The UK-based part of Rubrik Backup-as-a-Service supplier ADP (Assured Data Protection) is partnering cyber-security, comms and tech MSP Wavenet – the UK’s largest independent IT MSP – to provide enterprise grade backup and disaster recovery solutions to customers across the UK. Wavenet will offer Rubrik’s data protection platform as a managed service through Assured’s second site data replication infrastructure to bolster customers’ cyber resiliency. Wavenet anticipates increased demand for these services in vertical markets in which it already has a strong presence, such as education, retail, and oil & gas, as well as other markets.
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Veritas spin-out data manager Arctera unveiled a new brand for its Data Compliance platform – “Arctera Insight Platform” – and announced capabilities that improve the way organizations manage compliance, reduce risks, and prepare for audits. New features include a GenAI-powered assistant to streamline and simplify compliance tasks. The Arctera Insight Platform now:
- Ensures insight is granular: The User Audit View now offers detailed user-level insight, while the Migration Management Dashboard allows seamless tracking across data centers.
- Streamlines governance tasks: The GenAI assistant simplifies document review with instant summaries, key topic extraction, and sentiment analysis across various content types.
- Captures more content: Arctera Insight Platform integrates with over 120 content sources including messaging platforms such as WhatsApp, WeChat, Microsoft Teams, Slack and, now, iMessage.
- Delivers information where it’s needed: Seamless integration with business applications, such as Microsoft Outlook, delivers compliance data into existing workflows.
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Arweave says it’s a decentralized and permissionless permanent storage network, designed to preserve knowledge for centuries. It uses a proof-of-access protocol, and is aiming the product at those who require long-term availability of their data, for example researchers, historians, and individuals seeking to safeguard their digital assets. It claims its newly developed algorithm introduced in the 2.9 update reduces the computational costs for honest participants in Arweave mining while preserving the network’s existing security guarantees.
“By dramatically reducing computational costs for miners, Arweave 2.9 empowers a wider community to participate in securing the future of digital information,” said Sam Williams, founder of Arweave and CEO of Forward Research.
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Backblaze announced the Winter Release of its B2 Cloud Storage IaaS platform. It has Scalable Application Keys so enterprises can generate and refresh up to 10,000 unique data access keys per minute – a 150x increase – so they can securely move more bits & bytes between vast endpoint networks and Backblaze B2 storage buckets. Scoped Application Keys give admins the ability to generate application keys for specific prefixes within all of their storage buckets.
A strengthened B2 CLI enhances credential management by moving from disk-stored credentials to secure local caching while also adding productivity features like autocomplete suggestions and shortcuts to save users time. Event Notifications help businesses streamline workflows and make informed decisions faster by automatically triggering actions and updates based on data changes in Backblaze. Custom Upload Timestamps provide the ability to retain original file timestamp data from other storage providers when migrating or copying datasets into Backblaze B2–supporting data portability for companies that rely upon timestamps in their compliance-focused data lifecycle management. It also has IPV6 support.
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Live data replicator Cirata announced Cirata Data Migrator has successfully passed the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Foundational Technical Review (FTR).“Cirata Data Migrator is designed to handle the complexities of large-scale data migration, providing unmatched scalability and real-time data consistency,” said Paul Scott-Murphy, Chief Technology Officer, Cirata. “Our solution extends capabilities with AWS-specific enhancements, making it the ideal choice for enterprises looking to future-proof their data management strategies without the usual costs or complexities. Passing the AWS FTR is a testament to our dedication to quality, security and customer satisfaction.” Cirata Data Migrator is now also offered on the AWS Marketplace along with Cirata’s Data Migration as a Service (DMaaS) offering.
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Research house Coldago has published a Jan 2025 GEMS list showing 5 players to watch in the coming months as a result of their vision, potential disruption, product development, recent announcements and execution with a serious aspect on the technology and product innovations. They are Exagrid, LeilStorage, QSTarTechnologies, Volumez and Wasabi.
The full document is only available for purchasers.
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Lakehouse supplier Databricks has announced the final closing of its Series J funding round which values the company at $62 billion. Databricks said it plans to invest this capital toward new AI products, acquisitions, and expansion of its international go-to-market operations. This capital is also expected to be used toward providing liquidity for current and former employees and paying related taxes. In addition to raising the $10 billion equity financing from some of the most well-known investors, Databricks closed a $5.25 billion credit facility led by JPMorgan Chase alongside Barclays, Citi, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley, with participation from other leading financial institutions and alternative asset managers. The credit facility includes a $2.5 billion unfunded revolver and a $2.75 billion term loan.
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A BestBrokers “Unicorns in 2024: AI is Taking Over” document lists two storage startup companies in its list:
- Databricks at $62 billion
- WEKA at $1.6 billion
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Automated endpoint management platform supplier NinjaOne, based in Austin, TX, and Dropsuite, based in Melbourne, Australia, a cloud data backup, archiving, and recovery supplier, announced a definitive agreement for NinjaOne to acquire Dropsuite for a total transaction value of approximately $252 million. The acquisition is expected to close in the first half of 2025, subject to approval by Dropsuite’s shareholders, court approval, Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) approval, and other customary closing conditions.
