Moving and Storage Business News

The News Review:

- 2008 Self-Storage Expense GuideBook Released by Cushman & Wakefield
- Scalent Teams With Emulex to Deliver Storage Access Virtualization
- Georgia firm to build storage units downtown
- Moving Mix Up Leaves Woman Without Half of Her Possessions
- IBM Addresses Information-Related Energy and Environmental Challenges

2008 Self-Storage Expense GuideBook Released by Cushman & Wakefield
Inside Self-Storage, AZ 
recently released the 2008 Self-Storage Expense GuideBook, compiled annually by the company’s Self Storage Industry Group (SSIG) and published by MiniCo Publishing. The publication provides operating-expense data for self-storage properties, offering ranges by region on the major expense categories. Christian Sonne, managing director of valuation services for SSIG, the GuideBook provides up-to-date information for current and prospective self-storage owners, operators and investors.
Related: EarthLink Announces Third Quarter 2008 Results

Scalent Teams With Emulex to Deliver Storage Access Virtualization
CNNMoney.com 
Typically, SAN-based storage access is determined by a unique identifier(World Wide Name, WWN), which is hard coded to the hardware (HBA) installedin a physical server. This static binding leads to server administratorseither physically opening servers and moving HBA cards to new machines inorder move storage, or leveraging storage administration to reconfigureswitches and storage arrays to recognize a new server. “The virtualization of storage access is critical to automating theretargeting of storage from one server to another,” said Kevin Epstein,vice president, Marketing, Scalent Systems. “Scalent can repurpose serversand move storage without reconfiguration of the SAN or physicalredeployment of adapter cards. This capability means that servers with SANstorage can now be brought on-line or fail-over in about 5 minutes. “Automating storage access with server provisioning greatly simplifies datacenter operations in a SAN environment,” said Scott McIntyre, vicepresident of Product Marketing, Emulex Corporation.

Georgia firm to build storage units downtown
Birmingham Business Journal, AL 
Calvert said the storage facility is well suited for loft residents that don’t have a lot of space or are downsizing and need to store furniture, as well as for commercial users. EGAD also consulted on the newly built Hoover Storage Facility off Lorna Road, partnering with the owners to build the four-story facility, said Brown. EGAD Group is an architectural, engineering and consulting firm that focuses on the self-storage industry. Brown said the company built 33 self-storage facilities in the Southeast last year. While the new storage facility took a dilapidated building off the block, it’s not necessarily an improvement for downtown Birmingham, said Mark Noyes, general manager of the nearby Sheraton Birmingham Hotel. “It doesn’t show much progress,” said Noyes. “But I guess anything new for the downtown area is good.

Moving Mix Up Leaves Woman Without Half of Her Possessions
MyFox Washington DC, DC 
The newly-wed Dillan and her husband paid shipper TMB Enterprises $1,300 dollars to move their furnishings from their Dupont Circle area condo to California, but found half of their belongings missing when the truck got to LA. Dillon says Tyrone McMath, the owner of the company, told her that he would store her things in a storage facility in Upper Marlboro for free. But the Storage company says the shipper didn’t pay the storage fee and they’re auctioning off her items Tuesday. Fox5 tried to contact McMath, but he didn’t return our phone call. Dillon says he stopped returning her calls and emails as well. There are several complaints about TMB Enterprises misrepresenting themselves and their services on the website uship. com, where Dillon found them initially.

IBM Addresses Information-Related Energy and Environmental Challenges
MarketWatch 
New Software from Across IBM Drives Better Efficiency

The next significant release of Lotus Notes 8. 5 and Domino e-mail and
collaboration software, expected to be available in the first
quarter, 2009, includes a new efficiency feature called Domino
Attachment Object Service. This ensures that only one copy of the
file attachment is kept on each mail server helping companies benefit
by eliminating the use of valuable storage hardware and software
resources including floor space, energy and related costs. The
savings due to reduced storage space requirements for Lotus Notes and
Lotus Domino is expected to be on the average of 35 percent for each
business. IBM Lotus Notes version 8. 5 will also make it easier to
find content stored on an IBM Lotus Connections server so that the
content does not need to be present in every mail file. IBM has combined the capabilities of Tivoli Usage and Accounting
Manager software with Tivoli Monitoring for Energy Management to
enable organizations to meter and charge back energy costs within
their own enterprise.