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  • Origin Storage 13:54 on 29/02/2012 Permalink | Reply  

    Toshiba Signs Agreement with WD on Acquisition of HDD Manufacturing Equipment and Transfer of HDD Manufacturing Facility 

    TOKYO — Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO: 6502) today    announced    that    it    has entered into a definitive agreement with Western Digital Corporation (NYSE: WDC) on  Toshiba’s  acquisition  of  certain  of  Western  Digital’s  3.5-inch HDD manufacturing  equipment  and  related  intellectual  property,  and  the  transfer  to Western Digital of Toshiba Storage Device (Thailand) Co., Ltd. (TSDT), Toshiba’s wholly-owned HDD manufacturing subsidiary located in Thailand.

    Toshiba and Western Digital aim to complete the acquisition and transfer by March of this year after obtaining approval from the relevant authorities.

    Under the agreement, Toshiba will acquire the following equipment and intellectual property from Western Digital.

    1)  Manufacturing equipment for 3.5-inch HDDs for use in desktop PCs and other consumer applications, plus related intellectual property; and

    2)  Manufacturing equipment for near-line [1] HDDs for server applications.

    Toshiba also has agreed  to transfer  to Western  Digital  its entire shareholding  in TSDT.

    Toshiba’s acquisition of assets from Western Digital and the transfer of TSDT to Western  Digital  are  subject  to  Western  Digital’s  completion   of  its  pending acquisition of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies and regulatory approvals from the relevant antitrust authorities.

    The global market for HDD and other storage devices is expected to see sustained demand growth, driven by the continued diversification of devices requiring storage, including PCs, tablets and smartphones, and the explosive increase in data storage and archiving that will accompany cloud computing.

    Toshiba acquired Fujitsu Limited’s HDD business in 2009, expanding its product portfolio  of  small  form  factor  HDDs  for  mobile  applications  with  Fujitsu’s enterprise  HDDs.  Since  then,  the  company  has  developed  a  line-up  of storage products for enterprise applications. More recently, in July 2011 Toshiba unified the Semiconductor Company and the Storage Products Company, covering NAND flash memories, SSDs and HDDs, and is now positioned to carry out coordinated sales promotions to a wide range of customers.

    The purchase of part of Western Digital’s 3.5-inch HDD manufacturing equipment and with it the capability to produce 3.5-inch HDDs for desktop PCs, DVR and other  consumer  applications,  will  expand  Toshiba’s  portfolio  and  enable  the company to supply products covering all segments of the HDD market. It will also expand  Toshiba’s  supply  capacity  in  the  market  for  near-line  HDDs,  which  is expected  to  expand  with  the  continuing  growth  of  the  server  market,  further reinforcing a strategic segment of the company’s HDD business.

    Toshiba will transfer the shares of TSDT to Western Digital and consolidate HDD production at its two HDD manufacturing facilities in the Philippines and a contract manufacturer in China. A key goal is to further enhance cost competitiveness by boosting manufacturing efficiency.

    Following the reinforcement of its HDD businesses through this re-organization, Toshiba aims to establish itself as the leading provider of integrated storage solutions–the company that has all three key storage solutions: NAND flash, SSD and HDD.

    Outline of Toshiba Storage Device (Thailand) Co., Ltd. Address:             Pathun Thani, Thailand

    President:             Minoru Iriko

    Established:          October, 2009

    Paid-in capital:     1 billion baht

    Main business:      Manufacture of 2.5-inch HDD Employees:      About 4,200

    [1]    Note: Near-line storage is a sort of data storage supporting large capacity storage, while on-line storage is appropriate for frequent access. It features generally higher reliability than HDDs for desktop PC applications.

     

  • Origin Storage 09:31 on 29/02/2012 Permalink | Reply  

    Thecus® Showcase: Quadruple Link Aggregation 

    02/16/2012- Thecus is always pushing the limit to raise the bar on storage products. Even if our high-end NAS are all compatible with 10GbE, not every network setup possesses the capability to support this, especially with small businesses. However some applications require a bandwidth more important than what the 10GbE can offer. That’s why Link Aggregation was invented. Among other things, it has the ability to use more ports to increase the amount of data transferred from one single point to another

    Channeling data through two ports is already a great improvement. But what if it’s still not enough?

    The solution is easy: use mort ports! Thecus has reached amazing bandwidth results in their laboratory while using very common accessories: an Intel® PRO/1000 PT Quad Port adapter and a basic manageable switch. Thecus tested the N12000 and N16000 models; a perfect way to use the extra PCI-e slots.

