Other World Computing (OWC) announces a 12TB capacity option for the Mercury Elite Pro Dual line of dual-bay external storage solutions, making part of the OWC Thunderbolt interface storage product family.

The Mercury Elite Pro Dual is available in capacities starting from 0GB (add your own drives) to up to 12TB of total storage, adding tremendous capacity to any Mac or PC with a Thunderbolt port. Data rates reach up to 442MB/s read and 450MB/s write, making the them ideal for applications such as AV post-production, photography, music, graphics, data management and backups.

IBM announces a "bold" strategy for its storage business, one featuring "a new model for enterprise data storage optimised across hardware and software solutions" achieved via the power of Software Defined Storage.

“The reality is that many of our clients are suffering from information overload, and data centers are feeling the pressure,” Big Blue claims “To help ease this pressure, we are providing flexibility to enable clients to choose the environment that best fits their needs… Software defined storage is disrupting the industry, and we’re leading the market by applying our storage and software heritage to the data management challenges of businesses today.”

In a few words, IBM is looking into boosting efficiency by using data management systems to provide customers with easier, near real-time insights on stored data.

Adata launches the SR1010-- an enterprise-grade server SSD featuring comprehensive data encryption and compatibility with many operating systems, making it ideal for industrial servers, data centres and embedded devices.

It features Power-Loss Protection (PLP), a protection mechanism to help prevent data crashes caused by power system failures, such as utility grid or data centre backup generator failures. It also supports SMART, which monitors SSD status to ensure data security and integrity.

OS compatibility includes Linux (such as SUSE Enterprise and Red Hat Enterprise) and virtual machine technology from VMWare and Citrix. It is Microsoft WHQL certified, and Seagate SF2581 controllers allow 4KB random read/write speeds reaching up to 73000/45000 IOPS.

The secret to the higher capacity optical storage might be held within ancient Roman glassware, University of Cambridge researchers say as they develop a new means of making multicoloured holograms from a thin silver nanoparticle film.

One example of the glassware in question is the Lycurgus cup. Made in the 4th century, the cup changes colour from green to red according to the position of the light due to gold and silver nanoparticles incorporated into the glass.

Of course the ancient Romans did not know of the specifics of the phenomenon, called dichroism-- in fact research into the glassware's unique properties only started round 20 years ago, and now the researchers have managed to create "nanoscale metallic nanoparticle arrays" able to form multicolour holograms.