite important. A WD drive of mine (containing everything I’d written throughout my career) was knocked off a table at a hotel, which resulted in a catastrophic failure. Despite the best efforts of Western Digital, absolutely nothing could be recovered despite the efforts of an outside data-recovery firm.
The eGo comes in three sizes: 250 GB, 320 GB and 500 GB. It’s protected by a series of backup programs such as: Iomega QuickProtect for simple backup of files; EMC Retrospect for backup of data, applications and settings; and Mozy for online backup – 2 GB available for free.
Pricing starts at $85 for 250 GB, $95 for 320 GB and $135 for 500 GB. In addition, a BlackBelt eGo provides 500 GB as well as the ability to survive a fall of seven feet for $140.
“If your laptop doesn’t put out enough power to run the eGO device via its USB port, we have a double port version that solves this issue,” said Huberman. “eGo is used by consumers, SMBs and individuals in large enterprises.”
Mozy Pro costs $3.95 per desktop per month and 50 cents per gigabyte, with servers costing $5.95 per server per month plus 50 cents per GB. A 2-GB home version is available for free.
Integration with EMC Retrospect backup software is ongoing. Mozy Home already has it and Mozy Pro will shortly. That will let companies use Mozy for online backup and also make a local backup copy using Retrospect. Better data encryption has also been added. “Mozy Pro removes 75 percent of the cost of backup for SMBs,” said Fairbanks. “For businesses using the Mac, a Mac Pro version will be launched in the fall.”
In addition, more Decho services should be made available by the end of this year, though no one is saying exactly what these are. Iomega and Decho are partnering, which should result in combined offerings in the near future.
“As the economy deteriorated in late 2008, the pace of digital information created and transmitted actually increased,” said John Gantz, an analyst at IDC.
He predicts a doubling of the digital universe every 18 months. Small businesses need to plan ahead to provide enough capacity in their storage environments and to supply their employees with additional storage devices.
Drew Robb is a Los Angeles-based freelancer specializing in technology and engineering. Originally from Scotland, he graduated with a degree in geology from Glasgow's Strathclyde University. In recent years he has authored hundreds of articles as well as the book, Server Disk Management by CRC Press.
By Drew Robb
August 18, 2009
Over the last five years, many companies have proclaimed their SMB-friendliness through various press releases, conferences and new product lines. Yet when you looked closely, you’d usually find a catch such as “prices starting at $50,000.” These firms were dumbing-down their high-end gear and calling it a small business version – though typically at a big business price. Fortunately, those days are largely behind us, and the enterprise storage world appears to be finally coming to grips with the needs of smaller, more nimble operations.
This became clear at EMC World this year. A few years back, EMC was one of the main culprits. One of its sales people did a presentation that tried to put the square peg of enterprise storage into the round hole of small business. This year, though, they got it right: an entire line of tiny portable hard drives and inexpensive Network Attached Storage (NAS) boxes, as well as a wider range of online backup services.
Many of these devices were fairly dinky in the past, but now the market is gravitating toward larger devices that SMBs can make full use of.
“While the overall market is maturing, growth is shifting toward higher-capacity models,” said Joyce Putscher, an analyst at IT research firm In-Stat. “The 1.5TB+ segment is forecast to see the highest growth, exceeding 100 percent annual growth.”
Iomega
Instead of trying to move its heavy-duty storage arrays down to the masses, EMC has engaged in a couple of smart acquisitions in order to inherit great technology that is ready for small businesses. It is now developing products specifically for consumers and small businesses using both the resources of recent acquisitions, as well as the R&D might of EMC ($1.7 billion a year on R&D alone).Iomega is the best known of its new conquests. Part of the EMC fold for just over a year now, it is famous for the Zip Drives that were considered state-of-the-art a decade ago. Now the company has a range of consumer and SMB drives and NAS appliances that are tailored to small business.
“One of our goals is to take the technology that EMC has developed to solve security and data storage needs and channel it to consumer and small business customers at the right price point and in a manner they can adopt,” said Jonathan Huberman, president of Iomega. “Our customers generally don’t have sophisticated IT resources.”
For instance, Iomega has harnessed EMC LifeLine NAS software in conjunction with the Linux operating system in a line of StorCenter network storage appliances. The Iomega StorCenter Pro ix4-100 is a NAS box that a small business can get up and running with four clicks of the mouse once it is plugged in. It provides up to 4TB of capacity and includes anti-virus and encryption software. The 2 TB version costs $800 and the 4 TB unit costs $1,300 (a smaller StorCenter ix2 provides 1 TB for $300). These units support PC, Mac and Linux desktops and laptops.
"The ix4 features the EMC LifeLine operating system, and it incorporates other EMC storage technologies used by the world's largest organizations,” said Huberman.