    Results were as expected: amazing. The N16000 almost reached a write speed of 450MB/s, while the N12000 was not far behind at 440MB/s. Those figures might vary depending on the hardware and architecture, but they can help your network perform at a higher level with almost zero investment!

    Compatible products are N8900/N12000/N16000 and their V counterparts.

     

  • Origin Storage 09:39 on 24/02/2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Thecus 1U4200XXX N5200XXX N8200XXX N8900 N12000 N16000 Vseries N4200   

    Tech News – Thecus® NAS Now Support 4TB Hard Drives 

    02/21/2012 - Thecus NAS products are at the front of the competition and now fully support Seagate Barracuda XT ST4000DX000 4TB hard drives.

    As the world’s storage demands increase, consumers look for cheaper and more efficient ways to expand their storage capacities. Thecus has just announced that the following models support 4TB drives: 1U4200XXX, N5200XXX, N8200XXX, N8900, N12000, N16000, the V Series, and the N4200 Series. (More models will be added after the compatibility test.)

    To use these high capacity HDDs and enjoy even more storage, Thecus users need to upgrade to the latest firmware on Thecus’ website. Now backup, storage, shared use of NAS is even easier and more enjoyable as you don’t have to worry about space for a while!

    For more information about the HDD compatibility list of Thecus NAS, go to:
    http://www.thecus.com/sp_comlist.php

     

  • Origin Storage 09:13 on 24/02/2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags:   

    Intel Inside. Thecus’ Next-Gen NAS introduced: N4800, N2800 

    Home users are starting to look at Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices to serve their home media needs. Also popular are products which allow you to browse the internet and play media on your TV. Just announced by Thecus are two NAS devices which fit both roles and many others. The N2800 contains a built-in media card reader while the N4800 has a built in mini Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS), OLED status screen, and a second USB3.0 port

    The obvious selling features of the two devices are the inclusion of HDMI output to enable the above roles as well as an updated 3rd Generation Intel Atom CPU D2700. The D2700 is a 2.13GHz Dual Core and hyper threaded Intel Atom processor manufactured at 32nm.

    Check out the highlights of their press release below.

    02/20/2012- As part of the Intel Embedded Alliance, Thecus has precedence and access to a multitude of Intel prototypes and the latest technologies. Working on those products for months now, Thecus is delighted to finally release its Vision Series.

    The new N2800 and N4800 are going to be some of the first Intel(r) Atom(tm) D2700 based NAS! They will set the standard for what’s best in the market to help you build a true multimedia center: USB 3.0, Dual Gigabit Ports, SD Card reader (N2800), Mini-UPS (N4800), etc.

    And the most important feature is the HDMI output. With Thecus Local Display module, it’s now possible to connect the NAS directly to a monitor and control it through USB mouse/keyboard. Playing HD movies, browsing the web, controlling the NAS… everything is now possible directly from your TV! Thanks to this feature, Thecus is now creating a new standard among the NAS industry.

    About Thecus(r)

    Thecus(r) Technology Corp. specializes in IP Storage Server and Network Video Recorder solutions. The company was established in 2004 with the mission to make technology that is as transparent as it is easy-to-use and products that are not only the best on the market, but are accessible to experts and novices alike. Combining a world-class R&D team highly experienced in storage hardware and software development with a keen customer focus, Thecus(r) stays close to the market to develop high-quality products to fulfill the storage and surveillance needs of today’s world.

     

  • Origin Storage 15:47 on 20/02/2012 Permalink | Reply  

    Origin Storage at Infosecurity Europe – Earls Court, London, 24-26th April 2012 – Stand G80 

    We are pleased to announce that we will be exhibiting at the Infosecure Show on the 24th to the 26th April 2012 at Earl’s Court, London.

    We will be exhibiting our latest Encryption products as well as our new Wave Encrypition authentication software, and will be on hand to help guide you through all latest information and products.

    The  Infosecurity Europe,  is Europe’s most comprehensive gathering of information security professionals, showcasing the most diverse range of new and innovative products and services, and addresing today’s strategic and technical issues in an unrivalled free-to-attend educational programme.

    Become a guest of Origin Storage Today for FREE , saving £20.00  (Visitors must register by the 20th April, 5.00pm) (NB: Students and under 18′s are not permitted into the exhibition)

     

  • Origin Storage 11:51 on 15/02/2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , , Wasver Systems, windows 7   

    Wave Signs EMEA Distribution Agreement with Origin Storage to Expand Reseller Channels 

    London—February 15, 2012—Wave Systems Corp. (NASDAQ:WAVX; http://www.wave.com) signed a distribution agreement for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) with leading storage solutions provider Origin Storage. Origin will focus on the forward-looking channel reseller companies in the region interested in providing best-in-class data protection to their customers.

