SSD News

What do you get when you mix optical drives with NAND technology? Hitachi‘s latest press release. Hitachi dabbles with a hard drive hybrid. However Seagate’s attempt at mixing the technology did not turn out so great. Slower performance, less than stellar number crunching but still Hitachi plods on. Boasting a caching performance boost, boot times, application speed, and capacity. Wait and see what price they put on it.

Intel’s 3rd gen SSD looks to be promising. Based on the previous postville design there have been a number of improvements. Boosted write speeds and drive size (from 160GB to 600GB) Intel looks to lock up the enterprise market. Full disk AES encryption also promoting data security for state secrets. The X25-m is set for first quarter launch.

Lawyers get hacked

Over in the UK data loss isn’t a new problem, actually quite a common occurrence. So let me recap the chain of events for this particular law firm. Collect personal data from ISP for lawsuit, then get hacked, have data distributed on said Internet available for all to see, prepare to get sued by angry porn addicts. Not quite the standard plan but let’s see how this works out. ACS: Law suffered a major data breach exposing the tawdry details of some 5,300 Sky broadband customers. Apparently the firm was targeted specifically and their database and contents pilfered from under their noses. Privacy proponents argued that the data was not secured, not even encrypted thus leaving the data exposed for cyber criminals. The Information Commissioner is investigating.

The reality of an hd crash

When your computer crashes it can point to major problems. I’m not talking about a simple problem that’s resolved by a reboot or reinstall. I’m talking about a physical hard drive crash. Heads fully contacting the platter surface, scraping and spreading debris inside your hard drive at 7,200 RPM. While the drive itself is no better than a doorstop or paperweight at this point, it may still be possible to recover your data.

Why you (or me for that matter)? Hard drives will fail over time. The physical wear and tear that occurs on a regular basis every time you turn on your computer, copy a file, or even when your screen saver is running adds up to hard drive wear. Managing your system files in a proper environment can also factor in to whether your drive lasts 5 years or 1. There are several disk utilities that can help you monitor the health of your hard drive but in the end it’s still up to you to back up your important files on an ongoing basis.

The repairs that occur within a clean room environment are delicate and require a certain expertise. It’s not something you can learn in college. Managing data storage will become the next hottest job trend as new data centers open and expand their capabilities. There will be plenty of opportunities if you know anything about maintaining massive amounts of servers and hard drives and being able to do it the most efficiently as possible.

As for the hard drive, whether it’s the platter, the motor, the heads, or the electronics that fail the problem cannot be fixed by the average home user. Even IT professionals aren’t trained to perform these types of repairs. Talk to a data recovery expert and get the facts. The more information you are able to provide the more accurate a quotation can be. Don’t rely on the guy who can’t even explain what a servo is. Get the right data and make an informed decision.

Keeping Servers Cool

Data centers are popping all over the country. Hundreds of servers, thousands of drives, and plenty of problems. One has to wonder how do they manage to maintain 99% uptime? For one thing, keeping the server room cool is at least part of the solution.

A simple measure that can be taken is to ensure efficient air flow. Make sure all your servers line up and that the fans are all pointed in the right direction. Intake on one side, hot air output on the other. You don’t want one server to be sucking in hot air outputted from another. If necessary add a bit of separation by hanging a barrier sheet in the center of the aisle. It allows for easy access when required but also adds a bit of airflow separation zones between hardware.

Another misconception is that server rooms are ice cold, wrong. Actually temperatures in servers rooms are set above normal room temperature. The greater the difference in temperature between the air and the server can create condensation, which you don’t want around electrical components. Ok, so that’s an exaggeration but the principle is the same. Keeping the temperature a bit warmer will save you a bit on energy costs. Don’t worry, the hardware can handle it.

Massive data storage centers can be quite costly with regular expenses on hardware and maintenance alone without worrying about energy costs so every bit counts. The more green technology we can put to use now will only benefit us in the future.

Data Center Usage

Probably one of the largest expenditures companies are making these days involve data storage in one way or another. Storing corporate data, user, and customer information securely is becoming a priority at the company board meeting. A couple of problems arise: keeping costs low, and developing a scalable solution.

Given the recent economic troubles Dell decided not to spend more money on servers and simply make better use of what they had. While 65% of their customers had outgrown their storage capacities there certainly was a need for off site solutions. Going to a virtualization model Dell saw it’s 12% server usage go to 42%. Increasing the workload without having to spend another dime. Making use of the resources at hand.

Proposed efficiency requirements have raised the ire of technology companies in this predicament. Placing an outdated standard on current technology would seriously hamper future innovation, not to mention force large expenditures on infrastructure. One thing is certain, the cost of storing data is going up.