Origin Storage Product Guide – Spring/Summer 2012
View the latest additions to the Origin Storage product range, in our new Spring/Summer 2012 product guide. click below
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Origin Storage
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Origin Storage
Wave Systems Gets U.S. Army Contract for Encryption Management for Vehicle-Based Mobile Computers
Wave Systems, a Massachusetts-based provider of security, data protection, and encryption solutions, today announced that it has received a contract from the United States Army to provide labor, equipment and management to implement solutions for the Army’s self-encrypting drives (SEDs).
According to Wave, the Army is exploring the enablement of SEDs with Trusted Platform Modules (TPMs) in its systems in order to reduce the risk of sensitive data falling into enemy hands if such enemies were able to get their hands on hardware.
Wave did not disclose the value of the contract, but did say that its fees under the contract would be modest. Despite the modest contract value, the company views it as as an important application of trusted computing solutions by the Army, and the news appeared to please investors, with shares of Wave Systems (NASDAQ:WAVX) closing up over 18 percent at the close of trading on Tuesday.
Wave also said that the Army asked the company to provide expertise in the area of SEDs and TPMs to help maximize the security advantage of these technologies while minimizing the disruptive impact to Army’s fielding and sustainment. Wave will also provide engineering support to Army missions in support of global operations.
“This contract affirms the value and leadership that Wave brings in leveraging embedded security for mobile endpoints operating beyond the network perimeter,” said Steven Sprague, CEO for Wave. “We’re delighted to have the opportunity to help ensure that mission-critical data and communications remains under the secure control of central command at all times.”
Trusted computing standards provide capabilities that can be leveraged in many mission systems where device assurance and integrity and data protection are required.
According to the Trusted Computing Group (TCG), the international industry standards group that develops specifications and standards for Trusted Computing Technology, the term “trusted computing” refers to applications that leverage hardware-based “roots of trust” at the edge of the network and at the endpoints – sometimes referred to as “hardware anchors in a sea of untrusted software” – for higher assurance.
As the adoption of trusted computing continues to grow across all platforms, there are many ways this industry-standard technology can be leveraged to reduce costs and improve security and assurance of any computing system.
Wave products are all available from Origin Storage.
Please see http://www.originstorage.com for further details
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Origin Storage
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
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Origin Storage
IT Pro – Thecus N5200XXX Review
The provocatively named N5200XXX is one of a range of new NAS appliances from Thecus and claims to be extreme in every way. It hits the spot when it comes to price and in this review Dave Mitchell finds out whether it’s on target for performance and features as well.
Thecus has been busy upgrading its higher-end rack mounted NAS appliances, but with the launch of the XXX family the company finally turns its attention to its desktop products. The five-bay N5200XXX brings some much needed improvements to its predecessor, the N5200Pro.
Thecus catches up with vendors such as QNap, Synology and Netgear as the N5200XXX now has a 1.8GHz Atom D525 processor partnered with 1GB of DDR3 memory. Other physical changes aren’t as significant – the USB port count increased from three to five.
However, unlike theQNap TS-559 Pro II, none of these are of the USB3 variety. Another point to consider is that although the N5200XXX can handle 3TB SATA drives, it doesn’t support new SATA3 models whereas the TS-559 Pro II does.
The front panel hasn’t changed at all with a backlit LCD display providing system, network and disk status information and a keypad below allowing you to carry out basic configuration. Chassis cooling is handled by a large fan at the rear and we found that although noise levels are low, it’s not totally silent. In a busy office environment the appliance won’t be heard, but in a quiet room it will be noticeable.
The ports on the rear of the Thecus N5200XXX.
The review system was supplied to us by Origin Storage and came with five 1TB WD GreenPower SATA2 hard disks. Costing £648 ex VAT, this is superb value. A diskless model costs just £456 whilst a 15TB version costs £1,268.
Installation is swift as Thecus’ Setup Wizard locates the appliance and provides quick access to the main web interface. The interface isn’t quite as slick as QNap’s or Synology’s, but is still very easy to use.