    Origin has joined with Wave to enhance and develop Wave’s reseller channel in Europe over the next year. The opportunity for resellers comes at a time when conventional security is under continuing pressure from a growing number of cyber-attacks. Most security solutions on the market rely on proprietary software vulnerable to attack. Wave, by contrast, enables security that’s built into the device, not added on, giving enterprises the ability to know their devices, data and applications.

    For securing sensitive data and safeguarding intellectual property, Wave offers a single management console for deploying and managing self-encrypting drives (SEDs). Available from leading storage vendors and based on the Opal specification from the Trusted Computing Group, SEDs offer improved security and performance advantages over software-based encryption. For organisations with Windows 7who haven’t yet migrated to SEDS, Wave enables the activation of Microsoft BitLocker®, the native encryption feature on Windows 7.

    Andy Cordial, Managing Director Origin Storage, says: “This is a unique opportunity for resellers to offer their customers Wave’s management suite for protecting data and authentication, starting with security built into the device itself. We believe that Wave offers compelling solutions for any reseller and we’re looking forward to bringing increased awareness of Wave to the market.”

    Along with managing SEDs and Microsoft BitLocker, Wave also gives IT the power to manage a security chip that ships standard on business-class PCs called the Trusted Platform Module (TPM). Present on more than half a billion devices worldwide, the embedded security chip can be used to establish device identity, ensuring that only known machines are granted access to network resources. In conjunction with Wave software, the TPM can also signal the presence of malware lurking in the host system that can evade commercially available anti-virus software.

    Joseph Souren, General Manager Wave Systems EMEA says: “We’re pleased to partner with Origin because they’re a very well-connected and trusted distributor with a strong track record and are a respected name in the channel sector, working closely with many premier resellers.

    About Origin Storage Ltd

    Founded in 2001 and based in Hampshire, UK, Origin Storage Ltd. is fast becoming one of Europe’s leading IT storage manufacturers. Its wide-ranging product portfolio includes branded hard disk drive solutions, RAID solutions and mobile data security. Origin Storage is a main supplier for all Tier one manufacturers, providing matched storage upgrades and has held a Pan European Agreement with Dell™ for the past seven years. The business has grown year on year and now supplies to main distribution and reseller partners across EMEA.  In January 2006 Origin Storage acquired the brand and assets of Amacom and began to manufacture a range of portable storage solutions. It is also a distributor for some of the most respected storage enclosure manufacturers and offers a full range of rack, desktop and RAID products and accessories.  The company’s emphasizes superior customer service, UK-based assembly and stock-holding that delivers competitive.

    About Wave Systems

    Wave Systems Corp. (NASDAQ: WAVX) reduces the complexity, cost and uncertainty of data protection by starting inside the device. Unlike other vendors who try to secure information by adding layers of software for security, Wave leverages the security capabilities built directly into endpoint computing platforms themselves.  Wave has been a foremost expert on this growing trend, leading the way with first-to-market solutions and helping shape standards through its work as a board member for the Trusted Computing Group.

    As always, please feel free to contact us for any further information :-

    Andy Cordial – 01256 813988 — Richie Maure 01256 813986

     

  • Origin Storage 15:07 on 13/02/2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: ,   

    Thai Floods Continue to Impact HDD Manufacturing, with High Prices and Short Supplies Lingering 

    Research from IHS iSuppli

    Although HDD supplies in the first quarter commenced their recovery from the disastrous floods that struck Thailand in late 2011, a full recovery of production is still months away, with unit shipments not expected to return to annual growth until the third quarter, according to IHS iSuppli Memory & Storage research from information and analysis provider IHS.


    (Source: IHS iSuppli February 2012)

    Due to production disruptions at HDD suppliers and at component makers, global hard drive shipments in the fourth quarter of 2011 fell by 26 percent compared to the same period in 2010. Shipments are set to decline by another 13 percent in the first quarter and by 5 percent in the second quarter on an annual basis.

    The global HDD market won’t return to year-over-year growth until the third quarter, when shipments rise by 2 percent, followed by a 49 percent surge in the fourth quarter as the industry snaps back from the previous shortage.

    On a sequential basis, shipments in the first quarter are expected to increase by 13 percent, a dramatic turnaround from a 29 percent plunge in the fourth quarter of 2011. Shipments are expected to continue to grow by 14 percent sequentially in the second quarter, by 11 percent in the third quarter and by 4 percent in the fourth quarter.

