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Storage and Storage Software

The Data Loss Risks of SSDs

14 May 2015 Marco Attard Storage and Storage Software

Solid-state drives make for a great upgrade for your customers, but research by Seagate chairman Alvil Cox suggests SSDs might pose data loss risks if left unplugged in an environment with varying temperatures.

According to the study, the period of time "some" SSDs retain data when unpowered can be slashed in half for every 5°C rise in ambient temperature. In other words, if an SSD retains data for 2 years if kept at 25°C, that length of time is cut down by half (to 1 year) if the temperature rises to 30°C.

Surprisingly consumer SSDs appear to perform better at this test than enterprise models-- consumer SSDs tend to retain data for around 2 years when held when held in optimal conditions, while the enterprise SSD data retention period clocks at 20 weeks. As a result, a 5°C increase in temperature can drop that period to just 10 weeks. To think that, in some countries, 30°C is not even too high a temperature…

Buffalo Rugged HDD Gets NFC

24 April 2015 Marco Attard Storage and Storage Software

Buffalo launches the MiniStation Extreme NFC-- a ruggedised portable HDD featuring "advanced" hardware encryption and near field communications (NFC) connectivity to block unauthorised access.

"We designed the MiniStation Extreme NFC to be the most complete rugged portable drive on the market, including features that not only protect against the elements, but also support the latest hardware encryption technology and NFC secure access functionality," the company claims. "We packaged all of this functionality into a sleek, compact design that sets it apart from the competition."

The built-in NFC technology includes a smart card acting as a password replacement. Thus customers can ensure data remains safe when shipped by sending the HDD and smart card separately.

File, Object Storage at a Crossroads

17 April 2015 Marco Attard Storage and Storage Software

Crossroads Systems announces a means to bring together file and object storage through LTFS tape-- the Strongbox 3.0 NAS for unstructured data, a solution described as "the first cloud tape."

According to the company Strongbox 3.0 fuses the cost-effective scalable storage of LTFS tape with SSD/HDD performance, allowing for access, protection and storage at the lowest possible cost per gigabyte.

On the software side the system combines a standard object-based S3 interfaces with a RESTful API, allowing cloud-based applications to easily interface with it without need for special calls or APIs. It works either as a standalone storage solution or as part of existing storage, and users can easily access data via CIFS/NFS or S3.

HGST Goes for Object Storage Archiving

10 April 2015 Marco Attard Storage and Storage Software

Western Digital subsidiary HGST presents a take on object storage archiving-- the Active Archive System, a means for customers to store up to 4.7PB of raw data in a single rack.

Object storage technology views files as objects. Storage takes place in a flat, folder-free space with the content forming the address, with erasure coding eliminating the need for RAID and data replication.

The Active Archive System uses 8TB HelioSeal HDDs and "tightly integrated, tuned and optimised" hardware, together with technologies from recent acquisition Amplidata. It features a plug-and-play scale-out design integrating object storage, networking, servers and storage within an Amazon S3-compliant object storage interface, and supports Avere NAS-to-object gateway.

Micron, Intel Intro 3D NAND Technology

02 April 2015 Marco Attard Storage and Storage Software

Micron and Intel announce the availability of their highest-density flash memory technology yet-- 3D NAND, featuring vertical stacks of data storage cells, allowing for more storage in less space.

According to the two company 3D NAND allows for three times higher capacity than competing NAND technologies while keeping flash storage performance gains and cost savings aligned with Moore's Law.

3D NAND is is built out of floating gate cells, a design in use by the regular "2D" flash storage. As the companies put it, 3D NAND "stacks flash cells vertically in 32 layers to achieve 256Gb multilevel cell (MLC) and 384Gb triple-level cell (TLC) die that fit within a standard package. These capacities can enable gum stick-sized SSDs with more than 3.5TB of storage and standard 2.5-inch SSDs with greater than 10TB."