Like the standard SATABeast SATA array, the Xi version has all the enterprise-class features you’d expect, at an extremely low price (as low as $1,250 per TB):
• High density, with up to 42 TB in only 4U
• Greener – extreme energy efficiency saves on operating costs
• Flexible, scalable, and completely OS independent
• Single or dual RAID controllers
• Redundant, hot swappable components
And it's been modified for use in Apple environments:
• Look and feel - the SATABeast Xi’s form factor and GUI interface have been redesigned to be more familiar and comfortable to Apple / Mac users.
• Looks great in Safari / Leopard interfaces.
• Ideal for data intensive multimedia applications like uncompressed real-time HDTV and high quality video editing.
• Also compatible with non-Apple servers and workstations, so it's perfect for mixed OS environments.
• No premium pricing – the SATABeast Xi is available at the same price point as the standard SATABeast.
For more details, you can download the complete SATABeast and SATABeast Xi SATA array data sheets from RADirect’s web site – start here.
If you’ve already deployed the SATABeast Xi, I’d love to hear from you.
]]>An unexpected e-mail pops into your inbox. Someone sent you a Valentine’s Day e-card! “Click here to retrieve your greeting,” instructs the message.
“How sweet,” you gush in excited anticipation, as you dutifully click on the email’s embedded link to retrieve your e-card.
Oops. What unleashes next is anything but words of endearment. It’s the Storm Worm virus, and faster than you can say “Roses are Red”, malware is downloaded to your PC. Congratulations! You’ve been infected, and are now the latest unwitting victim of the Storm Worm botnet.
Not exactly the love you were looking for, but you’re far from alone. According to Time Magazine, the Storm Worm virus has already infected upwards of one million computers worldwide since it was first discovered about a year ago.
Looks like you’ll have to wait for that romantic dinner after all, since this e-card was actually spam in disguise.
If you haven’t heard of the Storm Worm virus, it spreads itself under a wide range of pretenses - most recently under the guise of an e-card, and often around popular holidays like Christmas or Valentine’s Day. A recent FBI warning announced that this Valentine’s Day is expected to be the next big target. Additional warnings have been showing up on numerous web sites, including this one from Network World.
This is just one real-life example of how quickly and easily malicious threats can wreak havoc on your corporate network. At RADirect, we’ve noticed an increase lately in organizations (especially SMBs and extra-vulnerable business like hospitals and universities) looking for a solution to protect themselves from such attacks.
We recommend and sell the Radware DefensePro (starting at $9995) intrusion prevention system (IPS). This solution is unique because it has the ability to detect and block both known (signature-based) AND unknown (zero-day) attacks, like Storm Worm and the similarly destructive Rahack. The latter is done via adaptive behavioral analysis, and requires no human intervention.
And by the way, if you do fall victim to the Storm Worm virus, you can notify the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) by filing a complaint at IC3.gov.
So, Happy Valentine’s Day! Hope yours is filled with love, romance, and absolutely nothing involving worms or viruses.
Good news! Due to high response, Nexsan has extended the offer until March 31, 2008.
So here are the details one last time:
Who Qualifies?
Organizations that currently own any of these legacy Nexsan ATA storage products: ATABeast, ATABoy (8 bay product), ATABoy2, ATABoy2-F, or ATABoy2-X.
What's In It For Me?
Trade in one of the above units for a 45% discount off MSRP on Nexsan’s latest high density SATA-based storage systems - the 42TB/4U SATABeast SATA RAID array or 14TB/3U SATABoy SATA storage array (note: spares don't qualify).
Why Bother?
It's an opportunity to significantly upgrade your storage for a significantly discounted price. Both the SATABeast and SATABoy offer several improvements over their ATA-based predecessors, such as:
- Higher density with up to 42TB in a 4U chassis
- AutoMAID power-saving features
- iSCSI and 4Gb Fibre Channel connectivity
As before, don't hesitate to contact me directly if you're interested in taking advantage of this "ATA to SATA" trade-up offer.
]]>
We all know the expensive pitfalls of pornography in the workplace. Most obviously, it’s intrusive, offensive, and wastes valuable work hours. But even more importantly, it can lead to legal issues involving hostile workplace environments (hello, sexual harassment lawsuits).
With the recent release of their anti-spam appliance Mail-SeCure™ v3.6, PineApp added Inappropriate Content Control, also know as Porn MegaFilter. It's essentially an anti-pornography engine that eliminates the dirty stuff from corporate email systems by automatically detecting and blocking incoming and outgoing pornographic pictures as well as pictures embedded in PowerPoint presentations, videos and other media. It can also identify email with links to child pornography websites, block them and notify the administrator that the link is being sent.
