But Wait, There's More

IBM Sets Linux Record on TPC-H Data Warehousing Benchmark with a Cluster

Hot on the heels of announcing its 32-way xSeries 460 Xeon-based server, IBM chose to prove its competitiveness against big Unix iron--but by ironically running the TPC-H data warehousing benchmark on a cluster of smaller xSeries 346 servers running DB2-on-Linux rather than on the 32-way box using its "Hurricane" chipset for 64-bit Xeon chips from Intel.

On the TPC-H test using a 3 TB database size, 64 of IBM's xSeries 346s, each with a single 3.6 GHz Xeon processor with 2 MB of cache and 4 GB of main memory and a total of 26.3 TB of data was able to chew through 54,466 queries per hour (QPH) at a cost of $32 per QPH after a 15 percent discount. The cluster ran Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 operating system and IBM's own DB2 8.2 database. The cluster used InfiniBand interconnections from Voltaire to lash the machines together at the hardware level and the Integrated Cluster Extension (ICE) features of DB2 to lash them together at the software level. The Linux cluster offered a little more performance than a 64-way Hewlett-Packard Itanium-based Integrity SMP server running HP-UX 11i Unix and Oracle 10 Enterprise Edition and a little less performance than a Sun Microsystems Sun Fire 25000 server with 72 dual-core UltraSparc IV processors running at 1.2 GHz. That Sun box ran Oracle 10g as well, but on Sun's own Solaris 10 Unix.

Lockheed Martin Picks Litanium Cluster for Shuttle Fuel Tank Analysis

With NASA biting its fingernails as it prepares to resume Space Shuttle flights in mid-to-late July, Lockheed Martin's Space Systems-Michard Operations is continuing to do impact analysis on the external fuel tanks, running simulations on the redesigned tanks using the popular LS-DYNA finite element analysis software from Livermore Software Technology. Lockheed Martin is obviously keen on simulating the effects of foam, ice, and any other debris as it hits parts of the external tank, since damage to the wing of the Columbia shuttle caused by ice built up prior to launch caused it to explode on re-entry into Earth's atmosphere.

To that end, Lockheed Martin has acquired a 32-way Altix 3000 Linux supercomputer with 64 MB of shared memory as well as a 4 TB InfiniteStorage TP9100 storage server to run simulations just on the external tank. SGI's visualization workstations were also used in redesigning the external tank, using the CATIA computer-aided design application from Dassault Systemes.

Microsoft Drops Linux Support as it Finishes Sybari Acquisition

This one was not exactly a cliffhanger: as Microsoft closed its acquisition of Sybari Software for its antivirus software, Big Bill has decided that it will no longer offer support for Linux and Unix platforms, as Sybari had done, so it can focus solely on the Windows platform.

While it would be easy to beat Microsoft up about this, it is far easier to simply note that if any platform needs antivirus support really badly and the tight integration that Microsoft is promising to make that platform more secure, it is definitely Windows. And if any two platforms do not need Microsoft's help in being more secure, it is Unix and Linux.

Tandberg Unveils 1U LTO Tape Autoloader

Do you have a use for an LTO autoloader that occupies only 1U, or 1.75 inches, of space in an industry standard rack? Tandberg Data, which last week announced what it claims is the densest rack-mount LTO autoloader in the business, is betting that you do. The LTO StorageLoader features a half-height LTO-2 tape drive that can hold up to eight data cartridges across two removable magazines, giving the device a native storage capacity of 1.6 TB (3.2 TB compressed) and a native transfer rate of 24 MB per second (or 48 MB per second compressed). Users can interact with the SCSI-based StorageLoader through its LCD screen and four-button keypad, or through a Web-based interface; a barcode reader is optional. "For small to medium businesses, our new StorageLoader will cost less than a LTO-3 full-height drive and store four times the capacity, while providing integrated automated backup and manageability features," says Ken Cruden, Tandberg Data's chief operating officer. To sweeten the pot, Tandberg is offering eight free LTO2 cartridges with the purchase of a new StorageLoader; see www.storageloader.com for more information.

