The solution for better and faster storage may lie in DSSD, a stealthy chip startup backed by Andreas von Bechtolsheim, that counts several members of the Sun ZFS team as founders. Read more »
Startup founded by two VMware veterans aims to make server-side flash more scalable by pooling it into a shared resource and — wait for it — virtualizing it. Read more »
ScaleIO, a Palo Alto storage startup that wants to create pools of storage resources using SSDs and existing storage hardware, has raised $12 million in first-round funding from Norwest Venture Partners and Greylock Partners. It joins several other startups hoping to win big in storage. Read more »
Rackspace’s new OpenStack-powered Cloud Block Storage comes in spinning disk and faster SSD tiers and lets customers mix and match block size with compute instances as needed, says company CTO John Engates. Read more »
The Gemini flash array is the first of what will probably be many solid-state storage products announced this week. Nimbus Data says the new array will cut all-in storage cost to $8 per GB from $10 per GB for its previous model. Read more »
Watch out hard drives — slick startup Skyera, launched by the founder of SandForce, says it really can put flash storage everywhere — without breaking the bank. It’s a bold claim but one that’s backed up with some pretty credible storage expertise. Read more »
Amazon’s new “High I/O Quadruple Extra Large” compute instances use SSD to store and retrieve lots of data fast — which should make them popular for interactive web and mobile applications where real-time response to user clicks and gestures is key. Read more »
Brad Spiers, who runs cloud IT for Bank of America Merrill Lynch, has some thoughts about the uses of cloud computing by financial services firms and what is holding back adoption of hot technologies like solid state storage and in-memory databases. Read more »
DynamoDB, AWS’ latest effort to rock the technology establishment, has many implications for other players in the big data and cloud computing markets. A new GigaOM Pro research note examines just who is affected, and how. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Somewhat lost in the greater story of Amazon Web Services’ new DynamoDB NoSQL database is that the new service runs atop a solid-state storage system. By abstracting those SSDs behind a NoSQL service, AWS is trying to prove that hardware presents greater opportunities than Infrastructure-as-a-Service alone. Read more »
Are you ready for 128 GB memory cards and solid state drives art more reasonable prices? Intel and Micron have teamed up to deliver a 128 GB multicell flash memory chip that will make incredibly dense memory a reality for tablets, cell phones and yes, servers. Read more »
Virident, the PCIe solid state memory player that competes head to head with Fusion-io, scored $21 million in Series C funding including money from new investors Intel Capital and Cisco Systems, as well as contributions from Sequoia Capital and Artiman Ventures. Read more »
As more and more of our ‘computational’ needs that span from work to entertainment transition to the cloud, is it time to start writing the obituary for local storage? With a 100 Mbps connection, local storage is going the way of the dodo for me. Read more »
Nutanix just closed a $25 million Series B round for its system that puts computing and storage on the same node, allowing companies to scale their storage layer without investing in a SAN. Khosla Ventures led the round, along with Lightspeed Venture Partners and Blumberg Capital. Read more »
Fastly, a startup created this year, is turning the economics of delivering content on it’s head with a content delivery network comprised of solid state drives. By placing two servers packed with SSDs in customers’ data centers, Fastly can speed up the load times. Read more »
A new Apple patent published Thursday by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office reveals plans for a new type of hybrid drive that combines the benefits of both platter-based and flash storage. It’s not a new idea, but Apple’s patent contains a unique new twist. Read more »
Big data can sometimes mean big infrastructure to run everything on, or perhaps it can mean slower performance as the hardware struggles to read from or write to a database, which is why we picked Acunu as one of our Structure 2011 Launchpad companies. Learn more. Read more »
Combine virtualization, big data and solid state memory, and you get a trifecta of technology buzz words that a few startups are trying to combine to deliver faster speeds on top of virtualized infrastructure. Plus, as speed becomes crucial, are hard drives still relevant? Read more »
New types of storage technology will be needed in order to shift cloud storage from a backup service to a primary function, according to a panel made up of storage entrepreneurs and execs at Structure 2011 in San Francisco on Thursday. Read more »
Cloud storage startup SolidFire is giving cloud providers early access to its solid-state-disk-based systems for storing customers’ data. The Atlanta-based company is building SSD-based appliances that it says will help ease the migration of enterprise applications into the cloud by significantly boosting storage performance. Read more »
