Storage news ticker – November 24

FileShadow has added audio file annotation. The service connects any number of annotations to a file so recordings and transcripts can be reviewed at the same time. Once annotations are attached, the files are associated, regardless of where the content is located. Using FileShadow’s search engine, users can locate photos and documents by entering keywords found in the audio recordings. Transcripts can be downloaded, shared, and search terms highlighted and viewed while listening to the recording. Users also have the option to send a link to the file so anyone can review them via their web browser.

Wells Fargo analyst Aaron Rakers has been looking at the NAND and DRAM markets, and told subscribers he is seeing “unprecedented bit demand weakness.“ He said: “We think that a DRAM bottom will be achieved in 1H2023; however, we could see a scenario where 2023 DRAM rev. declines 35%-40% y/y (est. ~$50 billion vs. TrendForce’s updated ~$61 billion est.). We now think NAND industry rev. could bottom in 2Q23-3Q23; however, we believe NAND rev. could decline in the ~30% y/y range (~$42B vs. TrendForce’s updated / current $52.7 billion est.)”

OWC has announced SoftRAID 7 for Mac, the latest version of its RAID management software. SoftRAID 7 adds compatibility for Apple’s latest operating system, macOS 13 Ventura, with support for all Intel and Apple silicon Macs, including M1 and M2 Macs. SoftRAID 7 underwent a comprehensive, independent deep code review of all components by macOS security experts to review areas that might be exploited. It also includes a free year of OWC’s Upgrade + Support plan, giving users access to the latest SoftRAID features and maintenance versions.

Cloud data warehouser Snowflake has announced general availability on Azure in the UK, driven by high customer demand for local data residency from both the private and public sector in the UK. This new deployment will enable businesses to keep their data in the UK while taking advantage of the Snowflake Data Cloud. Snowflake says it uses an innovative, per-second pricing model, enabling customers’ access to almost limitless capacity while only paying for the resources they consume.

Streamlit, acquired by Snowflake in March 2022, enables data scientists and other developers to build data applications with Python using its open source framework. Snowflake is now advancing its Streamlit integration (in development) so developers can bring their data and machine learning (ML) models to life as secure, interactive applications within Snowflake. The integration will allow developers to create applications with Python using their data in Snowflake, deploy and run these applications on Snowflake’s platform, and share their applications with business teams. Snowflake is now making Python and its ecosystem of open source libraries available to all users and teams with the general availability of Snowpark for Python. 

Snowflake is working in the data pipeline area. Users can onboard data faster with Schema Inference (private preview), and execute pipelines with Serverless Tasks (general availability) natively in Snowflake’s platform. Snowflake is unveiling enhanced tools for developers including Dynamic Tables (private preview). Formerly introduced as Materialized Tables, these remove the boundaries between streaming and batch pipelines by automating incremental processing through declarative data pipelines development for coding efficacy and ease. Snowflake is investing in native observability and developer experience features so they can build, test, debug, deploy, and monitor data pipelines with increased productivity through alerting (private preview), logging (private preview), event tracing (private preview), task graphs and history (public preview), and more. 

European backup vendor Storware is partnering backup supplier Rubrik with three possibilities in mind. One is to extend Rubrik to protect new sources supported by Storware. With Storware, Rubrik users can secure many more types of environments, not just VMware, Hyper-V, and Nutanix but also a dozen others, such as OpenStack, Red Hat Virtualization, and more KVM-based or Xen-based environments. Another is to use Rubrik as an Enterprise Backup Provider for Storware Backup and Recovery. The third is for Storware users to deploy a (virtual) air-gap backup using Rubrik Managed Volumes. Storware claims it is possible to use itself and Rubrik simultaneously, without duplicating actions, to implement the backup strategy of the “impenetrable fortress.”

Striim has launched Striim Cloud on AWS, a fully managed SaaS platform for real-time streaming data integration and analytics. Customers can build pipelines to stream trillions of events every day, backed by enterprise-grade operational, security, and management features. Striim Cloud is native to AWS, zero-maintenance and highly scalable, and can deliver real-time data to AWS faster and more efficiently.

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A blog describes how a Toshiba user wanted to use new hard drives for his systems with a “3ware 9750-4i” controller but found the new generation of hard drives with over 10TB were no longer compatible. On appeal to Toshiba, the company provided two sample 16TB (MG08ACA16TE) test drives and, after a firmware update to Version 0103, it was confirmed that the MG08 SATA disks are compatible with the 3ware controller. Firmware v0102 caused problems but these 16TB capacity hard drives based on sector size 512e can be used with the 3ware 9750-4i RAID controller for RAID1 with v0103. Toshiba plans to have the current 18TB (MG09ACA18TE) and 20TB hard drives (MG10ACA20TE) tested in close cooperation with this user as well.


VAST Data has signed a deal with New Zealand ICT and business continuity company Plan B to protect its datacenters in the event of a cyberattack, data loss or security/networking issues. The centers support a range of enterprises, medium-to-large businesses, and large Microsoft partners. Plan B is moving all its customer data to flash storage. VAST will ensure Plan B can restore customers’ data and applications up to 50x faster than PBBAs, and meet stringent recovery time objectives by providing 8x more restore performance at 40 percent lower cost than legacy backup options. VAST’s “indestructible snapshots” will safeguard data from ransomware by preventing backup copies and snapshots being altered or destroyed before their expiration date.