At RADirect, we’ve received feedback from quite a few customers who said they would purchase Mail-SeCure for this feature alone. I find this alarming, only because it demonstrates how pervasive pornography in the workplace really is.
So what about your organization? Is pornography a big issue? How do you measure its costs? Have you faced, or been threatened with, legal action as a result of it? Do send me your feedback.
Of course, the logical reaction to such market uncertainty is to hold off on new projects and expenditures. My wife and I recently decided to postpone a new car purchase for this very reason.
But there’s no getting around the fact that some purchases, those most critical to the continuation of your business, simply can’t be put off.
If you need it, you need it.
But this year, more than ever, is the time to be extra diligent in evaluating your options.
This is the Year...
To scrap the old mantra: ‘No one ever got fired for buying [insert major brand name]’. Because although [insert major brand name] may have a strong reputation for reliability, chances are the associated outlay is much higher than you’re comfortable spending right now.
This is the Year...
To look for alternative solutions that will lower your overall TCO and offer a healthy balance between price, performance, and reliability.
This is the Year...
To minimize your risks by choosing a solution that’s been proven, yet still cost-effective.
At RADirect, I’m speaking with a lot of storage customers about things like consolidation and tiered storage, which fits right in with this way of thinking.
How is the current market volatility affecting your budget planning for 2008? Drop me a line - I’d love to hear from you.
]]>• ATABeast
• ATABoy (8 bay product)
• ATABoy2
• ATABoy2-F
• ATABoy2-X
If so, RADirect and Nexsan are offering a low-cost opportunity to trade them in and upgrade to Nexsan’s latest high density SATA-based storage systems - the 42TB/4U SATABeast SATA RAID array or 14TB/3U SATABoy SATA storage array.
Why upgrade? Both offer a bunch of improvements over their ATA-based predecessors, including AutoMAID power-saving features and iSCSI and 4Gb Fibre Channel connectivity.
Until December 21, 2007, you can trade in any of the products listed above for a 45% discount off MSRP on the SATABeast or SATABoy (note: spares don’t qualify).
Feel free to contact me directly to learn more about this "ATA to SATA" trade-up offer.
In brief, the PL-400 transports up to 8 high-speed (125Mbps - 4.25Gbps) services - storage, data, voice or video - in any mix, over an existing fiber pair. But It's actually more than just a mux - it also performs the 3R's (retiming, reshaping and regenerating), delivers performance and optical power monitoring, etc. So not just another passive solution.
So far, here’s what I’m hearing from customers about the PL-400:
Why Do They Like It?
1. It transports anything - in any mix! 1G/2G/4G Fibre Channel & FICON, ESCON, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, OC-3/STM-1, OC-12/STM-4, OC-48/STM-16, DVB-ASI video and GPON. And each can be configured independently.
2. It’s a money-saver. Eliminates the need to install additional, costly fiber pairs.
3. It’s small and green. Well, not physically green (more your standard blackish/grayish if color is important to you), but it’s only 1U high and delivers low power consumption.
4. It’s inexpensive. Especially given the fact that it supports so many different service types.
5. Feature-by-feature, it stacks up great against the competition.
How Do They Use It?
The biggest customer groups so far have been service providers, military/government, and campus environments (a lot of hospitals and universities) but the PL-400 CWDM / DWDM mux can be deployed in a variety of point-to-point, chain and ring topologies. Common applications include:
1. Fiber relief for high-capacity multi-tenant buildings and campuses
2. Interconnection of SAN and LAN islands in remote metro sites
3. Aggregation of DSLAM and Ethernet switch traffic on a single fiber - from access to core
4. WDM GPON extension between the central office and the local exchange for network simplification and cost reduction
5. DVB-ASI, SMPTE-SDI, SD-HDI, HD-HDI video transport
Spam zombies (what’s this?) created by increasingly sophisticated spammers/hackers can wreak major havoc by turning your computers into virtual spamming machines. And you often don’t know about it until it’s too late. These little guys pose a significant threat to your domain, and can possibly get you blacklisted.
Pretty spooky, huh?
PineApp, one of RADirect’s vendor partners for corporate email security, has created a neat little tool called the Zombie Detection System (ZDS) that allows you to test your network IP addresses for the presence of such zombies that could be generating spam messages and using your network to send them.