The ix4-100 can also accommodate up to three video cameras for video-capture purposes and includes EMC Retrospect backup software. A backup schedule is established during set up, and it automatically backs up new data. Further, a rack-mountable version of the StorCenter is available for SMBs that already own a rack to house multiple servers. The StorCenter Pro ix4-200r can hold up to 4 TB at a price of $2,800. The ix2 can deal with about 50 users while the ix4 can accommodate 100 or more.
Huberman explained that EMC’s traditional lower-end storage product pricing bottoms out around $10,000, whereas Iomega products typically don’t range higher than $3,000 and offer no more than 6 TB of space. “If your business needs EMC disk arrays, you can’t get away with one of our units,” said Huberman. “But if you really don’t require that level of sophistication, we offer plenty of options.”
For instance, if a business cannot afford any downtime and calls for very high performance, an EMC box would be required, he said. But if you can live with a few hours of downtime to replace a spare part, an Iomega machine would fit well.
At the low end of the Iomega line come a series of eGo portable hard drives that are super simple to use. You plug it into the USB-port of your computer – just like a thumb drive – in seconds it recognizes the system and is ready for use. These are available in four colors with up to 500 GB of capacity. The dimensions are half an inch thick, 5.375 inches long and 3.5 inches wide, and it weighs in at seven ounces.
While these see devices heavy use in the consumer market, they are also popular among professionals who want to take their data on the road with them. They can be looked upon as a more robust repository compared to thumb drives, which are relatively flaky and not to be trusted with backups, for example. They come with McAfee VirusScan Plus anti-virus software (six months free) included, and they can survive a drop of 51 inches without failing.
This is quite important. A WD drive of mine (containing everything I’d written throughout my career) was knocked off a table at a hotel, which resulted in a catastrophic failure. Despite the best efforts of Western Digital, absolutely nothing could be recovered despite the efforts of an outside data-recovery firm.
The eGo comes in three sizes: 250 GB, 320 GB and 500 GB. It’s protected by a series of backup programs such as: Iomega QuickProtect for simple backup of files; EMC Retrospect for backup of data, applications and settings; and Mozy for online backup – 2 GB available for free.
Pricing starts at $85 for 250 GB, $95 for 320 GB and $135 for 500 GB. In addition, a BlackBelt eGo provides 500 GB as well as the ability to survive a fall of seven feet for $140.
“If your laptop doesn’t put out enough power to run the eGO device via its USB port, we have a double port version that solves this issue,” said Huberman. “eGo is used by consumers, SMBs and individuals in large enterprises.”
Mozy Becomes Decho
EMC’s other primary SMB storage arm is Mozy – now known as Decho (short for digital echo). Decho is the merger of Mozy and another EMC acquisition known as Pi Corp. Fortunately, the Mozy brand will remain as it is well known among consumers and SMBs. According to Steve Fairbanks, Decho’s director of product management, Mozy has one million users including 30,000 businesses using the SMB version known as Mozy Pro. That adds up to over 15 petabytes (PB) of data stored.Mozy Pro costs $3.95 per desktop per month and 50 cents per gigabyte, with servers costing $5.95 per server per month plus 50 cents per GB. A 2-GB home version is available for free.
Integration with EMC Retrospect backup software is ongoing. Mozy Home already has it and Mozy Pro will shortly. That will let companies use Mozy for online backup and also make a local backup copy using Retrospect. Better data encryption has also been added. “Mozy Pro removes 75 percent of the cost of backup for SMBs,” said Fairbanks. “For businesses using the Mac, a Mac Pro version will be launched in the fall.”
In addition, more Decho services should be made available by the end of this year, though no one is saying exactly what these are. Iomega and Decho are partnering, which should result in combined offerings in the near future.
SMB Storage Boom
Storage devices will only become more necessary for small businesses. According to research firm IDC, There were 3,892,179,868, 480,350,000,000 bits of data created in 2008: that’s nearly four sextillion.“As the economy deteriorated in late 2008, the pace of digital information created and transmitted actually increased,” said John Gantz, an analyst at IDC.
He predicts a doubling of the digital universe every 18 months. Small businesses need to plan ahead to provide enough capacity in their storage environments and to supply their employees with additional storage devices.
Drew Robb is a Los Angeles-based freelancer specializing in technology and engineering. Originally from Scotland, he graduated with a degree in geology from Glasgow's Strathclyde University. In recent years he has authored hundreds of articles as well as the book, Server Disk Management by CRC Press.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Mount 999 Gmail Accounts As Local Drives
posted by Keith Dsousa @ Techie-Buzz.com
Gmail offers users with almost 7.2GB data of storage space, and in the past we have told you how you can easily mount Gmail and use it as a local drive, but imagine having the ability to mount 999 Gmail accounts as local drives, the amount of backup space you will have will be pretty enormous.
The software requires you to install GmailFS (Gmail Drive Shell Extension) a software that allows you to mount your Gmail account as a local drive, but with GmailFS you can only load one drive at any given time.
Gmail Drive Config is a add-on for GmailFS that allows you to load upto 999 Gmail accounts as a drive. You can add or delete the drive without rebooting your PC.
