Software Technology VS Hardware Technology

In the Enterprise environment Hardware design & implementation was happening at never before pace. each hardware vendors (IBM, HP, Intel, AMD, SUN, Dell, EMC2, NetApp & 1000's of many more small & big enterprises) tried to come up with highly competitive technologies & they did succeeded in their achievements to a larger extent.
The Hardware innovations continue to evolve as it is happening from past few decades with even higher pace. the advancement in the multiple-core processor technologies being implemented by Intel & other vendors will continue to boast other hardware (servers, Switches, routers, storage appliances etc.) innovations in future.
But another interesting point i like to make here is about "Enterprise Software Technology". in the recent decade, Enterprise Software does not mean just Operating System (OS), it is more than just OS, we have seen enterprise Management software, Network management software, Telecom network management software, Wireless management software to name a few.
very recently, VMWARE's virtualization software success has taken the Enterprise industries by surprise & it has resulted in "Software Enterprise Technology" showdown by some of the biggest software players such as Microsoft, Xensource,SUN, IBM, HP etc. this is interesting as the enterprise software fever is catching up like wild fire, more & more competitors are born every day.
Software being easy and cost effective Technology to design & implement, there is going to be Enterprise software Revolution in the cards. one of the first sign was Virtualization software of VMware & now Microsoft windows 2008 OS.
very recently, in the just concluded VMware's VMWorld conference in Las vegas, USA. VMware announced that it is building nothing less than a "virtual datacenter OS" -- VDC OS for short -- that will eventually make traditional operating systems "all but disappear."
This is the next sign of Enterprise Software Revolution that i am talking about.

If you like to know more details of it, check out http://weblog.infoworld.com/fatalexception/archives/2008/09/vmware_proposes.html

Latest Storage market status - Q2 2008

HP, IBM, Dell, SUN are all top global enterprises with broad range of products, here i have current market status for these companies in External Storage segment only.

According to analyst group IDC, Despite tough conditions in the U.S. economy, which have decreased demand for everything from new homes to semiconductors, the market for computer data storage Relevant
Products/Services systems is going strong.
EMC continued to lead the external disk storage systems market with 21.7 percent of the revenue share, followed by IBM at 13.1 percent, HP at 12.9 percent, Dell at 9.2 percent, NetApp at 8.0 percent and Hitachi at 7.6 percent. Of the top five suppliers, EMC and NetApp posted the strongest year-over-year revenue growth at 19.7 percent and 17.2 percent, respectively.
The Open SAN market grew 15.5 percent year-over-year, with EMC leading with 23.9 percent of revenue share, followed by HP at 16.7 percent. The NAS market experienced year-over-year growth of 23.5 percent, with EMC leading with 39.8 percent of revenue share, followed by NetApp at 28.5 percent. The iSCSI SAN market showed year-over-year revenue growth of 93.9 percent, with Dell leading the market (due to its acquisition of EqualLogic) with 32.8 percent of the revenue share, followed by NetApp at 14.6 percent and EMC at 14.1 percent.

**********for more information check out http://www.echannelline.com/usa/story.cfm?item=23687 *******************

IBM New DS5000 Storage Product released:

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by the Blogger and those providing comments are theirs alone, and we are not responsible for the accuracy of any of the information supplied by the Bloggers.

Most of the Netizens beleive IBM DS5000 storage product came from the acquisition of XIV storage company by IBM [check http://www.xivstorage.com/].
but i differ with this wide perception. the DS5000 which is released by IBM in sep, 2008 looks to me as an extension of IBM's old products in the mid-range (ex:DS4000 series).
yet again i like to differ myself saying it is not extension, it is whole new enterprise storage architecture and silent features are given below:
* offers improved performance.
* Scalability of FC/SATA disks upto 448.
* Boost up with 8G FC & 10G iSCSI connectivity.
* PCI-Express (PCI-e) bus architecture & so on.
* Supports RAID levels RAID 0, 1, 3, 5, 6 and 10 (RAID 1+0).
* Supports up to 2048 volumes & 2048 host logins.
* Premium features FlashCopy (up to 16 copies per volume), VolumeCopy, Remote Volume Mirroring (up to 128 pairs).
* Cache memory of 8GB to 16GB cache & USB Cache backup memory for Power failures.
* IBM DS5000 series offers two models
DS5100
DS5300
Obviously for EMC & HP bloggers, DS5000 series looks no threat to their Clariion & EVA products respectively but there are specific indications
that DS5000 series future offerings will be definitely going to cut the EMC & HP business in this segment (Keep watch on this).
the beauty of this product is that it has the potential to bridge the gap between IBM's Mid-range & high range (DS8000) product offerings.

The pictures associated with this post gives you more performance & scalability offering of DS5000

HP Storage Products

NOTE: HP has comprehensive range of stroage hardware & software products such as servers, SAN, NAS, Switch & HBA software, HBA's, switches & SAN arrays, NAS devices etc. so here am listing only few storage specific products.

Disk Storage Systems [SAN]

XP Disk Array - High Level
[HP StorageWorks XP24000 Disk Array, XP20000 Disk Array, XP12000 Disk Array, XP10000 Disk Array]
• Bulletproof storage for 24x7 business continuity demands
• Massive consolidation for greater efficiency
• Virtualization platform for internal and external data

EVA Disk Arrays - Mid-level
[HP StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array 8100, EVA6100, EVA4400, EVA4100 & EVA Software]
• Powerfully simple enterprise class storage
• Affordable and virtualized storage with a low entry price and low total cost of ownership
• Reliable and available

MSA Disk Arrays - Entry level
[HP StorageWorks Modular Smart Array 2000sas, MSA2000fc, MSA2000i & Storage Resource Management Software (SRM)]
• Flexibility to start small and migrate drives & enclosures into larger configurations
• Increase server capacity
• Modular design enables expansion

NAS Systems
[HP All-in-One AiO1200r SATA, AiO1200r SAS, AiO600, AiO400t, AiO400r,AiOSB600c]
• Unbelievably simple: No storage expertise required
• Uniquely affordable: A complete storage solution
• Unquestioningly reliable: Integrated data protection and HP reliability

Scalable NAS

• Scalable, Available Enterprise NAS
• Windows and Linux File Serving
• Oracle over NFS, Microsoft SQL Server Consolidation

Switches
B-series [Fabric switches, Blade switches, Director switches]
• B-series switches and directors are used by small departments and global organizations to access and share data in a consolidated, manageable, and a scalable manner.
C-Series [Fabric switches, Blade switches, Director switches]
• C-series family of multilayer directors and fabric switches is a comprehensive line of SAN switches that provides an effective way to access, manage, and protect growing information resources.
• C-series switches are basically CISCO switches marketed by HP.

HP Storage Software

• Storage Resource Management Software (SRM)

• HP StorageWorks EVA Device Management Software
• HP StorageWorks EVA Replication Software

• HP StorageWorks XP Replication Software
• HP StorageWorks XP Device Management Software

• HP Storage Data Protection and Recovery Software
• HP StorageWorks Storage Replication Software
• NAS Device Management Software
• B-series Switch Device Management Software
• C-series Switch Device Management Software