It’s quick, easy, and free, so try it out here.
And Have a Happy Halloween!
Evil-minded villains anxiously awaiting the day their organization’s sensitive information is blasted across the universe?
Not exactly.
It’s just that they are often bogged down with other things, or simply don’t know enough about security to deploy the necessary tools.
But the article also has good news: Seems the urgency of it all isn’t lost on those to whom it’s most critical (for example, the financial sector). Many organizations are taking steps towards improved database security by reorganizing the key team members responsible for it – i.e. moving DBAs out of their regular departments and inserting them within an IT security team. This win-win strategy brings more database knowledge into the IT Group while exposing the DBAs to the security-centric environment they need to gain more expertise.
Still Not Enough Time to Adequately Address Database Security?
If you're a DBA, you might also consider a tool like Sentrigo’s Hedgehog Oracle database security software.
I especially like this solution because it provides protection against both outsider and insider breaches and also helps facilitate regulatory compliance with reporting and forensics.
Perhaps even more importantly, it also offers virtual patching – predefined rules added in real-time to the Hedgehog system that address newly discovered vulnerabilities. This keeps your database protected from such threats during that critical interval between when they first become known and when Oracle releases the patch code (this can often take months!) and the organization actually applies it (several more months!). With Sentrigo's solution, there is no need to take the system down for the virtual patch installation.
Facing your own database security challenges? What's the bigger issue for you - lack of time or lack of knowledge? Please drop me a line and share your pains and gains.
]]>So naturally, I was thrilled to learn today that one of our enterprise network security products, the PineApp Mail-SeCure anti-spam appliance, is currently in the running for a title in Info Security Products Guide’s “2008 Product Excellence Awards” competition. It's nominated in two categories:
1. Best Anti-Spam Solution
2. Best Email Security Solution
Of course, we're already privy to the Mail-SeCure's award-worthiness. Not only do we rely on it for our own email security, but we've also seen it drastically reduce spam for many of our customers. In fact, one of our PineApp customers, a large ISP that trusts PineApp to handle their 65 million monthly mails, just bought their 4th Mail-SeCure unit (a 5080 model - the 'big dog'!).
Wanna See PineApp Win?
We do, and we've already cast our votes (yup, this one lets real users have a say!). You can vote, too. Just visit the online voting booth to vote for the PineApp Mail-SeCure as your pick for the best anti-spam solution and best email security solution.
Remember to cast your vote in both categories, and invite your spam-hating colleagues to vote too! All votes must be submitted by October 8th.
UPDATE - 10/17/07: The PineApp Mail-Secure has achieved "finalist" status in both categories! Winners will be honored at the Technosium 2008 event in Santa Clara, CA on January 30, 2008.
Good Luck, PineApp!
]]>
So why all the buzz? Soaring energy costs (including the cost of cooling). Environmental responsibility. Emerging regulations that govern power consumption levels. In short, companies are challenged to find more energy efficient ways to store higher volumes of data and retrieve it faster.
Analysts and experts have released all kinds of statistics and predictions that are extremely frightening, such as:
• IT organizations are now spending 25% of every hardware dollar on power (IDC)
• IT departments can expect to spend half of their total budget on energy (EPA draft report on server and data center efficiencies)
• By 2008, half of current data centers will have insufficient power and cooling capacity to meet the demands of high density equipment (Gartner)
• By 2009, energy costs will emerge as the 2nd highest operating cost in 70% of worldwide data center facilities (Gartner)
Well then, I guess it’s no surprise that energy efficient products have increased as a buying priority.
Fortunately, a few storage vendors are ahead of the game. For example, Nexsan Technologies, a veteran green machine which has installed more than 50 petabytes of “green storage” since 2001, incorporates their proprietary AutoMAID™ (Massive Array of Idle Disks) technology into their SATABeast and SATABoy SATA storage arrays.
This technology transparently places disk drives in an idle state to conserve energy yet still allows for near-instantaneous access to data, resulting in reduced power consumption and operational costs.
According to a recent Nexsan press release, the SATABeast SATA RAID array (at Level 3 AutoMAID), consumes up to 25 times less power than conventional storage arrays. If the requirement for greener storage continues to grow as I predict it will, this is the kind of stuff buyers will be looking for.
By the way, I noticed that the SATABeast was selected as a finalist for “Green Product of the Year” at this year's Techworld Awards in the UK. Nice!