To add more than one drive, double click on the Gmail Drive Config (does not require installation) executable and provide a new username that will be used to load the Gmail Account as a local Drive and click on Add.
Once you have done that you can visit explorer to copy files to your Gmail account just like any other regular local drive. Enjoy the extra backup space and no extra cost.
Download Gmail Drive Config for Free
-----------
This is a pretty cool *hack*. I call this poor man's online data storage.
Enjoy!
Jon
Gmail offers users with almost 7.2GB data of storage space, and in the past we have told you how you can easily mount Gmail and use it as a local drive, but imagine having the ability to mount 999 Gmail accounts as local drives, the amount of backup space you will have will be pretty enormous.
The software requires you to install GmailFS (Gmail Drive Shell Extension) a software that allows you to mount your Gmail account as a local drive, but with GmailFS you can only load one drive at any given time.
Gmail Drive Config is a add-on for GmailFS that allows you to load upto 999 Gmail accounts as a drive. You can add or delete the drive without rebooting your PC.
To add more than one drive, double click on the Gmail Drive Config (does not require installation) executable and provide a new username that will be used to load the Gmail Account as a local Drive and click on Add.
Once you have done that you can visit explorer to copy files to your Gmail account just like any other regular local drive. Enjoy the extra backup space and no extra cost.
Download Gmail Drive Config for Free
-----------
This is a pretty cool *hack*. I call this poor man's online data storage.
Enjoy!
Jon
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Available Data Storage Options
The amount of data the average user has to store is continually growing. It doesn’t matter if it is for personal or business use; the amount of digital information one must store and organize is getting bigger every day. Convenient, safe, and reliable data storage is crucial for protecting everything from emails and documents to audio files and videos.
A user should take the time to analyze the many options available for data storage and choose the solution that works best for them. Decide what is important and base your decision on what works best for your situation. Things to consider include; how quickly does the information need to be accessed? How often will the data be used? Will the data need to be stored on site or at a more secure remote location?
Understanding these questions will help you understand which data storage device is best suited to your circumstances. Sometimes the choice is obvious, but sometimes, especially in the business world, mistakes can be made. Some of the data storage devices available include: flash memory, external hard drives, online storage, and network attached storage devices.
A Flash memory thumb drive is a small, portable device that can be used for convenient data storage at any location. Most of these devices have special programs that allow them to behave like a regular hard drive. This allows users to work from any computer as if it was their own (with bookmarks and applications ready to go). The downside is the limited amount of memory on them.
External hard drives give a user a much larger storage capacity without losing much of the convenience. These devices can be hooked to a computer to back up an entire hard drive, or used to transport large audio or video files. Continuous use can get tedious, though, which is why many users only employ it for backing up large files.
Online data storage options are comparatively recent solutions for both companies and individuals. This allows a user to back up data to a computer off site with a company that specializes in protecting and maintaining valuable information. This also allows a user to access that information from any location with Internet access.
Most businesses need multiple users to have access to information and in those cases network attached storage is most often used. Multiple hard drives are used in a single array and as business needs change the solution can be scaled to meet growth. To ensure the safety of sensitive data many companies also use an automated redundancy backup.
Depending on your situation, some of these data storage devices are better than others. Are you taking care of business needs or individual? Are you working with huge files or just a few documents? Whatever your unique needs are, though, there is something that can handle it if you take the time to discover all the available storage devices.
A user should take the time to analyze the many options available for data storage and choose the solution that works best for them. Decide what is important and base your decision on what works best for your situation. Things to consider include; how quickly does the information need to be accessed? How often will the data be used? Will the data need to be stored on site or at a more secure remote location?
Understanding these questions will help you understand which data storage device is best suited to your circumstances. Sometimes the choice is obvious, but sometimes, especially in the business world, mistakes can be made. Some of the data storage devices available include: flash memory, external hard drives, online storage, and network attached storage devices.
A Flash memory thumb drive is a small, portable device that can be used for convenient data storage at any location. Most of these devices have special programs that allow them to behave like a regular hard drive. This allows users to work from any computer as if it was their own (with bookmarks and applications ready to go). The downside is the limited amount of memory on them.
External hard drives give a user a much larger storage capacity without losing much of the convenience. These devices can be hooked to a computer to back up an entire hard drive, or used to transport large audio or video files. Continuous use can get tedious, though, which is why many users only employ it for backing up large files.
Online data storage options are comparatively recent solutions for both companies and individuals. This allows a user to back up data to a computer off site with a company that specializes in protecting and maintaining valuable information. This also allows a user to access that information from any location with Internet access.
Most businesses need multiple users to have access to information and in those cases network attached storage is most often used. Multiple hard drives are used in a single array and as business needs change the solution can be scaled to meet growth. To ensure the safety of sensitive data many companies also use an automated redundancy backup.
