SANSymphony is for enterprises that aim to virtualize their storage area networks, while SANmelody is for small Fiber Channel and iSCSI SANs of up to 32 TB.  The virtual disk pooling, synchronized mirroring for high availability, load balancing, thin provisioning and other advanced features are exciting and will be welcomed by enterprises using these software.  The 64 bit controller software supports large cache on the physical server up to a theoretical limit of 1 TB as against the earlier versions which supported only 20 GB cache.

Jack Fegreus, CEO Southborough, Mass-based openBench Labs points out that a terabyte of cache is “at the far edge of reality for most normal sites today” but given Moore’s Law “1TB of cache may well be average”.  Today many organizations use as much as 256 GB of cache on average. This increased cache will imply that there will be a denser consolidation of servers into virtual machines and performance of VM backups may improve by minimizing I/O to disk.

The Transporter Option that comes with SANmelody and SANsymphony can also perform conversions between physical and virtual servers. This feature is significant as a server can be converted from a physical Windows box to a Microsoft Corp.Hyper V Image and then to a VMware ESX image.  It can then be converted back to a logical unit Number (LUN) mapped to a physical server. This feature could be an advantage to people who are running multiple virtual servers with different operating systems.

Themis Tokkaris, Systems Engineer, Truly Nolen, Tuscon, Ariz (a pest control company) appreciates that “it is also an open idea” and further says: “”If I’m not happy with ESX in the future, I’m not stuck with it.”

DataCore SAN offers its users the option of using a new free plug in for VMWare Inc’s Virtual Infrastructure Client.  James Price, Vice President of Product and Channel Marketing, DataCore SAN, claims that it will offer “cleaner visibility and easier to understand mappings and paths”.  He further points out that the upgrades will provide a way to reclaim free capacity on volumes using thin provisioning.

DataCore SAN is not alone in this storage virtualization space. Many of the features offered by DataCore such as 64 bit support, thin provisioning and so on have been included in the packages of other vendors.  Symantec Corp., Double-Take Software Inc and others offer 64 bit support for the data protection space.  Compellent Technologies Inc. too offered free space recovery for thin provisioning about a year ago.  DataCore SAN’s offer, however, combines these features into a server centric approach and appears to have set the trend for the future of networked storage solutions.

However, Fegreus says DataCore’s combining these features into a server-centric approach looks like the wave of the future for networked storage as integration increases between SANs and servers.

Pioneer has announced a 16 layer read only optical disc with a mega storage capacity of 400 GB.  What is so interesting about this device? This storage device has been hailed as one of the most important breakthroughs in storage technology. Earlier versions of optical discs were riddled with problems. They were unable to relay signals clearly from the different layers and cross talk rendered the device useless.  Pioneer has solved the problem of cross talk from adjacent layers by using a disc production technology that was first introduced into the DVD arena. The prediction is that future optical discs will provide much denser storage per layer and will continue to evolve as the science of optics is studied.

Ultra Density Optical (UDO) discs are third generation optical discs designed for very high-density storage of video data. Currently available Ultra Density Optical discs have an estimated shelf life of 50 years. They have been introduced into the market and found to be reliable and durable for short-term use. Currently the UDO is used by banks, health care facilities, and financial corporations.

Pioneer said in a recent statement released from Japan that the growing storage needs of many corporations is expected to drive the demand for higher capacity discs. The company also mentions that buying just one high capacity optical disc is equal to buying numerous other commercially available discs. This way, resources can be conserved and put to better use.

The experts meanwhile are not impressed. David Hill, an analyst at Mesabi Group argues that such technology may be more “suitable for storing video and archiving at the consumer level”.

Likewise, Greg Schulz an analyst with Storage IO mentions that for years there has been talk about holographic storage but, “if you are holding your breath for that, you had better get a scuba tank”. So far the optical disc storages have not proven to be worthy in a commercial market and there are many kinks that have to be sorted out.

However, most experts do agree that the Blu ray at both ends of the market and in specialized verticals such as video is improving data storage and preservation. Despite the great advances in hardware capabilities, the dinosaurs of data storage, the disk and tape, that were long ago acknowledged to be dead, continue to be pertinent because they are constantly being improved, cost a lot less and are durable.

The Future?  Most experts predict that future data storage will be achieved by a hybrid of RAM based or sometime of flash based solid state memory, perhaps even a touch of holographic technology.

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