IDC Says Disk Storage Sales Grew Modestly in Q1

Market researcher IDC says sales for disk storage continue to grow modestly. In its analysis of the external disk array market for the first quarter of 2001, IDC reckons that overall market revenue for external disk arrays grew by 6.7 percent to $3.77 billion, while the total market for disk arrays (including internal units sold for servers) grew by 6 percent to $5.47 billion. The aggregate capacity sold across all kinds of disk arrays continues to explode, with a total of 409 petabytes peddled in the quarter, up 58.6 percent.

EMC was the dominant supplier of disk arrays, with $808 million in sales in the first quarter. Up 12.2 percent. Hewlett-Packard came in second with $668 million in sales and growth of only 6.2 percent, followed by IBM's $435 million (up 9.2 percent), Hitachi's $345 million (up only 1.9 percent), and Dell's $291 million (up 29.2 percent). Other vendors in the diverse disk array market accounted for $1.22 billion in sales, but their share of the pie shrank by a fraction of a percent.

When you add in internal disk arrays, HP is the dominant supplier, with $1.23 billion in sales in the quarter, up 4.2 percent, followed by IBM, with $1.02 billion in sales, up 4 percent. EMC's numbers stay the same because it does not sell its own servers, but Dell's numbers are bumped up a bit to $444 million across all disk array types, an increase of 26.2 percent compared to last year. At current growth rates (provided they persist), Dell will surpass EMC in the overall disk market within three years, and in four years will be jockeying for the top spot with HP. Other disk array makers accounted for $1.61 billion in sales in the quarter, up 2.2 percent and accounting for a little less than a third of all disk array sales worldwide.

Storix Releases Backup/Restore for Mac OS X and Windows with System Backup Administrator 5.2

Data archiving and system backup software maker Storix announced this week that it has ported its backup/restore features of its System Backup Administrator software to the Apple Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows platforms. The core System Backup Administrator software was written for IBM's AIX Unix variant a number of years ago and was recently ported to the open source Linux operating system. These AIX and Linux platforms run SBA--which can backup and restore files for the purposes of archiving, or go into disaster recovery mode and restore a working AIX or Linux operating system image on a remote machine--even if the underlying hardware (such as disks and controllers) is different on the new machine from the old machine for that operating system image. With SBA 5.2, Storix is allowing a Linux-based SBA server to backup and restore data that is stored on Windows or Mac OS X clients or servers; it does not provide disaster recovery (by which Storix means restoring working operating systems) to these platforms. This backup/restore functionality for Windows and OS X is not available with AIX-based servers at this time.

In addition to the new platform support, SBA 5.2 also includes optional 128-bit, 192-bit, and 256-bit data encryption on backed-up files, which would come in pretty handy these days at the big banks that keep losing credit card data.

A base, two-node network configuration of SBA 5.2 costs $1,200 on Linux/X86 platforms, $2,100 on Linux/Power platforms, and $2,400 on AIX/Power platforms. The Windows and OS X backup/restore feature costs $79 per backed up device (be it a desktop or server). The data encryption feature costs $269.

IT Managers Still Sleepless Over Security Issues

When you see words like deadly and crippling used to describe security threats, you can be pretty sure the words that follow will wipe the smile of the face of any IT manager. That's assuming you've seen an IT manager smile in the first place. According to Gartner research, IT managers don't have much to smile about. Their minds are tortured with thoughts about the potential havoc created by viruses and worms. And they fear their current defense systems--firewalls, intrusion detection and protection, and anti-virus software--is inadequate protection.

Based on a Gartner survey that garnered responses from 133 North American organizations with global operations and revenues exceeding $750 million, 50 percent of the respondents increased IT security spending in 2005 and expected to do so again in 2006. Seven of 10 considered their systems and processes more secure than a year ago, mainly because better security controls now are in place.

In a Gartner forecast from earlier this year, the research firm predicted revenue for the security software sector would grow at a compound annual growth rate of 16.2 percent through 2009, with new license revenue reaching $11.4 billion. Market growth will be bolstered by a strengthening economy, stimulus from government regulations, and new types of security threats.

Spending priorities--beyond firewalls, intrusion detection and protection, and anti-virus software--include patch management, strong user authentication, remote access, vulnerability assessment, user provisioning or identity management, security event correlation and reporting, spam filtering, and Web site filtering or blocking.

Malicious employees within the organization ranked eighth on the list of critical threats.