Depending on your situation, some of these data storage devices are better than others. Are you taking care of business needs or individual? Are you working with huge files or just a few documents? Whatever your unique needs are, though, there is something that can handle it if you take the time to discover all the available storage devices.
About the Author:
With a variety of choices for data storage it is best to research your needs and evaluate which data backup solution will work best for you.
Comparison Of Popular Online File Storage Services
Guest post by Srikanth.
There are many online file storage services available. It is a very good idea to store your data on secured servers, this not only saves your hard disk space but also allows you to sync and recover any lost data during a system crash or any other natural disasters.
Here in are some of the paid and free online file storage services that provide tons of free and paid storage space to store your data securely. Many of these services also allow you to share files over the web and by using specific clients, you can also backup your data automatically without the fear of losing data. The table below shows a detailed comparison of some of the popular online file storage services, look at the table and decide which service best suits you.
Guest blogger Srikanth writes on Tech Inspiration blog about tips, gadgets, and technology. Check out his blog or Linkedin profile for more.
There are many online file storage services available. It is a very good idea to store your data on secured servers, this not only saves your hard disk space but also allows you to sync and recover any lost data during a system crash or any other natural disasters.
Here in are some of the paid and free online file storage services that provide tons of free and paid storage space to store your data securely. Many of these services also allow you to share files over the web and by using specific clients, you can also backup your data automatically without the fear of losing data. The table below shows a detailed comparison of some of the popular online file storage services, look at the table and decide which service best suits you.
Web host/ Features | |||
Language supported | English | English | English |
Free trial | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Storage Space | 50 GB free For multiple accounts $6.95/month for 50 GB and $13.95/month | 1 GB Free $7.95/month for 5 GB and $19.95/month | 5 GB Free |
Maximum Upload file Size | 2 GB | 25 MB for Free users and 1 GB files for Paid users | Unknown |
Bandwidth limit | No limit for paid users and 1 TB for free users | 10 GB for Free users and No limit for paid users | No Limit |
Upload Options | Web based uploads, Windows and Mac Adrive clients for automatic backup | Web based | Through your web site and internet explorer plugins |
System Compatibility | Windows 2000, XP, Vista and Mac OS x 10.4 and above systems | Windows 2000, XP, Vista and Mac OS x 10.4 and above systems | Windows 2000, XP, Vista and Mac OS x 10.4 and above systems |
Option to delete files | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Sync option | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Support | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Encryption | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Web host/ Features | ||||
Language supported | English | English and German | English | English, German, French and Italian |
Free trial | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Storage Space | 2 GB Free | 500 GB for Paid customers | 100 MB | 50 GB Free and 1 TB for Paid customers |
Maximum Upload file Size | None | 200 MB for Free users and 2000 MB for paid users | 100 MB | 1024 MB for free users and not applicable for paid users |
Bandwidth limit | Not applicable | 500 kbps for free users and paid users can download 2.66 GB per day | None | No Parallel downloads for Free users and unlimited for paid users |
Upload Options | Web based and through client | Web based or Direct upload | - | Web based or Direct upload |
System Compatibility | Windows 2000, XP and Vista systems | Windows 2000, XP, Vista and Mac OS x 10.4 and above systems | Windows 2000, XP, Vista and Mac OS x 10.4 and above systems | Windows 2000, XP, Vista and Mac OS x 10.4 and above systems |
Option to delete files | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Sync option | Yes | No | No | No |
Support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Encryption | Yes | No | Yes | No |
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Available Data Storage Options
Aug 15th, 2009 by Samuel Nielsen
by Thomas Payne
Data storage in a personal or business setting is becoming more and more important due to the ever-increasing amounts of digital data that a person comes in contact with every day. Emails, documents, presentations, graphics, and videos -- the list can go on and on. Convenient and safe storage is crucial to productivity in any setting.
There are many different data storage options and devices available on the market, and a user should consider all the different choices before making a decision. What is most important? What will it be used for? How easily must one access the information in question? How often will the device be used? Does the data need to stay on-site, or can it be moved away? These are all question that can influence the final decision.
After you answer those questions, you will be more aware of your individual needs and be able to make an informed decision. Often times the choice for data storage is obvious, but to avoid trouble in the future it is best to explore all options to avoid making a mistake. Flash memory, external hard drives, network attached storage devices, and online storage are just some of the data storage options available.
Flash memory thumb drives are small and portable devices that allow a user to store and access files and programs quickly and easily. Most are set up with programs that can emulate a hard drive so a user can work with the programs and bookmarks they need without packing an entire computer around. The downside is the limited amount of memory the offer.
An external hard drive will increase the storage capacity and still offer convenience and portability to the user. With an external hard drive the user can transport large files or connect it to a computer to back up an entire hard drive. Most users prefer using an external hard drive only when backing up large files, such as video files, since continuous use can get tiresome.
The use of online data storage is a more recent option made available for data storage and backup. Online data storage allows a user to back up data to an off-site computer through a company that specializes in protecting important and valuable data. With internet access a user is able to access the information from any location.
