Storage news ticker – April 14

Storage news
Storage news

CData Software says Monrovia Nursery Co. is using its CData Sync product for storage of data from many and varied sources to develop cohesive financial and operational reporting processes. CData Sync has more than 250 available source connectors, such as a MariaDB Excel Add-In. Using CData Sync, a Monrovia team pulls information from a weather tracking API, combines it with e-commerce and payment information in Google Analytics, and analyzes the relationships. It can see how rainfall in Tuscany on a Thursday correlates with a 33 per cent decrease in shipping volume that day. CData Sync helps Monrovia connect its new ERP with Freshdesk data to track pallet shipments and returns. Monrovia drivers can track the retailers who have submitted tickets to pick up delivery pallets, map where they’re located on their delivery routes, and find where any missing pallets might be. 

FD Technologies has entered into a strategic partnership agreement with Microsoft to expand the reach of its KX Insights streaming data analytics platform for real-time decision making. First, KX Insights will be embedded natively on the Microsoft Azure platform as a first class service, with KX generating revenue based on consumption. This will enable customers to store and access their data using complex event processing, high-performance analytics and machine learning interfaces on one unified and easy-to-use platform that will work seamlessly with Microsoft services. Second, KX has agreed to work with Microsoft to target new applications and services that will accelerate innovation and growth for organisations in the financial services sector.

IBM has announced IBM Impact – a framework for the company’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG) work that reflects how it aspires to create a more sustainable, equitable, and ethical future. It has also published its first Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) report, the 2021 ESG report. It outlines three pillars in the IBM Impact program: Environmental Impact, Equitable Impact, and Ethical Impact. The latter will sit well with various people suing IBM for age discrimination, mis-classifying mainframe sales, and contract mistakes with the UK’s Co-operative Insurance.

Environmentally IBM intends to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, divert 90 per cent of non-hazardous waste from landfill and incineration by 2025, and initiate 100 client engagements or research projects with environmental benefits by 2025.

LucidLink, whose FileSpaces software presents public cloud object storage as a local filer, has launched Filespaces v2.0. It has new metadata streaming with advanced algorithms for internet-based file streaming. Filespaces is faster and users can browse Filespaces of any size with hundreds of millions of files without the downtime seen with traditional cloud storage file synchronization technology. There are instantly accessible snapshots to restore prior versions of individual files or revert entire Filespaces to earlier points. Filespaces has improved distributed global file locking which improves performance with increased resilience in a distributed environment. Windows users receive a file locking experience on par with network-attached storage (NAS). The software is available in the Azure marketplace.

Pure Storage has issued its ESG report as well. It says Pure system use provides an up to 80 per cent reduction in direct carbon usage for customers versus competitive all-flash systems – a saving equivalent to 132,634 miles (213,453 km) driven by an average vehicle. The company hopes to achieve a 50 per cent intensity reduction in market-based scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions per employee from FY20 to FY30. It will achieve Net Zero market-based scope 1 and 2 emissions by FY40 and there will be a 66 per cent intensity reduction in use of sold products scope 3 emissions per effective petabyte shipped from FY20 to FY30. CEO Charlie Giancarlo has written a blog about Pure’s ESG goals.

Scale-out hybrid cloud filer supplier Qumulo says it now includes nine of the world’s top ten media and entertainment companies  among its more than 1000 enterprise customers. This follows record-breaking progress during its previous fiscal year, where Qumulo saw a customer base expansion of more than 40 per cent, and added over 200 new customers to its roster.

Hyperconverged infrastructure HC3 appliance vendor Scale Computing has entered the Australian market via a tie-up with SecureServ, which distributes cyber security and networking products.

All-flash file-based array supplier VAST Data’s federal subsidiary is partnering with Mercury Systems to deliver rugged, high-performance storage systems for edge-based data capture and AI computing. These will be based on VAST’s Ceres product line, with its 1RU chassis and Nvidia BlueField smartNIC access. The addition of a ruggedized hardware enclosure allows VAST and its industry team members to satisfy the data flow demands of C5ISR (Command, Control, Computers, Communications, Cyber, Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance) so that commanders and their personnel can have reliable and secure access to the data that informs their mission. Rugged Ceres will meet the defense industry’s SWaP (Size, Weight and Power) requirements.

WEKA, the very fast filesystem supplier, appointed erstwhile NetApp CEO Dan Warmenhoven to its board of directors on April 4. Warmenhoven served as CEO of NetApp from 1994 to 2009, helping to steer the company to its initial public offering in 1995; he later became its executive chairperson, a position he held from 2009 to 2014. He has served on the boards of Alteryx, Aruba Networks, Cohesity, Palo Alto Networks, and Redback Networks. WEKA says he is joining it “as the company continues to sustain a hypergrowth trajectory – shattering its sales and revenue goals for its fiscal year 2022.” That’s a hostage to fortune if the revenue goods don’t come in for the rest of 2022.