    “The recovery of global HDD manufacturing has begun and will continue during each quarter of 2012,” noted Fang Zhang, storage analyst for IHS. “However, the recovery will be prolonged for at least two more quarters, as supply constraints keep unit shipments from climbing on an annual basis until third quarter. Meanwhile, HDD prices will remain inflated and inventories will continue to be depleted, showing that demand is exceeding supply. Supply and demand should return to balance by the end of the third quarter.”

    HDD production spins up
    Major HDD suppliers have shifted some production to locations outside of Thailand, which has helped ease the shortage situation. At the same time, some of the major HDD component suppliers have resumed a portion of their production in the country and have migrated manufacturing operations to other regions.

    Western Digital Corp., the HDD manufacturer most impacted by the floods, has increased manufacturing in other countries, and is expected to return to full production by September. Toshiba Corp., which also was hit hard by the disaster, has boosted its production in other countries as well.

    Inventories drop, prices rise
    However, given the magnitude of the disaster, these moves have been insufficient to make up for the shortfall in production so far. This will result in a plunge in global HDD inventory in the first quarter.

    In anticipation of supply constraints, the global average selling price (ASP) for HDDs soared by 28 percent in the fourth quarter. While prices will decline by 3 percent in the first quarter and by 9 percent in the second quarter, they will remain inflated above 2011 levels throughout 2012.

    “Prices will remain high for a number of reasons, including the higher costs associated with the relocation of production, as well as higher component costs because of flooding impacts among component makers,” Zhang said. “Furthermore, PC brands have signed annual contacts with HDD makers that have locked them into elevated pricing deals for the rest of the year.”

    In addition, given the two megamergers between Seagate/Samsung and WDC/Hitachi GST, IHS expects the HDD industry could hold prices higher than pre-flood levels for a few more quarters because there are fewer competitors in the market.

     

  • Origin Storage 12:41 on 13/02/2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , unecrypted laptops   

    Eircom confirms data breach after unencrypted laptop theft 

    Data Protection Commissioner slams Irish telecoms giant for “bog standard” security failings

    Irish telecoms firm eircom has confirmed the theft of three laptops containing personal information of over 7,000 customers.

    According to the Irish Independent, details of more than 7,000 mobile phone customers and employees were compromised while bank account or credit card details of 550 eMobile and Meteor customers was also potentially at risk.

    Two of the laptops were stolen from eircom’s Dublin offices in December last year while the third was taken from the home of an employee. It was this laptop that contained the names and address of nearly 700 eircom employees, the Irish Independent says.

    The laptops stolen from eircom’s office contained personal information of 6,441 eMobile business customers. Nearly 150 of these contained financial or bank details. Another file contained details of just over 400 Meteor post-pay customers, the report said.

    The laptops were not encrypted.

    Paul Bradley, head of communications at eircom, apologised to customers and said two separate investigations are underway. He added that no evidence had yet been uncovered that the data had been used by a third party.

    However, the group was slammed by Irish Data Protection Commissioner Billy Hawkes. Speaking to RTE, he said the breach is one of the “most serious” his team had faced, “For two reasons: Because of the nature of the financial data that was on the unencrypted laptops puts people at risk of data theft and secondly the long delay in telling people that their data had been compromised and giving them the opportunity to protect themselves.”

    Hawkes said that data breaches should be reported within 24 for 48 hours and that eircom’s explanation that it was waiting to find out what data was on the laptops before notifying people was “not acceptable”.

    He was said that encryption on laptops that contain personal information is “bog standard security” and that it is “extremely surprising that in two separate incidents eircom laptops were not encrypted.”

    The Data Protection Commission confirmed it is investigating the incident

     

  • Origin Storage 09:19 on 13/02/2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , ,   

    Dat­aLock­er: Great Da­ta Se­cu­ri­ty (At A Price) 

    One of the best parts about the con­stant­ly falling price of mem­o­ry has been an in­creas­ing ubiq­ui­ty. Any­one can pick up a few gi­ga­bytes of portable stor­age on the cheap, and eas­i­ly grab those mu­sic files or movies or doc­u­ments or pho­tographs to eas­i­ly share them across com­put­ers. All it takes is a thumb drive, or a portable hard drive, and you can have copies of your stuff ready at hand.