There’s a good choice of RAID arrays with support for JBODs, mirrors, stripes, RAID 5 or dual-disk redundant RAID 6. For testing we created a five-disk RAID 5 array which took around six hours to build. However, after the initial formatting process, the array was made available for use after about twenty minutes.
The provocatively named N5200XXX is one of a range of new NAS appliances from Thecus and claims to be extreme in every way. It hits the spot when it comes to price and in this review Dave Mitchell finds out whether it’s on target for performance and features as well.The appliance supports iSCSI targets but prior to RAID array creation, you must decide how much space you want to keep aside for these. Target creation is simple and iSCSI thin provisioning is supported so you can create targets that only use a small amount of space on the appliance but appear much larger to the host. As more data is stored on the target, the appliance dynamically allocates extra space to it.
IP SAN support extends to thinly provisioned iSCSI targets for better storage usage.
For workstation backup Thecus includes a single-user copy of Acronis True Image Personal which does not support Windows Server. It takes manual backups of files and folders or entire drives as images to the appliance and can create a bootable disaster recovery disk. However, this is a heavily stripped down version so if you want job scheduling, disk cloning, incremental backups and more you must upgrade.
Other backup options include support for Rsync where the appliance acts as a target for other appliances. A free add-on module allows it to replicate to other targets and another enables scheduled backups to locally connected USB and eSATA devices. The appliance’s operating system is also protected by Thecus’ dual-DOMs. The second DOM automatically maintains a backup copy which is called upon if the primary one fails and you can schedule regular backups too.
Many vendors are adding cloud-based services to their appliances but Thecus isn’t one of them. So far, the best example we’ve seen of this feature is QNap’s MyCloudNAS service which allows you to use the appliance to provide your own secure cloud backup, multimedia and file sharing services to remote workers.
The N5200XXX delivered respectable results in our performance tests. Using a Broadberry dual Opteron 4162-equipped rack server running Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit, drag and drop copies of a 2.52GB video clip returned read and write speeds of 89MB/s and 86MB/s. Our 17.4GB collection of 10,500 files was also handled well with this folder copied to the appliance at a rate of 60MB/s.
The provocatively named N5200XXX is one of a range of new NAS appliances from Thecus and claims to be extreme in every way. It hits the spot when it comes to price and in this review Dave Mitchell finds out whether it’s on target for performance and features as well.The FileZilla FTP client reported averages of 99MB/s and 92MB/s for downloads and uploads. IP SAN performance is also good with the Iometer utility reporting a top raw read speed over Gigabit of 109MB/s for a 75GB target.
The appliance’s capabilities can be upgraded with a good range of freely available software modules.
The appliance’s capabilities can be upgraded with a good range of freely available software modules. The IP camera module supports up to five cameras and provides basic surveillance features. However, it’s not as good as the equivalent features on QNap or Synology appliances as you can’t view live feeds or enable motion detection and it can only take scheduled snapshots at intervals of between one and sixty seconds.
The download station module can be used to retrieve remote files via BitTorrent, HTTP, FTP or eMule and home users will like the new Piczza module which provides a handy remote web photo server for organising galleries, sharing pictures and adding Google Maps links to show where they were taken.
The N5200XXX delivers plenty of NAS and IP SAN storage features along with some serious performance improvements over its predecessor. It’s very good value although if you can afford it, QNap’s TS-559 Pro II is superior as it offers far more features, supports the latest SATA3 hard disks and is slightly faster.
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Origin Storage
Reseller News – Triple Deal For Duo
Duo New Zealand has announced exclusive distribution deals with Origin Storage, Data Locker and Apricorn.
Origin Storage is a global supplier of IT storage solutions and components, while Data Locker deals with data encryption and decryption. Apricorn is also in the data encryption field, with a line of portable drives for business travellers.
“These companies are some of the top names in the field,” says Duo’s director Kendra Ross. “We’re excited to be partnering with them to offer a group of sophisticated solutions to the New Zealand market.”