A network attached storage device is another option most often employed in a business situation where it is critical for multiple users to access the same information. This may be accomplished by installing multiple hard drives in a single array to deal with the large scale data and the offer an automated redundancy backup to ensure the safety of important information.
Some data storage options work best for business use while others may be more appropriate on a personal level. If you take the time to evaluate all your data storage options you will have a better chance at finding what works best for you. There is a data storage and backup solution for you no matter what your needs call for.
by Thomas Payne
Data storage in a personal or business setting is becoming more and more important due to the ever-increasing amounts of digital data that a person comes in contact with every day. Emails, documents, presentations, graphics, and videos -- the list can go on and on. Convenient and safe storage is crucial to productivity in any setting.
There are many different data storage options and devices available on the market, and a user should consider all the different choices before making a decision. What is most important? What will it be used for? How easily must one access the information in question? How often will the device be used? Does the data need to stay on-site, or can it be moved away? These are all question that can influence the final decision.
After you answer those questions, you will be more aware of your individual needs and be able to make an informed decision. Often times the choice for data storage is obvious, but to avoid trouble in the future it is best to explore all options to avoid making a mistake. Flash memory, external hard drives, network attached storage devices, and online storage are just some of the data storage options available.
Flash memory thumb drives are small and portable devices that allow a user to store and access files and programs quickly and easily. Most are set up with programs that can emulate a hard drive so a user can work with the programs and bookmarks they need without packing an entire computer around. The downside is the limited amount of memory the offer.
An external hard drive will increase the storage capacity and still offer convenience and portability to the user. With an external hard drive the user can transport large files or connect it to a computer to back up an entire hard drive. Most users prefer using an external hard drive only when backing up large files, such as video files, since continuous use can get tiresome.
The use of online data storage is a more recent option made available for data storage and backup. Online data storage allows a user to back up data to an off-site computer through a company that specializes in protecting important and valuable data. With internet access a user is able to access the information from any location.
A network attached storage device is another option most often employed in a business situation where it is critical for multiple users to access the same information. This may be accomplished by installing multiple hard drives in a single array to deal with the large scale data and the offer an automated redundancy backup to ensure the safety of important information.
Some data storage options work best for business use while others may be more appropriate on a personal level. If you take the time to evaluate all your data storage options you will have a better chance at finding what works best for you. There is a data storage and backup solution for you no matter what your needs call for.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
FreeNAS: A Simple Data Storage Solution
by Todd Dixon, 08.11.2009
Call it what you will, but several years ago when the venerable Stephen Poole, chief engineer here in the Crawford Broadcasting Birmingham cluster, introduced me to open source software, he created a monster.
My curiosity regarding open source software solutions is insatiable. To his dismay, I rarely stick with one Linux distribution and learn it inside and out; I am always toying with the next piece of innovative software.
This is how I found LTSP (the Linux Terminal Server Project), which I wrote about in the July 16, 2008 Radio World and which has ended up saving the company a small fortune in Birmingham by prolonging the lives of older office computers and re-purposing one of our old Nexgen HP file servers.
The main configuration screen for FreeNAS
Admittedly, the version I wrote about took some real computer knowledge to put into place, but later upgrades of the LTSP software (k12ltsp.org) make the setup a more plug-and-play experience.
With that success beginning to wane, I was primed to find another purpose for that file server's counterpart — another Nexgen HP file server that had been used at our studio.
BSD-based
We had a local FTP server here in Birmingham running SUSE Linux for use by our production staff and creative writers and by engineering to reference product manuals that we have either downloaded or acquired from manufacturers.
We were considering upgrading the FTP server's OS from SUSE 9.3 to OpenSUSE 11.1. At about that time, I had become fascinated by a computer product called a Pogoplug. It is basically a little networked computer the size of a "wall-wart" type power supply that you plug to a wall outlet. You then attach a USB thumb drive or hard drive and have instant network attached storage (NAS).
The two ideas collided when I saw FreeNAS, a BSD-based distribution that handles FTP and NAS in about a 70 MB package.
BSD is not Linux but a UNIX-like operating system used in high-traffic Web servers across the Internet and is virtually bulletproof with regard to network security.
While we hadn't had an ounce of trouble with our current FTP server, a new OpenSUSE installation would easily have been about a 5 GB install. Pogoplug was a bargain for personal use, but not for the volume we were planning on.
FreeNAS is optimized to not only handle FTP and HTTP traffic, but can also provide MS Windows shared folders with Samba/CIFS for our employees here in Birmingham.
After a pretty basic installation process, you are left with the Web GUI shown in the illustration.
This HP file server was loaded with a dozen 36 GB SCSI drives, which FreeNAS set up in a software RAID and we were off and running.
After some simple user and group setup, we backed up our FTP server. We also house a nightly file backup from our Denver cluster in Birmingham. It was backed up to our FreeNAS server too, a double backup.