Apple is gearing up to release Lion, the first OS X updated to leave some Intel-based Macs out of the party. Even with the minimum specs, you won’t be getting the full experience. Here’s how to make some key improvements without breaking the bank. Read more »
SSDs are making new computers blazingly fast. But how do they affect the performance of older machines? I tested an SSD in my original black MacBook (circa 2006) to find out if it could help my aging beauty get back her youthful charm. Read more »
Apple teased the next installment of OS X, 10.7 Lion, again at WWDC on Monday, and set its release for July. But this upgrade might leave a lot of users cold, even as it paves the way for wider adoption of OS X down the road. Read more »
The next version of OS X will also be sold only through the Mac App Store. This is yet another step away from traditional media distribution as Apple will effectively be cutting out other means of software distribution like Amazon. Read more »
A day after Twitter experienced its “CNN moment,” John Adams , the messaging service’s operations engineer, posted a nice slide show on how the company has scaled and the tools it uses. Entitled, “Talk Cloudy to Me” the slide show reviews old insights and offers new ones. Read more »
Kaminario, which provides high-performance storage, has raised a $15 million C round of financing. As SSD startups hit maturity and the market for using solid state drives in data centers for high-performance and energy efficient storage heats up, when will we see the inevitable consolidation? Read more »
Seagate today agreed to buy Samsung’s hard drive business in a deal valued at $1.375 billion in a deal that highlights how broadband adoption, the cloud and mobility are changing the dynamics of the storage industry. Read more »
The MacBook Air may or may not get a June spec bump, as per recent rumors, but at least one component appears to have already been quietly updated. Some newer MacBook Airs are shipping with what seems to be a noticeably faster SSD. Read more »
Just before the latest MacBook Pro updates were released, rumors swirled that the new models would adopt solid-state drives in addition to hard disk drives and drop internal DVD drives. That sounded perfect to me, so I made it happen even though Apple didn’t. Here’s how. Read more »
According to Violin Memory CEO Donald Basile, Fusion-io’s proposed IPO is just the start of what should be a very busy era for flash. Basile, whose previous job was as chairman and CEO of Fusion-io, sees an impending multi-billion-dollar market, spurred in part by Larry Ellison. Read more »
Fusion-io, a maker of specialty solid-state storage drives, has raised $45 million in a third funding round, bringing its total investment to $111.5 million. The company is succeeding because webscale businesses and cloud computing need its gear that speeds up access to stored data. Read more »
By all accounts, mobility is the name of the game in 2010. Smartphone shipments shot skyward last quarter and major handset makers, particularly LG and Samsung, are ramping up production this year. The same bullish sentiment is expanding into tablets in general and Apple’s iPad in ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
There aren’t too many computing devices still using the 1.8″ hard drives that we saw in the first UMPCs. But if you still have one of them and are looking for a storage upgrade, Active Media Products might be worth a look. The company today launched […] Read more »
Data center managers aren’t the only ones suddenly charmed by solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing storage needs. A growing number of VCs are also warming to the green, high-performance potential of the storage technology (GigaOM Pro Research, subscription required). With no moving parts to speak of, […] Read more »
[qi:gigaom_icon_chip] As Microsoft prepares its upcoming Oct. 22 launch of Windows 7, it looks like the chip industry has several reasons to love the new operating system. Everything from its smaller footprint to better performance while running it from a solid-state hard drive could change the […] Read more »
Dataram today took the wraps off its XcelaSAN solid-state disk (SSD) appliance. The company made its name selling memory-optimization products for high-performance computing workloads (and claims 70 percent of the Fortune 100 as customers), but the revolutionary promise of SSD technology lured Dataram into the storage […] Read more »
With the help of a friend who already successfully completed the process, I managed to install OS X on my new Dell Mini 9. This was my first and, hopefully, my last Dell purchase. Sorry, Apple. I became too curious. Everyone appeared to love their hackintosh […] Read more »
One of the ports included with all the new (and previous generation of) MacBook Pros is an ExpressCard slot. Having never had this type of expansion before, I’ve decided to have a look around and see what uses it can serve. This article will give a […] Read more »