I can’t say that I was very pleased with this outcome, and couldn’t help but feel resentful that my bank hadn’t taken any real measures to protect my sensitive information BEFORE it fell into the wrong hands.
I did a little research on this topic, and didn’t have to look very hard to find an alarming number of similar breaches (and these are just a few examples of the published ones!). They include:
1. July 2007 – A DBA contractor for a subsidiary of Fidelity Information Services was caught selling 2.3 million customer records, including credit card and bank account details.
2. July 2007 – An employee of a credit card processing company servicing the Disney Movie Club was caught by federal agents trying to sell credit card information.
3. December 2006 – Hackers gained access to a UCLA database containing personal information on 800,000 current and former students, faculty and staff, financial aid applicants and their parents (including those who did not even attend!). In this case, the university set up a dedicated website to help those affected by possible identity theft following the breach.
The good news is that there are now solutions that can prevent (or at least significantly reduce) this type of database security risk. In fact, we at RADirect are currently reselling a software offering from Sentrigo – the Hedgehog Oracle database security system (support for more databases coming soon). You can download a free 14-day eval license for the enterprise version.
If your business owns or maintains a database of personal information, please take real measures to protect it. It is the responsible thing to do, and represents a solid business practice.
]]>For example, why not migrate legacy applications (including T1s, T3s, ATM, Frame Relay and voice) to Ethernet? It can reduce your operating costs and simplify network management. Although any applications that use TDM, analog or low-speed data formats are not compatible with Ethernet, they can be emulated across the Ethernet connection using pseudowire technologies like TDMoIP (TDM over IP). Migrating legacy traffic to lower-cost Ethernet links with a psuedowire solution allows you to protect your investments in reliable, functional CPE, and preserve TDM-quality voice.
RAD Data Communications (RADirect's parent company) is the industry leader in this with their IPmux and Vmux families of pseudowire gateways.
As long as you have SLAs (service level agreements) in place to guarantee latency levels and bandwidth, you should feel comfortable carrying all traffic over the same infrastructure. Think of all those expensive T1s you can eliminate!
By the way, according to the Metro Ethernet Forum, sectors with the most potential to benefit from Carrier Ethernet include healthcare, finance, education and government.
One of the best examples I can think of relates to RAD’s Airmux-200 point-to-point wireless multiplexer. It reduces access costs by extending both data and T1 lines over a single link at a real throughput of 18 mbps full duplex and has a range of up to 50 miles. You can get a complete Airmux-200 link from RADirect for as low as $2,250 list.
Frequently, our Airmux fixed wireless solution finds itself up against comparable offerings such as the Motorola Canopy, Proxim Tsunami, and Adtran Tracer to name a few. But in most cases, the price/performance of the Airmux far exceeds that of its brand name competitors. Also in the Airmux’s favor:
1. Numerous longtime RF professionals have told us that the Airmux installation is the easiest they’ve ever experienced.
2. It’s the only radio on the market today that is 100% symmetrical in send and receive speeds, making it unmatched for live voice, video and music applications.
Of course, the Airmux may not be lagging in brand recognition for much longer. In the 2 ½ years that it’s been on the market, more than 50,000 radios have been successfully deployed in 72 countries. The most popular applications include connecting remote enterprise locations, wireless/cellular backhaul, and public safety.
And no one’s been burned.
Over time, I’ve come to realize that the distinction between data backup and data archiving can sometimes be cloudy, with the two terms often used interchangeably. The truth is there are many important differences between the two, so I thought I would use this entry to help clarify.
Put simply, a backup is created for emergency purposes – short term recovery in case the original data is lost or damaged. In contrast, the purpose of an archive is to store, protect, share and manage data assets for the long term and make them accessible for re-use on a regular basis.
In addition:
1. Backup systems are best for dynamic data that changes regularly – for example, customer databases. Digital archives store fixed content that doesn’t change, such as email archives, medical images, financial data, legal documents, images and video, etc.
2. While a backup is simply another copy of data stored on your primary systems, an archive is a preservation of original data moved off of your primary systems.
3. A backup stores data offline. An archive stores it online or near-line.
4. With backup, you generally have a blanket retention policy for all files. True archive systems allow you to set retention policies at the file-level.
5. With backup, data volume or time of day usually determine when data is copied. On an archive, data movement is determined by policy or event.
6. An archive is easily searched and directly accessible by many users – a backup is not.
Have a backup application? I think your best bet is Nexsan’s range of RAID storage arrays. For archiving, you want their Assureon content addressable storage solution.