Oracle promising 'game-changing' storage announcement

IDG News Service - Oracle is planning to announce what it calls "a dramatic leap in storage technology" during a Jan. 31 webcast.

"We can't tell you just how much this will improve your datacenter until the big event," the company's website states. But customers will experience greatly reduced costs per terabyte as well as lower floor space; "dramatically higher performance; and "greater capability -- optimized for archive and data protection."

No further details were made available by Oracle. One potential clue to the announcement's nature is the fact that the webcast will be hosted by Jim Cates, an Oracle vice president of hardware development.

As of July, Cates was vice president of tape development. Oracle announced a series of upgrades to its StorageTek tape storage portfolio at that time. However, it was not clear Thursday whether Cates is still Oracle's point man for tape.

An Oracle spokeswoman Deborah Hellinger declined comment.

Chris Kanaracus covers enterprise software and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Chris's e-mail address is Chris_Kanaracus@idg.com