What impressed us most after our due diligence across the SaaS backup and data protection market is that Dropsuite is obsessed with customer success as much as NinjaOne, and their product is widely loved across its customer base and the nearly 1.5 million people who rely on it,” said Chris Matarese, President, CFO, and co-founder at NinjaOne. “We have long said we are a build before buy company, and we want to assure our customers and partners that we have passed on a number of potential acquisitions and spent a lot of time to ensure that Dropsuite is as easy to use and deeply integrated into the NinjaOne automated endpoint management platform as the rest of our product suite.”
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A UK fashion designer, who has previously designed for Lady Gaga, has launched a dress, codenamed Project Max, ahead of London Fashion Week which has been made entirely from discarded datacenter material. Maximilian Raynor, (20K+ followers) and datacenter company Equinix (supports TikTok, Netflix, London Stock Exchange, etc) have taken wearable tech to a different dimension with the creation of a one-off garment that brings the internet to life by using recycled materials in new and innovative ways. ProjectMax is made from “the internet,” using repurposed materials (3,600m of internet cables, metal nuts and bolts) to showcase the “personification of the internet herself.” It took 640 hours to create.
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DDN has hired Izhar Sharon as SVP of Infinia AI Customer Advocacy, reporting to CEO Alex Bouzari. Sharon has Datafy (business advisor, 7 months), OpenDrives (CEO, 20 months), Volumez (Chief Business Officer, 11 months), Infinidat (President Infinidat USA, 7 years), XtremIO (Consultant, nine months), IBM (43 months), XIV (four years), and EMC (nine years) experience.
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IBM Storage Ceph has added a bucket logging feature. An IBM blog says: “The introduction of the S3 bucket logging feature in IBM Storage Ceph 8.0 is a game-changer for storage access management. This feature provides transparency and control by empowering end users to configure and manage their application access logs. With the ability to log operations at the bucket level, users can monitor activity, troubleshoot issues, and enhance their security posture—all tailored to their specific requirements without admin intervention.”
“Tools like Trino and Superset can analyze and visualize the log data generated by S3 Bucket Logging.” IBM’s “engineering team is working hard to improve bucket logging for our next IBM Storage Ceph release, including bug fixes, enhancements, and better AWS S3 compatibility.”
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In its Q4 2024 results IBM said it had double-digit storage growth in the hybrid infrastructure part of its overall infrastructure (z mainframe, Power and storage HW systems) business which, overall brought in $4.3 billion, down 7.6 percent Y.Y. There was no detail about which storage products were involved, the revenues involved nor the actual growth rate.
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Moonbeam, a contract platform for building cross-chain-connected applications, has unveiled DataHaven, a decentralized storage system purpose-built for next-gen applications, offering Web3 developers a secure, censorship-resistant, and verifiable platform with enhanced Ethereum alignment. DataHaven seamlessly integrates with EigenLayer’s Ethereum Layer 2 networks, addressing critical challenges in data storage for emerging use cases across AI, DePIN, and RWAs. DataHaven aims to provide a sanctuary for data, offering decentralized storage designed for AI and human data to coexist while remaining free from centralized influence.
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Data protector NAKIVO announced strong Q4 2024 results, with a 25 percent increase in revenue and a 10 percent growth in the global customer base compared to Q4 2023. it didn’t provide base or final figures. In Q4 2024, 62 percent of the total revenue came from the EMEA region, 25 percent from the Americas, and 13 percent from the Asia-Pacific region. The countries delivering the highest revenue growth in Q4 2024 were Columbia, Ukraine, and Georgia. NAKIVO’ said its revenue grew by more than 100 percent QoQ in Morocco, Andorra, Colombia, Ukraine, Georgia, Denmark, India, South Africa, Sweden, Thailand, Taiwan, French Polynesia, United Arab Emirates, Romania, Hungary, and Canada. Currently, NAKIVO has over 16,000 active customers across 183 countries, achieving a 10 percent increase in its customer base in Q4 2024 vs. Q4 2023. This growth includes a 14 percent increase in the Asia-Pacific region, 10 percent in EMEA, and 8 percent in the Americas, we are told.
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Cloud file services supplier Nasuni announced a 317 percent growth in data under management in the energy sector in the past two years. It says it won EthosEnergy, a global independent service provider focusing on rotating equipment for customers in the power generation, energy, industrial, aerospace, and defense markets, as a customer.
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NetApp has hired ex-WD CFO Wissam Jabre as an EVP and its CFO, replacing Mike Berry who is retiring. CEO George Kurian said: “His decades of financial experience will be invaluable as we continue to execute on our visionary approach for a data-driven future. As a seasoned CFO and proven leader in building high-performance finance teams, Wissam will play a pivotal role working across the business to drive sustained growth and long-term value for our stakeholders.”