FreeNAS works fine with an old Pentium III (933 MHz), showing only 1 percent CPU usage and 20 percent of the 1 GB total of RAM. I'm not exaggerating, the thing screams. We are about to put it online full time as our complete replacement for our FTP server, but it has ended up giving us much more. Amanda Alexander at our company's Denver cluster has had some issues with one of their file servers. She has packaged it up and sent it to us and we are planning on putting FreeNAS on it.
Each of us probably has a storage room filled with machines that have lost a step in speed or need a $50 hard drive. The echoing sentiment among these pages and elsewhere is to extend life, troubleshoot, fix and reuse. We need to always be searching for how we might repurpose a computer or server so that we can get the maximum benefit from it.
FreeNAS has helped us to accomplish this. It is elegant in function and a perfect option for us to continue to give even more data services to everybody here in Birmingham even while our budgets have been tightened.
Todd Dixon, CBNT, is assistant engineer for Crawford Broadcasting in Birmingham, Ala. This article appeared in slightly different form in Crawford's Local Oscillator newsletter.
-------------------
I saw this product 5 years ago and tried it out using some old Pentium II Compaq servers that are doomed for destruction (after the hardware upgrade). Installation was a breeze. Resource utilization of the product on the old server was surprisingly low -- imagine running it on Pentium II. I was able to use this to stage some archived data, and repository for some mp3s and photos. Neat implementation and you'll find some use to your old scrappy hardware .
Call it what you will, but several years ago when the venerable Stephen Poole, chief engineer here in the Crawford Broadcasting Birmingham cluster, introduced me to open source software, he created a monster.
My curiosity regarding open source software solutions is insatiable. To his dismay, I rarely stick with one Linux distribution and learn it inside and out; I am always toying with the next piece of innovative software.
This is how I found LTSP (the Linux Terminal Server Project), which I wrote about in the July 16, 2008 Radio World and which has ended up saving the company a small fortune in Birmingham by prolonging the lives of older office computers and re-purposing one of our old Nexgen HP file servers.
The main configuration screen for FreeNAS
Admittedly, the version I wrote about took some real computer knowledge to put into place, but later upgrades of the LTSP software (k12ltsp.org) make the setup a more plug-and-play experience.
With that success beginning to wane, I was primed to find another purpose for that file server's counterpart — another Nexgen HP file server that had been used at our studio.
BSD-based
We had a local FTP server here in Birmingham running SUSE Linux for use by our production staff and creative writers and by engineering to reference product manuals that we have either downloaded or acquired from manufacturers.
We were considering upgrading the FTP server's OS from SUSE 9.3 to OpenSUSE 11.1. At about that time, I had become fascinated by a computer product called a Pogoplug. It is basically a little networked computer the size of a "wall-wart" type power supply that you plug to a wall outlet. You then attach a USB thumb drive or hard drive and have instant network attached storage (NAS).
The two ideas collided when I saw FreeNAS, a BSD-based distribution that handles FTP and NAS in about a 70 MB package.
BSD is not Linux but a UNIX-like operating system used in high-traffic Web servers across the Internet and is virtually bulletproof with regard to network security.
While we hadn't had an ounce of trouble with our current FTP server, a new OpenSUSE installation would easily have been about a 5 GB install. Pogoplug was a bargain for personal use, but not for the volume we were planning on.
FreeNAS is optimized to not only handle FTP and HTTP traffic, but can also provide MS Windows shared folders with Samba/CIFS for our employees here in Birmingham.
After a pretty basic installation process, you are left with the Web GUI shown in the illustration.
This HP file server was loaded with a dozen 36 GB SCSI drives, which FreeNAS set up in a software RAID and we were off and running.
After some simple user and group setup, we backed up our FTP server. We also house a nightly file backup from our Denver cluster in Birmingham. It was backed up to our FreeNAS server too, a double backup.
FreeNAS works fine with an old Pentium III (933 MHz), showing only 1 percent CPU usage and 20 percent of the 1 GB total of RAM. I'm not exaggerating, the thing screams. We are about to put it online full time as our complete replacement for our FTP server, but it has ended up giving us much more. Amanda Alexander at our company's Denver cluster has had some issues with one of their file servers. She has packaged it up and sent it to us and we are planning on putting FreeNAS on it.
Each of us probably has a storage room filled with machines that have lost a step in speed or need a $50 hard drive. The echoing sentiment among these pages and elsewhere is to extend life, troubleshoot, fix and reuse. We need to always be searching for how we might repurpose a computer or server so that we can get the maximum benefit from it.
FreeNAS has helped us to accomplish this. It is elegant in function and a perfect option for us to continue to give even more data services to everybody here in Birmingham even while our budgets have been tightened.
Todd Dixon, CBNT, is assistant engineer for Crawford Broadcasting in Birmingham, Ala. This article appeared in slightly different form in Crawford's Local Oscillator newsletter.
