Galaxy Storage Line by Rorke Data Addresses Transition From Analog to Digital
As new, non-classic data center applications proliferate
By Jean Jacques Maleval | March 28, 2008 at 3:08 pmA one-two
punch is at work in the storage arena, and this combined
force is changing the landscape of storage. The value proposition
of hard disk drives continues to grow stronger as the cost
per gigabyte decreases and the technology marches forward,
creating compelling economies. Add to this a bevy of new
applications that have taken shape outside of the traditional
confines of the data center and the industry is in the midst
of a rebirth.
From video security to compliance to web hosting, the cost
of SATA storage has aligned to fuel a new range of applications.
One of the beneficiaries of this movement is the Galaxy
Storage line developed by Rorke Data, a wholly owned subsidiary
of Bell Microproducts, which has over the
last eight years been deployed in this new realm of storage.
Achieving success in broadcast, medical, surveillance, and
other storage-centric markets, the time is right to expand
the market for Galaxy, according to Joe Swanson, vice president
and general manager of Rorke Data. Swanson explained, "More
and more, we are seeing businesses strategically planning
to use our Galaxy product line to achieve greater competitiveness
in their offerings for new web hosted solutions, digital
content and a range of other storage-enabled applications.”
Management and retention of the growing volume of data and
images that need to be stored have reached critical mass.
Many different issues are driving this rapid increase in
data storage requirements, creating a new storage landscape
for the mid-market. Companies in the mid-market seek efficient
and reliable solutions for managing content and are now
faced with the decentralization of storage applications.
What was once solely the domain of the mission-critical
data center is now spread throughout the organization.
Swanson points to this market shift and sees a new paradigm
for how storage is deployed and the resulting need for value-based
storage solutions. Seagate Technology, the world’s leading
supplier of hard disk drives, agrees that there is strong
growth in storage being driven by business critical applications.
"Seagate believes that tremendous growth is possible in
this mid-market area as a result of new applications and
people storing their data smarter with tiered storage solutions
like Galaxy," said Henry Fabian, executive director of marketing
for Seagate’s Enterprise Compute Business. "We continue
to deliver innovative technology and features in our business-critical
product family which includes the Barracuda ES.2 hard
drive, a drive that is well-suited for the growing needs
of businesses by delivering the highest capacity, PowerTrim
technology for reduced power consumption, and field-proven
reliability.”
Today’s unique issues are a driving factor — security concerns
place a priority on surveillance video applications; regulatory
compliance mandates such as Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA stipulate
longer retention periods for records. Growth in storage
is also heavily driven by newly created applications that
have arisen because of the recent capacity breakthroughs
from perpendicular recording in drives, RAID 6 in controller
technology, and the overall lowered cost model of storage.
IPTV and other new applications have massive storage needs
and the next generation of applications is just around the
corner. Additionally, the transition from analog (tape)
to digital (disk) storage plays a role in storage market
dynamics, as disk-based storage is now less expensive and
holds more volume than tape-based storage.
All of these issues combine to set the stage for the dawn
of a new age in storage: the creation of a new storage market
— the mid-market — in which innovative storage providers
are finding and creating their own niches.
The Galaxy line of RAID and NAS storage solutions addresses
this mid-market ground with its flexible, value-based storage
solution that incorporates advanced, proven technology into
a practical yet high performance storage device. Seagate’s
Barracuda ES.2 drive is certified for the full line of Galaxy
solutions.
Success in this new storage arena requires practical storage
solutions, as these applications cannot exist in the typical
enterprise model of highly complex and costly storage architectures.
Practical storage solutions are affordable and deliver the
capacity and features needed for the application at hand,
while offering scalability to meet future growth. Performance
and quality become key parts of the equation, as these are
real time applications. An additional factor necessary to
successfully solving the new storage equation is the availability
of hands-on application experts to ensure optimum deployment.
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