Moving and Storage Business News

The News Review:

- Zero tiers for superfast storage
- Industry blames KESC for over-charging : Self-finance policy reversed
- I/O Virtualization Startup Secures $12M
- Sitting on R20bn doesn’t take the dream away for Flax

Zero tiers for superfast storage
Register – Oct 29, 2006
The Tier 0 storage used for the test was a dual-processor server with 32GB of memory, costing under $10,000. It claimed Tier 0 could therefore be 300 times more cost-effective than NAS. The company attributes the Tier 0 concept to Taneja Group analyst Brad O’Neill, who pointed out in an article that while ILM typically focuses on reducing storage costs by moving infrequently used data to cheaper storage, it could equally well work the other way around, by moving the most frequently accessed data to the fastest storage. Of course, that’s not so different from how Tier 1 high-end disk arrays are used today. The key, according to Acopia’s international head Tim Pitcher, is that virtualisation allows you to treat those files that need to be stored on disk differently from ones that don’t. “This is not where data lives,” he said, “it’s a working storage – it’s a similar concept to solid-state disks, but no-one else can do this our way… The Tier 0 storage used for the test was a dual-processor server with 32GB of memory, costing under $10,000. It claimed Tier 0 could therefore be 300 times more cost-effective than NAS. The company attributes the Tier 0 concept to Taneja Group analyst Brad O’Neill, who pointed out in an article that while ILM typically focuses on reducing storage costs by moving infrequently used data to cheaper storage, it could equally well work the other way around, by moving the most frequently accessed data to the fastest storage. Of course, that’s not so different from how Tier 1 high-end disk arrays are used today. The key, according to Acopia’s international head Tim Pitcher, is that virtualisation allows you to treat those files that need to be stored on disk differently from ones that don’t. “This is not where data lives,” he said, “it’s a working storage – it’s a similar concept to solid-state disks, but no-one else can do this our way.

Industry blames KESC for over-charging : Self-finance policy reversed
Pakistan Dawn – Oct 29, 2006
Prior to privatisation of the KESC an applicant or customer under the self-financing policy was asked to purchase all the material needed for getting power connection and the utility company was only responsible for the supervision of the work. This gave the customers a choice to purchase the required material from the open market at a competitive price and also ensure its quality as per the KESC’s specifications. However, after the privatisation the power utility company changed its policy overnight and took the responsibility of making available all the materials required for providing any power connection, which may also include fixing of poles and laying of cables. As a result of this changed policy many business and industrial establishments have raised objection because the system lacked transparency and the customers feel that they are been `fleeced’ by the utility company as they could not verify the price as well as the quality of the material used by the KSEC. Another allegation being levelled by industrial, commercial and residential consumers against the power utility is about exorbitant charges being taken against all the materials supplied by the KESC. It is a general practice that huge amount are demanded and details of pricing of each item, going to be used for a particular project or purpose, are not given. “In this era of computerisation and automation the KSEC is still processing such important documents manually where millions of rupees are involved,” industry sources said… However, a spokesman of the KSEC told Dawn that the change in the policy had been made on a well thought-out plan and after finding some major flaws in the previous policy of self-financing. He said that the major problem, which was being confronted by the KESC in asking the consumer to arrange for material, was with regard to quality and this compelled the utility company to alter the policy and take the responsibility of providing material on its shoulders. Responding to a question the spokesman said that the material was provided at market rates but some nominal charges were added on account of storage and procurement. However, he was unable to answer allegations about the quality and standard of the materials being supplied by the KESC. Under the self-financing policy the KSEC was only responsible for the supervision of installation and providing power connection but under new arrangements it has to supply material required for any particular job for industrial, commercial or residential power connection. com Banner Code ————– –>.

I/O Virtualization Startup Secures $12M
infoworld.com – Oct 29, 2006
Tony Palmer added, “The trend towards efficient merchant solutions for the data centers, storage and networking infrastructure will continue. VirtenSys’ products will enable OEM vendors to build dynamic and tiered data centers based on cost and performance effective servers and platforms. Its products increase the servers’ utilization in the data center while decreasing the IT asset and ownership cost. Their strategy is standards compliant and is based on an evolutionary migration path that allows dramatic improvements in the value, space requirements, effectiveness, power and thermal usage of both newly installed and existing IT infrastructure. “There are major challenges facing the IT industry today trying to balance the conflicting needs of limited IT budget growth while reducing the total cost of ownership (TCO) and improving the systems utilization and performance,” said Stuart Paterson, a Director in SEP’s Information Technology group. “Semiconductor vendors like VirtenSys are increasingly responsible to deliver cutting-edge semiconductor solutions that OEMs rely upon to meet those needs.

Sitting on R20bn doesn’t take the dream away for Flax
Business Report – Oct 29, 2006
open(new_location, win_name, win_opts);}. Dressed generally in trendy, casual, long-sleeved shirts, he can be found most days gazing intently at the screen of his laptop at a desk in a modest glass-enclosed office in the historic, former Imperial Cold Storage building on Cape Town’s Foreshore. Or a visitor may catch him ambling past the third-floor reception area of the building on his way back from the meeting rooms. Fifteen years ago, Flax was involved in the restoration of the old building. And until this week, it was the headquarters of Spearhead Property, the highly successful, Cape-based property company of which Flax was chief executive. Appropriately, the building had been renamed “The Spearhead”, which aptly sums up the role Flax has assumed in commercial property development in the Western Cape region during his tenure… “The fundamentals have never been better: low inflation, strong gross domestic product growth, shortages of developed space and a massive infrastructure spending programme. This should drive demand for office, industrial and even retail space past the 2010 World Cup soccer tournament. ”

Flax adds: “I see rentals rising like never before, leading to the first landlords’ market in a couple of decades!”

Flax plans to manage his role without moving from Cape Town. “I will commute to Joburg when necessary. Most of the new developments are in the Cape and they also need my time. In the long run, we’ll have to monitor the situation and should the need arise for my family to relocate, we’ll do it. ”

Flax, the son of an East London doctor and educated at Selborne College, completed his degree in chartered accountancy at the University of Cape Town.