-------------------
I saw this product 5 years ago and tried it out using some old Pentium II Compaq servers that are doomed for destruction (after the hardware upgrade). Installation was a breeze. Resource utilization of the product on the old server was surprisingly low -- imagine running it on Pentium II. I was able to use this to stage some archived data, and repository for some mp3s and photos. Neat implementation and you'll find some use to your old scrappy hardware .
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Cloud storage service provides automated protection for students’ schoolwork and media
Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) August 10, 2009 ElephantDrive Inc., a leader in online backup, online storage, and remote access has partnered with Harvard Student Agencies (HSA) to bring simple and effective cloud storage to students. The service is designed to make it easy for students to enable automated protection of all their digital assets - from class notes and term papers to music files and photos.
The arrangement is a natural partnership. Students have always been a target market for ElephantDrive services and HSA has been consistently expanding the suite of products and services it offers to the Harvard students and faculty. Adding online services was a logical next step for the student-run business, and the convenient backup, storage, and access functionality is an appealing combination for their customers.
Designed to meet the needs of both individuals and teams, ElephantDrive combines powerful automated backup functionality, online storage, and instant file access. The college students will benefit from faster upload speeds, the ability to schedule backup jobs, and the option to access files through a mapped drive or the web-based interface. Additionally, the higher end plans include collaboration and sharing features that will be of use to researchers and study groups.
This partnership is an exciting addition to the ElephantDrive educational strategy. "We are thrilled to be working with the world’s largest student-run business to bring cloud storage to campus," said Adam Altman, VP of Marketing for ElephantDrive. "College students are highly mobile and active individuals with enormous amounts of precious data - they can really benefit from keeping it in the cloud."
The HSA team has high hopes for the new product. "We’ve been looking to add online backup to our menu of services for a while now," said Austin Chu, Manager of the Harvard Student Agencies DormStore, "and once we found the ElephantDrive solution it was an easy decision. Students can access the offer now at the DormStore web site.
ElephantDrive automated backup and mapped drive access is supported on Windows, Mac, and Linux. The company has also indicated that a framework for mobile devices will be released before the end of the year, a feature set likely to be pre-released through educational partners before general availability.
About Harvard Student Agencies
Harvard Student Agencies (HSA) is the largest student-run corporation in the world. HSA is comprised of nine different agencies, each headed by a student manager. The organization was founded in 1957 to help defray rising tuition costs while providing practical business experience and supplying valuable, necessary services to the Harvard community. HSA carries out this mission by presenting myriad diverse opportunities with one objective in common: to provide the highest quality jobs available to Harvard students.
About ElephantDrive Inc.
ElephantDrive is the world’s leading provider of online storage, remote backup, and instant file access. Thousands of consumers and small businesses in over 100 countries around the world choose ElephantDrive to protect their digital assets. Founded in 2005, ElephantDrive’s mission is to protect the world’s digital assets, and make them universally and securely accessible. ElephantDrive is headquartered in Los Angeles, CA.
ElephantDrive is a registered trademark of ElephantDrive, Inc. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Contact
Adam Altman
ElephantDrive Inc.
800-778-4055 x100
Original Post
----------------------
This is a promising project. Though, security implementation for this product must be Fort Knox.
Jon
The arrangement is a natural partnership. Students have always been a target market for ElephantDrive services and HSA has been consistently expanding the suite of products and services it offers to the Harvard students and faculty. Adding online services was a logical next step for the student-run business, and the convenient backup, storage, and access functionality is an appealing combination for their customers.
Designed to meet the needs of both individuals and teams, ElephantDrive combines powerful automated backup functionality, online storage, and instant file access. The college students will benefit from faster upload speeds, the ability to schedule backup jobs, and the option to access files through a mapped drive or the web-based interface. Additionally, the higher end plans include collaboration and sharing features that will be of use to researchers and study groups.
This partnership is an exciting addition to the ElephantDrive educational strategy. "We are thrilled to be working with the world’s largest student-run business to bring cloud storage to campus," said Adam Altman, VP of Marketing for ElephantDrive. "College students are highly mobile and active individuals with enormous amounts of precious data - they can really benefit from keeping it in the cloud."
The HSA team has high hopes for the new product. "We’ve been looking to add online backup to our menu of services for a while now," said Austin Chu, Manager of the Harvard Student Agencies DormStore, "and once we found the ElephantDrive solution it was an easy decision. Students can access the offer now at the DormStore web site.
ElephantDrive automated backup and mapped drive access is supported on Windows, Mac, and Linux. The company has also indicated that a framework for mobile devices will be released before the end of the year, a feature set likely to be pre-released through educational partners before general availability.
About Harvard Student Agencies
Harvard Student Agencies (HSA) is the largest student-run corporation in the world. HSA is comprised of nine different agencies, each headed by a student manager. The organization was founded in 1957 to help defray rising tuition costs while providing practical business experience and supplying valuable, necessary services to the Harvard community. HSA carries out this mission by presenting myriad diverse opportunities with one objective in common: to provide the highest quality jobs available to Harvard students.