    Un­less you lose it, or it’s stolen. In which case, un­less you’ve been us­ing some se­ri­ous tools, you might as well con­sid­er your da­ta com­pro­mised. If it’s just your va­ca­tion pho­tos, that’s prob­a­bly not a big deal. But if it’s sen­si­tive in­for­ma­tion from your com­pa­ny- pre­sen­ta­tions or re­ports, for ex­am­ple- then the prob­lem is po­ten­tial­ly much larg­er. And that’s where Dat­aLock­er comes in, of­fer­ing so­lu­tions both op­ti­cal and mag­net­ic, in the form of the DL3 500GB portable hard drive and their Se­cure­Disk writable CD me­dia.

    The CDs them­selves seem pret­ty nor­mal- un­til you pop in the disk and take a look at the soft­ware in­clud­ed for burn­ing. Of­fer­ing AES 256 bit en­cryp­tion, you sim­ply choose a pass­word, and can se­lect whether to close the disk and fi­nal­ize the burn or leave any re­main­ing room open. No ad­di­tion­al soft­ware is re­quired, and no in­stal­la­tion need­ed, as ev­ery­thing is in­clud­ed on­board. One down­side, though, is that the discs on­ly work on PCs; Macs are un­sup­port­ed at this time (Lin­ux al­so ap­pears to be un­sup­port­ed). As long as you don’t write the pass­word on the disk it­self, you can pass it to any col­league or friend and rest at ease know­ing that the disks are well-nigh un­break­able. The idea is sound, and the price isn’t too bad- $3 for a CD, a bit more for a DVD, and us­ing the sys­tem is su­per-sim­ple.

    But if 5GB isn’t enough stor­age for you, Dat­aLock­er al­so of­fers rugged, portable, sexy hard drives in ei­ther 500GB or 1TB ca­pac­i­ties. And they sup­port USB 3.0 as well, mak­ing them quite fast. Self-en­crypt­ing, there again isn’t any soft­ware or drivers need­ed to use the DL3, and we loved the way the alu­minum body looked and felt. This is a drive that def­i­nite­ly stands out, with a very nifty, fu­tur­is­tic LCD touch­screen built in­to the drive it­self. You’ll need to in­put your pass­code to un­lock the da­ta, and there are quite a few fea­tures that set it above oth­er com­peti­tors. For in­stance, you can have the da­ta “self-de­struct” if there are too many in­cor­rect at­tempts. You can have the key­pad re-or­der the lay­out ran­dom­ly to avoid fin­ger­print lift­ing. They’ve thought of most ev­ery­thing- the on­ly oth­er fea­ture we might’ve liked to see is the abil­i­ty to ‘trace’ where it is plugged in if an in­ter­net con­nec­tion is avail­able, of­fer­ing some sort of re­mote func­tion­al­i­ty.

    This isn’t a sol­id state drive (though they do of­fer some), and it isn’t the best op­tion for those who sim­ply need some in­ex­pen­sive stor­age. In­stead, this is a se­ri­ous op­tion for those con­cerned with se­cu­ri­ty, whether for gov­ern­ment, fi­nan­cial, or med­i­cal ap­pli­ca­tions- or for those who sim­ply want pry­ing eyes kept firm­ly away from their da­ta. At $379 list price for the 500GB mod­el, it’s pricey, but you’re pay­ing a rea­son­able pre­mi­um for a touch­screen on your hard drive, even with­out the oth­er fea­tures. It’s solid­ly built, looks good, though did run a bit warm- we’re def­i­nite­ly us­ing the DL3 the next time we have sen­si­tive files to trans­port.

     

  • Origin Storage 13:59 on 09/02/2012 Permalink | Reply  

    Network Security: How To defend an Infinitely Expanding Frontier 

    The increasing use of home offices and laptops has put an ever-expanding number of users, data, devices and applicaƟons beyond the security of the traditional enterprise network firewall.  At the same time, organizations – and their IT administrators – are held to increasingly higher standards of accountability for breaches in data and network security.  Unfortunately, the tradiƟonal tools for network security have not adapted well to the rapid decentralization of the enterprise network.  Conventional security methodologies based on passwords and software fail to effectively authenticate users and machines on the network or secure data on lost or stolen laptops, or ensure compliance with laws that require disclosure of lost personal data.

    This paper will outline perhaps the most powerful, cost-effective and simple solution for bringing the scaƩered end-points of today’s mobile networks back under the umbrella of a strong centralized network security architecture. It is built on three widely available, proven – but poorly understood – technologies: Trusted Platorm Modules, Self-Encrypting Hard Drives and centralized (or remote) security management.  This paper will not only help readers distinguish myth from fact about these technologies but will also

    build a strong case for how their combined application can re-establish network security as an enforceable corporate policy, rather than a strategy.

    To read the rest of this white Paper please see http://www.wave.com/collateral/03-000273_TPM-SED_whitepaper.pdf

     

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