ITNews

The InfoStor posting Data de-duplication: Questions and answers

Eight questions that every IT organization should ask about data de-duplication before they deploy or upgrade.

Just what is data de-duplication?

Data de-duplication is arguably one of the most important new technologies to hit the storage market in years, and it’s a game-changing technology that can have an immediate impact on end-user environments.

By reducing the amount of physical disk capacity that is needed to store information, data de-duplication allows organizations to keep more information on disk-based systems-making it more accessible to the people and applications that need it.

What data de-duplication ratios can I expect? Survey says

De-duplication trade-offs

Currently, there are two distinct types of data de-duplication available: inline and post-process. Which is which can be determined by the answer to the following simple question: When is backup data de-duped? If it’s done before it is written to the target, then it is inline de-duplication. If it’s done after, then it is post-process.

There can be some performance degradation with inline de-duplication approaches as data is being ingested, and there is an up-front capacity consideration with post-process approaches. The performance impact of the inline approach depends on a number of variables, including the de-duplication technology itself, the size of the backup volume, the granularity of the de-duplication process, the aggregate throughput of the architecture, and the scalability of the solution. Some inline functions occur at the server, some as a “bump in the wire,” but most take place at the target itself.

With the post-process approach, more disk capacity is needed up-front to store the backup volume. But the size of this capacity reserve also depends on a number of variables, including the amount of data being backed up and how long the data de-duplication technology needs to hold onto the capacity before releasing it. Solutions that wait for the entire backup process to complete before releasing capacity have a greater “capacity overhead” than solutions that start the de-duplication process earlier as backup data is being stored.

Read the article for the rest of the Qs and As.

…John

The News.com posting A flash memory notebook: The sounds of silence is a first hand account of living with a solid-state drive installed in a notebook.

(Credit: Samsung)

Flash drives, which store data in NAND flash memory, don’t require motors or spinning platters. Thus, there are no whirring mechanical noises.

Is the quiet and extra battery life worth nearly a $900 premium? In a word, no, but you’ve got to look at the future. Although in the price stratosphere now, flash drives will start to compete more directly with drives over the next four years. Flash memory density continues to increase at a rapid pace, doubling almost every year, and large manufacturers like Samsung, Toshiba, SanDisk and Intel have or are opening factories geared at churning out flash. Taken together, this will lead to an easy availability of chips, better capabilities, and recurring price wars.

The drawback is the price. The same Latitude with an 80GB standard hard drive currently sells for $869 on Dell’s site. Swapping the drive for a 64GB flash hard drive adds $899 to the price. The upgrade more than doubles the price of the notebook to $1,768 and slightly eliminates storage.

Let the price wars begin.

…John

The EE Times posting Atomic clocks plumb cosmological mysteries is reporting that the new quantum clocks are out doing the older atomic clocks.

The new quantum clocks are accurate to within 1 second every billion years. The older atomic clocks are pikers clocking in at only 1 second every 80 million years.

One proposed use of the new and improved clock is to determine if the fine-structure constant is changing.

There are other uses too.

According to NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology), such ultra-accurate clocks are useful for synchronizing telecommunications networks, space navigation, satellite positioning and deep-space communications, and could enable new types of gravity sensors for exploring underground natural resources here on Earth.

…John

I chuckled at the Inquirer posting last month Dealing with Ballmer is like dealing with an estate agent, over the remarks of an EC regulator dealing with the recent judgment against Microsoft.

Neelie Kroes revealed how in meetings she found him more slippery than a well-greased eel.

She said that she could remember at least four times when, if you were naïve, you could have thought everything was fixed.

However, it turned out that nothing was ever fixed and Microsoft was not even trying to “deliver and implement.”

In short, negotiating with Steve ’sounds of silence’ Ballmer was like dealing with an estate agent who is trying to convince you that the kitchen really is not falling into a Victorian cesspit and will be cheap to repair.

Unfortunately for the Vole, Kroes really thinks that Steve is the sort of person where you have to count your fingers after shaking hands. This might cause a few problems for Microsoft when it comes to the EU deciding about any take overs of Yahoo.

Today over breakfast I read the eWeek story “Steve Ballmer On Vista, virtualization and open vows”. Baller was interview by Senior Editor Peter Galli. (sorry, there doesn’t seem to be a link to the article on eWeek.com).

I was struck by the responses beginning with “Well,…” An insurance adjuster advised me some time ago to not believe anything after the “Well,…” I don’t. This sage advice has proven itself again and again.

Steve Ballmer has proven his marketing genius over the years. I think Microsoft would be just a shadow of itself if it weren’t for Ballmer’s marketing talents.

In the end, I think Ballmer always gets his pound of flesh. Late last month during a conference call billed as “significant, ” Steve Ballmer and others divulged some details of opening some API’s and protocols. See Microsoft Opens Kimono - Somewhat.

Oh, about that pound of flesh. In the interview Steve says

Open-source developers can write software that uses those patents. Their customers, the users of the products, must get a license. The developers themselves don’t need to get a patent license.

Slick, Steve. Slick.

…John

Prices for Samsung, Sony and Sharp Blu-ray disc players are at an all time high.

I guess the winners of the high definition disc format war have won the right to turn on their greed machines.

(Credit: Tom’s Hardware)

I seems to me these greedy vendors would lower their prices to attract more customers and increase the number of Blue-ray titles they sell.

Oh well, when did logic ever trump marketing greed?

…John