About ElephantDrive Inc.
ElephantDrive is the world’s leading provider of online storage, remote backup, and instant file access. Thousands of consumers and small businesses in over 100 countries around the world choose ElephantDrive to protect their digital assets. Founded in 2005, ElephantDrive’s mission is to protect the world’s digital assets, and make them universally and securely accessible. ElephantDrive is headquartered in Los Angeles, CA.
ElephantDrive is a registered trademark of ElephantDrive, Inc. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Contact
Adam Altman
ElephantDrive Inc.
800-778-4055 x100
Original Post
----------------------
This is a promising project. Though, security implementation for this product must be Fort Knox.
Jon
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Entering the world of terabyte drives
Jul 28, 2009 22:54
InfoChat
Understanding Tech Issues with Reliable Vision of Innovation
by Jerry Liao, Philippines
With content fast shifting from ordinary text to pictures and videos, one can already expect that the demand for bigger storage devices will be the next call of the day. And, indeed, storage manufacturers are addressing the need, more than what we need actually. From kilobytes to megabytes and gigabytes, we are now seeing storage devices in the terabytes level.
Seagate released its terabyte storage products a couple of months back. Same for Western Digital which recently announced its first 2.5-inch harddisk with 1TB capacity. WD will also use its new 2.5-inch drive to enable 1TB external harddisk drives (HDDs).
My point is this. As content grows more, it's only natural that storage capacity goes bigger as well. But how about the responsibility that comes with it? A bigger capacity drive means more backup, backup and backup. If something happens to the drive, data loss means it's going to be costly to the enterprise or even the individual.
Also, more storage means more data. More data means security should be around the corner. If not, more data can be compromised.
So after terabyte, what next? Petabyte? Exabyte?
God bless!
---------------
Comparing 5 years ago, storage drives with half gig size are luxury. Today you can easily put in your pocket data storage in gigabytes.
InfoChat
Understanding Tech Issues with Reliable Vision of Innovation
by Jerry Liao, Philippines
With content fast shifting from ordinary text to pictures and videos, one can already expect that the demand for bigger storage devices will be the next call of the day. And, indeed, storage manufacturers are addressing the need, more than what we need actually. From kilobytes to megabytes and gigabytes, we are now seeing storage devices in the terabytes level.
Seagate released its terabyte storage products a couple of months back. Same for Western Digital which recently announced its first 2.5-inch harddisk with 1TB capacity. WD will also use its new 2.5-inch drive to enable 1TB external harddisk drives (HDDs).
My point is this. As content grows more, it's only natural that storage capacity goes bigger as well. But how about the responsibility that comes with it? A bigger capacity drive means more backup, backup and backup. If something happens to the drive, data loss means it's going to be costly to the enterprise or even the individual.
Also, more storage means more data. More data means security should be around the corner. If not, more data can be compromised.
So after terabyte, what next? Petabyte? Exabyte?
God bless!
---------------
Comparing 5 years ago, storage drives with half gig size are luxury. Today you can easily put in your pocket data storage in gigabytes.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Measuring the Savings of Data Deduplication
By Tony Chan
The deduplication calculator works by prompting users for the number of servers and workstations being backed up
Storage management and disaster recovery software maker, Acronis, has unveiled a new online calculator that measures the potential cost savings of applying its data deduplication technology.
The deduplication calculator works by prompting users for the number of servers and workstations being backed up, the data change rate, and the cost of data storage and then using that information to estimate the storage space savings, the storage cost savings, and the percentage of savings through deduplication.
According to Acronis, a company with 10 servers and 2 TB of data that changes 5% daily and is kept for four weeks would saving about US$20,000 annually if the Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 solution was applied. However, the software licenses for the solution would amount to US$17,000 for that particular IT environment, so the net savings is actually US$3,000 per year.
------
Online data storage has gone a long way, as with secure data storage. Deduplication is an arena now lording over by storage giant EMC after its acquisition of Avamar & Data Domain..
Virtualization Journal
The deduplication calculator works by prompting users for the number of servers and workstations being backed up
Storage management and disaster recovery software maker, Acronis, has unveiled a new online calculator that measures the potential cost savings of applying its data deduplication technology.
The deduplication calculator works by prompting users for the number of servers and workstations being backed up, the data change rate, and the cost of data storage and then using that information to estimate the storage space savings, the storage cost savings, and the percentage of savings through deduplication.
According to Acronis, a company with 10 servers and 2 TB of data that changes 5% daily and is kept for four weeks would saving about US$20,000 annually if the Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 solution was applied. However, the software licenses for the solution would amount to US$17,000 for that particular IT environment, so the net savings is actually US$3,000 per year.
------
Online data storage has gone a long way, as with secure data storage. Deduplication is an arena now lording over by storage giant EMC after its acquisition of Avamar & Data Domain..
Virtualization Journal
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