Storage news ticker – 24 March 2023

Acronis researchers have spotted new types of malware and attack vectors such as polymorphic malware and fileless attacks. Many threats use a pure in-memory approach which can be hard to detect. Acronis says it has enhanced defenses against advanced fileless attacks using Intel Threat Detection Technology (TDT). This uses an integrated Intel GPU to offload memory scanning operations from the CPU. It allows Acronis cyber protection solutions to free resources while scanning HDD and memory, resulting in improved system performance. Acronis researchers found that while scanning all the processes in system memory on supported CPUs, Intel TDT reduced the load on the CPU 2.4x times by offloading the job to the integrated GPU. This will be available through the Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud, Cyber Protect, and Cyber Protect Home Office products.

Continuity Software has published “The State of Storage and Backup Security Report 2023”, which says 702 enterprise storage & backup devices were analyzed (an increase of 66 percent from last year), and a total of 9,996 discrete security issues (e.g. vulnerabilities and security misconfigurations) were detected, spanning more than 270 security principles that were not adequately followed. On average, an enterprise storage & backup device has 14 security risks, out of which three were deemed high or critical risk (i.e., could present significant compromise if exploited). The top five security risks were insecure network settings, unaddressed CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures), access rights issues (over-exposure), insecure user management and authentication, and insufficient or incorrect logging and auditing. The report is here.

Fujifilm has ceased development of its Object Archive (S3 object storage interface to tape drives). This was revealed at the 2023 Storage Technology Showcase in Tucson, AZ, and reported by Storage Newsletter. The other suppliers in this product category include Grau Data, Nodeum, PoINT Software & Systems, QStar, Quantum, Spectra Logic, StrongLink and XenData.

Fred Moore of Horison Inc has presented at the 2023 Storage Technology Showcase, saying that increases HDD and tape (LTO) capacity are not fast enough for hyperscale data centre needs. He says two groups of suppliers are contributing to a loomimg vertical market failure and are handicapped by low prices slowing innovation.

Slide from Storage Newsletter.

Data security supplier Immuta and cloud data platform consulting company Interago are forming a partnership intended to help Norwegian enterprises get secure data access across all major cloud platforms. Enterprises will be able to implement data governance and security controls when data is distributed across complex cloud ecosystems, we’re told. The pair say the partnership will allow the safe enforcement of strict data policies for customers, whilst maintaining scalable processes internally. For the more cloud mature customers, looking to take the next step in their approach to data modernisation, Interago and Immuta are also teaming up to sell what they claim are flexible, agile and scalable solutions for a data mesh architecture.

South Wales-based Insurgo Data Services (IDS) says it has a Secure Disposal service for tape media with 100 percent secure data destruction through its patented tape media recycling technology, KIT, and total data destruction technology, SWAT. With KIT, IDS says each tape passes over the patented non-wearing magnetic head, forwards and backward, eliminating all data and any possible fragments, allowing product reuse. The servo tracks are not affected and the tape can be re-used. The SWAT service kills everything on the tape, including the servo tracks and the CM chip and there is no re-use with this option.

Estonia-based Leil Storage, a subsidiary of DIAWAY, has announced Leil Backup and Leil Archive available as private or public cloud services. Leil is using Western Digital’s Host-Managed Shingled Magnetic Recording (HM-SMR) drives and Power Disable HDD management, saying this enables it to offer customers an environmentally friendly data storage system with lower energy consumption, a lower cost per terabyte, and better performance compared to traditional legacy storage systems. It starts at $4 per TB per month with all costs included, and is aimed at data-heavy backup and archive companies with over 1 PB of storage. 

Leil Storage pricing in Euros.

Wendy Pfeiffer.

Wendy Pfeiffer, Nutanix’s CIO and an SVP, has resigned. A Nutanix spokesperson said: “Wendy resigned to pursue an opportunity outside of Nutanix. We thank Wendy for her service during her tenure. An active search is underway for her replacement.” Pfeiffer, who joined Nutanix in mid-2017, is a board director of Qualys, SADA and the American Gaming Association, and has worked in the past for GoPro, Robert Half International, Yahoo! and also Cisco.

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Jim Handy, the SSD Guy and senior analyst at Objective Analysis, has written an insightful article explaining NAND flash write amplification. Read it here.

Web3 storage and application developer Protocol Labs laid off 21 percent of its headcount, 89 people, in February. The job cuts were announced at an all-hands meeting at the time and in a company blog by founder and CEO Juan Benet titled: “Focusing our strategy to weather crypto winter.” This month, Benet explained the cuts to Forbes, saying he sees no short-term resolution to the Ukraine war, high inflation and high interest rates, which are limiting customers’ willingness to spend.

Juan Benet (left) talking to Michael Del Castillo (right) in a Forbes video.

Synology says it has more than 1.1 million edge systems and 8.4 million Microsoft 365 accounts being backed up with its Active Backup Suite. The number of new edge systems being protected with the solution grew 60 percent year-on-year in 2022, while the number of newly backed up Microsoft 365 accounts increased 51 percent during the same period. The Active Backup is a collection of enterprise backup and recovery software available via Synology’s servers. It features centralized management for monitoring all backup tasks in one place and flexible recovery options designed to restore systems nearly instantaneously. Since the software suite comes included with Synology hardware, there are no per device or account software licenses required, which can drastically reduce the total cost of acquisition for customers, the company says.

Hard-pressed Toshiba is set to accept a takeover bid from a group led by Japan Industrial Partners, according to a report in Nikkei. The price will be around 2 trillion yen ($15.3 billion) and the consortium will take Toshiba off the Japanese stock market and into private ownership. The buying consortium includes some 20 Japanese companies and its funding has Japanese bank loan contributions. Toshiba has a disk drive business, and owns 40.6 percent of Kioxia, the NAND fab and SD supplier which has a NAND Fab joint venture with Western Digital. Koixia is said to be having its own ownership problems/opportunities, such as a merger with WD. A Kioxia sale or merger would provide cash for Toshiba.

VAST Data says it has exceeded 8 exabytes of deployed storage with one customer having a circa 350PB system.