“We selected Duo as they are perfectly positioned to support the Origin Server and Encrypted Solutions,” says Andy Cordial, Origin Storage’s managing director “DUO has a strong brand loyalty in the reseller market and will be the ideal partner to introduce the Enigma Self Encrypted Drives (SED) to New Zealand and Australia.”
According to founder and COO of Data Locker, Jay W Kim, Duo “will be distributing the Data Locker Enterprise and DL3 lines of fully encrypted hard disks as well as some exciting products we have in our development pipeline”. “We chose DUO to represent us in the New Zealand and Australian markets due to their focus on secure storage. Storage media has become such a commodity that it takes real industry expertise to address the growing security concerns for businesses and organisations. DUO has been a valuable partner in communicating our “Simply Secure” message within their markets,” he adds.
Duo will be distributing Apricorn’s Aegis Padlock and Padlock Pro, as well as the vendor’s upgrade kits and the NetDock. With Apricorn’s focus on secure portable hard drives, and DUO’s expertise in that arena, it was an obvious fit for us,” says Apricorn’s regional sales manager Kurt Markley.
“These new products correspond seamlessly with our current product line, and round out our security range,” adds Ross. “Duo has now built partnerships with a significant range of global security technology players, and the company continues to grow.”
“DUO has a strong brand loyalty in the reseller market and will be the ideal partner to introduce the Enigma Self Encrypted Drives (SED) to New Zealand and Australia.” Andy Cordial, Managing of Director Orgin Storage
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Origin Storage
SSD price fall welcomed
News that a 512 gigabyte SSD (solid state drive) has fallen in price to under a thousand dollars in the US has been welcomed by Andy Cordial, managing director of Origin Storage. Acording to Cordial – who heads the secure storage systems product company – pricing has always been perceived as something of an obstacle to the adoption of SSDs and – while solid state drives attract a premium over magnetic hard drives – the advantages are significant.”We are now starting to see corporates adopting SSDs for the operating system, basic programs and critical systems data, alongside a larger magnetic hard drive for data storage. This gives companies the advantage of rapid boot up times and, interestingly enough, by moving the SSD to a read-only setting, higher levels of security against system problems,” he said.”By storing the customised set-up files for a PC on the magnetic main drive, even if the worst happens and the main drive is trashed by malware, the IT department can simply swap the magnetic drive out and, with no appreciable configuration changes, the SSD will boot the PC up as normal,” he added. The Origin Storage MD went on to say that the real advantage of SSDs to a company with several hundred PCs is the time saving in terms of bootup time.
If, for example, a company uses a 32 or 64GB SSD on employee’s office PC for the operating system plus program data, and only stores data on the magnetic drive – securely backing up that data into the cloud every evening – the machine’s bootup time each morning is a lot faster than if a single magnetic drive were to be used, he said.
There are also good energy savings to be had, says Cordial – by powering down each employee’s computer each evening, rather than leaving them running through the night and at weekends, as many companies do to save on maintenance costs.
With SSDs, he adds, there are no problems with stop-start cycles that you get with magnetic drives. And with the latest cloud technology, it also becomes possible to use just a 32 or 64 GB SSD drive on an office PC for the OS and programs, and then store the rest of the data wholly in the cloud.
“This is what Google’s upcoming Chrome OS is all about – better speed and efficiency, and a reduced need for processor power on the local desktop or notebook PC. The days of magnetic drives are far from being numbered, but the price breakthrough now being seen with 512 GB SSDs is also starting to push the prices of smaller capacity SSDs in the right direction,” he said.
“The price depression effect is slow but steady, but I think that we will see more and more corporates moving on up to the benefits that SSDs now offer. We have already seen an increase in demand for SSD products from Dell for notebooks and netbooks. And that’s no bad thing on several fronts, not least in terms of the energy saving possibilities,” he added
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Origin Storage
Sabio DM2-PT Review
RAID hard drives for Time Machine and mass storage on the moveAt first glance this little external hard drive looks very similar to Apple’s own Time Capsule. The very slim (155 x 155 x 22.5mm) form factor would be welcome on overcrowded desks and in laptop bags, but you do have to pay for this level of miniaturisation.