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NetApp has approved new near-term science-based emissions reduction targets verified by the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi). SBTi develops standards, tools and guidance which allow companies to set greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions targets in line with what is needed to keep global heating below catastrophic levels. To date, more than 4000 companies have validated science-based goals to reduce GHG emissions with commitments from nearly 3000 more to set targets.
NetApp commits to reduce absolute scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions 50.8 percent by FY2030 from a FY2020 base year. NetAppmalso commits to reduce scope 3 GHG emissions from use of sold products 51.6 percent per effective petabytes shipped by FY2030 from a FY2023 base year. SBTi has classified NetApp’s scope 1 and 2 target ambition as in line with a 1.5°C trajectory.
These targets expand and replace the decarbonization goals NetApp set in 2022. NetApp has already made progress toward its sustainability targets, reducing scope 1 and scope 2 emissions by 37 percent compared to its 2020 baseline, as reported in NetApp’s FY24 Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Impact Report.
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Quantum discussed data reduction rates in the latest Myriad release, saying: “Depending on the data stored in Myriad, customers will see different ratios of data reduction, and we continue to benchmark our algorithms on various data workloads for better guidance. For example, video is essentially already compressed so customer data comprised of more video will see less data reduction overall, some customers may have many copies of data, and corporate data tends to be more compressible, etc., resulting in much higher compaction ratios.
“While we offered 3-4x compaction example ratios in our data sheets, in testing of general data collections we have seen far higher compaction ratios of 20x or higher, which is again all dependent on the type of data stored, number of copies, and other factors. Overall Quantum Myriad customers will see variable compaction rates ranging from 2-20x or higher depending on the data type.”
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QuestDB has joined the STAC Benchmark Council. QuestDB is an open-source time-series database designed for streaming ingestion, supporting open formats like Parquet and Arrow, object storage, and time-series SQL extensions for market data and capital markets use cases.
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Digitimes reports Samsung is on high alert as CXMT reportedly adopts an advanced 1z process for its 10nm class DDR5 mass production. It suggests: “That would leapfrog CXML to the forefront of DRAM technology which, if true, would spell trouble for Samsung, Micron and others (and for DRAM pricing in general).”
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Germany’s Heise media outlet reports that old Seagate drives are fraudulently entering the supply chain with retailers, etailers and system houses delivering supposedly as-new drives that have actually had thousands of hours of use. Affected suppliers include BAB Distribution, ctn-systeme, some Amazon and eBay retailers, Digitec-Galaxus from Switzerland, DiTech from Austria and the Luxembourg branch of Alternate, plus system houses such as Bechtle and Wortmann.
Customers can use SMART diagnostics’ FARM (Field Accessible Reliability Metrics) to find out a drive’s real runtime. Heise says the FARM values can “be determined with the smartmontools under Linux, Windows and also macOS with the command smartctl -l farm /dev/sd[X]; Seagate’s tool collection Seatools can also read out the FARM values.”
A Seagate statement said: “Seagate has not sold or distributed these mislabeled hard drives to dealers. We recommend that retailers purchase hard drives only from certified Seagate distribution partners to ensure that they purchase and sell only new or Seagate factory recertified drives. Seagate refurbished, factory-certified drives resold under the Seagate Drive Circularity Program can be identified by the green-bordered white hard drive label and the designation ‘Factory Recertified’. To report a suspected mislabeled Seagate drive, you can contact the Seagate Ethics Helpline.”
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Cloud data warehouser Snowflake is reportedly in talks to acquire streaming data platform supplier RedPanda, with a suggested asking price of $1.5 billion.William Blair analyst Jason Ader views that with skepticism. The deal could negatively affect the existing Snowflake-Confluent partnership but be a net positive for Confluent: “Put simply, this is a strong validation of the strategic importance of data streaming and its large total addressable market.” Ader says: “in its most recent third quarter, Confluent management noted that it won 15 out of 16 times against Redpanda in customer bake-offs.” He suggests Confluent could buy Starburst or sell itself to Databricks.
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VAST Data announced a new partnership with another AI cloud service provider yesterday, Hypertec Cloud out of Canada, and reckons it’s is dominating the AI CSP market.
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Cloud-managed composable fast block storage supplier Volumez is evolving its mission to be a Gen AI-focussed data infrastructure provider, saying it can lift GPU utilization way higher than the 30 percent or so often reported. It does this by dynamically composing storage for a data scientist’s AI GPU-using job and using existing Linux features to do so.
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XConn Technologies (XConn) announced ts PCIe 5.0 capable switch, XC51256 “Apollo,” has successfully passed the testing at the PCI-SIG Compliance Workshop #132. The XC51256, offers a dense 256-lane configurations for applications heavily reliant on GPUs and accelerators, such as JBOG and JBOA processing setups. The Apollo switch family delivers hybrid CXL 2.0 and PCIe 5.0 technology support in a single switch to further future-proof system designs.
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Tom’s Hardware reports, quoting TechInsights, that China’s YMTC has a Gen 5 3D NAND technology with 294 overall layers but 232 active layers, the same as its current gen 4 technology.
