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Storage highlights from around the Web

By Marian Prokop
May 27, 2005 12:00 PM ET

Computerworld - Teeter tottering over DVD formats

The race over the next wave of optical disc technology is wavering like a seesaw. One week Blu-ray is at the top while HD-DVD wanes, and the next week HD-DVD springs up while Blu-Ray drops to the ground.
This past week was a draw as the head of Toshiba Corp., which supports the HD-DVD standard, predicted there would probably be products for both formats for a limited time until the industry settles on a standard. Talks between Toshiba and Sony Corp., a key supporter of the Blu-ray camp, haven't made progress, and time is running out. Both companies are readying products for release using their own format: Toshiba plans to release HD DVD-based players by the end of the year, and Sony has scheduled a Blu-ray disc drive in its new PlayStation game console for next year.
So how will we users be watching our high definition movies in the next year? Any bettors out there?



Thinking globally

Leslie Wood raises compelling issues on the prospects for global storage networking in this article for the Enterprise Storage Forum. Can global data management be achieved without a new infrastructure? That could be very expensive. Can it be done by enhancing what a company has? Only perhaps by "enlightened" businesses, says one expert. But with the huge need for storage and the demand for greater access, it's clear storage is moving, as this analyst put it, "from being a back office requirement to an integral part of the day-to-day operations of a successful company."


VMware's hand-in-glove fit at EMC

BusinessWeek Online has a good interview with Diane Greene, one of the founders of virtual infrastructure software company VMware, about how it was eventually acquired by EMC in 2004 (See story). In the article, Greene explains how the company started in 1998 and found its niche in virtual-machine technology. The company was planning to go public when "all the sudden there was a tremendous amount of interest in acquiring us." The company wanted to continue to grow and since its products run "on every kind of hardware" it was out of the question to be acquired by a server or an operating systems company. EMC is clearly happy with the purchase. In EMC's first quarter report, VMware booked quarterly revenue of $80 million, a year-over-year increase of 104% (See story).


For something completely different….
Put on your headphones and get ready for a good yuck with this fun video on the "Institute for Backup Trauma" from LiveVault. The video features Monty Python's John Cleese as the institute's director (and a former patient) and has some of the same wacky humor of the British comic troupe. After the video, click around the Web site. I especially liked the "Top 10 Ways to Prevent Backup Trauma" (No. 10: Copy all the data by hand just in case your tape fails.) It also has some clever mentions of former "patients," including Bob Metcalfe, Dan Bricklin and the president and editorial director of our sister pub, Network World, John Gallant.



Additional Resources
Forrester Consulting - Optimizing Users and Applications in a Mobile World
WHITE PAPER
Solving application issues over the WAN requires careful consideration. Based on their independent research, Forrester Consulting offers recommendations on how to tackle application performance issues, insufficient bandwidth and the inability to quickly restore users in a disaster.

Read now.

Security KnowledgeVault
WHITE PAPER
Security is not an option. This KnowledgeVault Series offers professional advice how to be proactive in the fight against cybercrimes and multi-layered security threats; how to adopt a holistic approach to protecting and managing data; and how to hire a qualified security assessor. Make security your Number 1 priority.

Read now.

Cut Communications Costs Once and for All
WHITE PAPER
New IP-based communications systems are being deployed by small and midsized businesses at a rapid rate. Learn how these organizations are enabling faster responsiveness, creating better customer experiences, speeding office or mobile interactions, and dramatically reducing existing communications costs.

Read now.

Storage White Papers
Datacenter Consolidation Best Practices Whitepaper
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Eliminating VMware / Storage Related Performance Challenges
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Cloud Environments Have Familiar Storage Challenges
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Eight Considerations for Evaluating Disk-Based Backup Solutions
In the past, the movement from tape- to disk-based backup has been less compelling due to the expense of storing backup data on...
ExaGrid Helps U.S. Federal Government Agencies Reduce Backup Windows and Improve Data Protection
The U.S. Government has been the largest user of tape-based backup systems since the 1970s. Most agencies have begun to deploy disk storage...
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Storage Webcasts
Understand Your Data: The Future of Backup and Archiving
Archiving and Backup are the foundation of the next generation of information governance. However, commodity data protection tools and basic archives are only...
Optimizing Networks for the Cloud
Join guest speaker, Rohit Mehra, IDC Director of Enterprise Communications Infrastructure, to explore current trends, discuss best practices for optimizing Data Center and...
Apps QuickStart Series Part 2: Designing and Deploying SQL Server on VMware vSphere
Download this webcast to learn about the design considerations for virtualizing SQL workloads, performance and scalability information and high-availability options, as well as...
Apps QuickStart Series Part 1: Designing and Deploying Exchange 2010 on VMware vSphere
Download this webcast to learn the virtual hardware design considerations for Exchange 2010, deployment using the building block approach, options for high-availability and...
Customer Spotlight: How IPC The Hospitalist Company Implemented Oracle on VMware
Have you been looking to hear about customer's experiences with the new VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager product? View this webcast to learn...
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