The RAID enabled option that can take either two 9.5mm or 12.5mm SATA hard drives – combined using SPAN mode, or left as mirrored or stripped storage – gives you ultimate control over how your storage capacity is managed. The built-in RAID controller makes set-up fast and efficient.
The drive’s performance is pretty impressive. Fast, very quiet and unobtrusive, we liked the fact that it offers masses of configurable storage in a device that hasn’t skimped on the fine details. For instance, connect this drive using FireWire 800 and you can dispense with the power adaptor; USB 2.0 and eSATA are also supported. In addition, the drive ships with all the cables you’ll need, which is a nice touch.
The build quality of the drive is excellent, and the aluminium casing helps with heat dissipation, as this drive doesn’t use any fans. And if you do need to upgrade the capacity of the drives, this is easily accomplished. As the drive is aimed at users that need to transport large amounts of data, you’ll probably want to invest in a much sturdier case than the vinyl slipcase provided.
The small footprint is ideal if you need to transport this drive, or have limited desk space
Also supplied is the configuration utility. This is well laid out and makes it easy to get the RAID configuration you want, and also complete a rebuild if you use a mirror set up that fails. You can, of course, also use your Mac’s Disk Utility if you prefer.Macworld Buying Advice
Overall, the external hard drive is excellent. We liked the low profile of the unit and its almost silent operation. The number of configurations you can choose lends this drive to mass storage when you’re on the move. But this drive is also superb if you’re deskbound and looking for a new drive for Time Machine, or need additional storage.
Click here to read the review on the MAC World website -
Origin Storage
The mobile security conundrum
Whilst the range and variety of IT security defences for portable computers – that’s netbooks and laptops to most people – is excellent, and able to cater for all budgets and types of user, it should be apparent to any security observer that the same cannot be said for smartphones and tablet computers.With 45 million iPads already having been sold, and with the prospect of Android tablets and BlackBerry tablets also selling in their millions, it’s clear that IT security professionals working within companies of all sizes have a security problem on their hands.
And this is before we even begin to talk about securing the rising numbers of smartphones in the business workplace.
With most business users toting one or more mobile devices with a variety of email, documents and contact details in their memories, it should be clear that smartphones and tablet computers should be afforded the same levels of security and protection as the laptops and netbooks in circulation.
And the lines between portable computers and mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets are becoming blurred. Toshiba already has an Android-based netbook released, and several vendors – notably Acer and Lenovo – have laptops running Windows and Android coming down the technology turnpike this summer.
The pressing question facing the hard-pressed IT security manager is how, in the face of a paucity of tablet and smartphone-specific security offerings, and a general apathy amongst corporate users, how to get the mobile security focus back on track?
According to a just-released major report from the CNCCS – Spain’s national cybersecurity advisory council – a general lack of security awareness amongst mobile users and their general carelessness are the two main risk factors for smartphones in business.
The conclusions of the June 2011 report are that, unlike the previous generations of mobiles, which are – at worst – susceptible to local Bluetooth hijacking, today’s smartphones are subject to the same risks as PCs.
New attack vectors, says the report – which was researched by our security colleagues at Panda Security and F21Sec – will increasingly be exploited by fraudsters as online banking services use these devices as second authentication factors given the current convergence between PCs and cell phones.
Against this backdrop, the research recommends that users take all necessary precautions when opening email messages, SMS attachments or clicking links – the latter of which is an entry point for the latest Zeus attacks.
Users should also, says the report, be wary of any files, links or numbers received from unsolicited email or SMS messages, and avoid using untrusted WiFi networks.
Most notably of all, is the recommendation that firms should take smartphones into account when establishing their corporate security policies.
The just-released CNCCS report confirms many of the findings of Origin Storage’s survey of IT security professionals at April’s Infosecurity Europe show, in which we discovered that 41 per cent of IT professionals are carrying sensitive information on their smartphones.
Against a backdrop of 19 per cent of respondents revealing their employers had suffered a breach as a result of a portable device going missing, and more than half of those respondents revealing that the portable device was not encrypted, it is clear that something has to be done.
What was interesting about the results of the survey was 70 per cent of organisations had made data encryption mandatory in their businesses, suggesting that many users of portable devices are breaking their own firm’s security policy rules in their day-to-day business.
This apathy also perhaps explains the fact that 37 per cent of respondents admitted that between four-fifths and all of their sensitive data stored on their portable devices was unprotected.
It’s interesting to note that this proves the case that we are not just dealing with a few files copied to a portable device in a hurry here – perhaps by an employee who is late for an off-site meeting. This is a failing in corporate security policies and their implementation.
So what is the solution to the general apathy surrounding the use of portable devices, and especially Internet-connected devices such as tablet computers and smartphones?
User education, whilst desirable, plainly isn’t working, as most corporate users of technology are probably aware of the security risks posed by their laptop computer.
This understanding has been driven by years of discussion and education by all parts of the IT industry, not least by the resellers and systems integrators that supply this type of kit to most businesses.
Unfortunately for corporate portable device users everywhere, only a handful of those same resellers and systems integrators sell tablet computers into the business environment, whilst most smartphones are sold to companies through cellcos or their dealers.
And, as any mobile user will attest, security is rarely on agenda of the dealers and cellular networks that are busy promoting and selling their handsets plus mobile phone contracts. It’s a non-starter.
It’s against this backdrop that we are left with the stark reality that it will probably take a series of major corporate blunders involving sensitive data lost as the result of a lapse of security in a tablet computer or smartphone, and for the affected company’s reputation and share price to take a consequential battering.
There is nothing like a share price dip of 8 to 10 per cent to focus the attentions of a CEO and CFO, and so pressure the IT manager into deploying sound security solutions and practices to stop an incident from ever happening again.
The irony of this situation will not go unnoticed amongst those IT professionals reading these words and whose experience dates back to the 1990s, when desktop and laptop security was in a similar evolutionary stage as mobile security is today, some two decades later.
And whilst today we have regulatory influences such as the Data Protection Act and the PCI DSS rules applying to any business that stores personally identifying information card transactions, the fact that the Information Commissioner’s Office has only rarely prosecuted an organisation for a breach of the DPA, means that the stick approach will not work.
So what about the carrot approach? That too, sadly, is also probably doomed to failure, so we are left with the need for governance and the tapping of hardware plus software resources to help enforce best practice in the mobile security arena.
Supplemented by corporate policies that prohibit the user of mobile devices without encryption – and treating a breach of the rules as a disciplinary offence – it is possible to change the habits of UK PLC.
The process will, however, take time. Changing portable device user security behaviour is a task similar to steering an giant oil tanker – all changes of course need to be planned some way in advance, but once executed can be relied up on to take effect over a period of time.
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Origin Storage
The Thecus N4200PRO Shows Its Power in PC Mag
The Thecus N4200PRO beat competitors on several crucial parameters!A new review of several NAS systems by PC Magazine Russian Edition is now available. Of course, the Thecus N4200PRO got a lot of attention! According to the results of the testing, it not only catches up with the competitors, but overcomes them on several parameters such as the all important reading and writing speeds.
“According to the SiSoftware Sandra Lite test, this NAS demonstrates up to 52 MB/sec reading and 72 MB/sec writing speed. At the same time, with the HD Playback and Recording test using Intel’s NAS Performance Toolkit the speed goes up to 79 MB/sec.”
PC Magazine mentioned that in comparison with its predecessor the N4100PRO, which was tested last year, the N4200PRO is a more modern device showing outstanding results: “The N4200PRO is based on the Intel Atom D525 processor with 1 GB DDR-3 SDRAM. The performance of the processor and RAM are especially important in such small and medium NAS because they usually don’t come with high-performance RAID controllers. Therefore, all computing loading associated with dynamic location of data falls on the shoulders of the processor.”
This model has several major differences which makes it special and are highlighted in the review: “We should point out such special features as a free PCI-e port, a special place for a small [included] back-up battery that either allows the NAS to survive temporary electricity blackouts without any damage to the data or shuts the system down when electricity does not return, and readiness to work with WiFi adapter.”
Besides great features in the internal design of the N4200PRO, its external design stands out as well: “The N4200PRO is reminiscent of its predecessor in the way it looks, but there are not many other similarities in the current technical solution. The N4100PRO’s LCD display is replaced by a 2.8’’ OLED display, and instead of LED indicators on the left side we now see an LCD display showing the NAS’s network activity and disk operation status.”
Finally, PC Magazine loved the way the N4200PRO looks: “The design of this NAS is impeccable. Its professional looking housing, large and quiet 120 mm fan, two eSATA and four USB 2.0 ports are quite enough for even medium enterprises.”
PC Magazine concluded that the N4200PRO together with the modules is a great solution at a modest price: “The N4200PRO coupled with modules downloadable from the Thecus website and a great price can be considered a good choice as a centralized storage solution for home and office use.”
To explore the Thecus N4200PRO further, click here.
To explore the complete range of Thecus products, click here.
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Origin Storage
Origin Storage welcomes news that 512 GB SSDs prices are falling below $1000
News that a 512 gigabyte SSD (solid state drive) has fallen in price to under a thousand dollars in the US has been welcomed by Andy Cordial, managing director of Origin Storage.According to Cordial – who heads up the secure storage systems specialist – pricing has always been perceived as something of an obstacle to the adoption of SSDs and – whilst solid state drives attract a premium over magnetic hard drives – the advantages are significant.
“We are now starting to see corporates adopting SSDs for the operating system, basic programs and critical systems data, alongside a larger magnetic hard drive for data storage. This gives companies the advantage of rapid boot up times and, interestingly enough, by moving the SSD to a read-only setting, higher levels of security against system problems,” he said.
“By storing the customised set-up files for a PC on the magnetic main drive, even if the worst happens and the main drive is trashed by malware, the IT department can simply swap the magnetic drive out and, with no appreciable configuration changes, the SSD will boot the PC up as normal,” he added.
The Origin Storage MD went on to say that the real advantage of SSDs to a company with several hundred PCs is the time saving in terms of bootup time.
If, for example, a company uses a 32 or 64GB SSD on employee’s office PC for the operating system plus program data, and only stores data on the magnetic drive – securely backing up that data into the cloud every evening – the machine’s bootup time each morning is a lot faster than if a single magnetic drive were to be used, he explained.
There are also good energy savings to be had, says Cordial – by powering down each employee’s computer each evening, rather than leaving them running through the night and at weekends, as many companies do to save on maintenance costs.
With SSDs, he adds, there are no problems with stop-start cycles that you get with magnetic drives. And with the latest cloud technology, it also becomes possible to use just a 32 or 64 GB SSD drive on an office PC for the OS and programs, and then store the rest of the data wholly in the cloud.
“This is what Google’s upcoming Chrome OS is all about – better speed and efficiency, and a reduced need for processor power on the local desktop or notebook PC. The days of magnetic drives are far from being numbered, but the price breakthrough now being seen with 512 GB SSDs is also starting to push the prices of smaller capacity SSDs in the right direction,” he said.
“The price depression effect is slow but steady, but I think that we will see more and more corporates moving on up to the benefits that SSDs now offer. We have already seen an increase in demand for SSD products from Dell for notebooks and netbooks. And that’s no bad thing on several fronts, not least in terms of the energy saving possibilities,” he added.
For more Origin Storage: http://www.originstorage.com
For more on the 512 GB SSD price breakthough: http://bit.ly/mdcrmB
For further information or to speak with Andy Cordial, please contact:
Regine Hartmann
Eskenzi PR for Origin Storage
020 7183 2834
regine@eskenzipr.com
