data storage

Bank loses 4.5 million files

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 06:59:59 -0400

It's getting to be an all-too-familiar problem--a breakdown in controls combined with carelessness leading to theft of confidential data. The latest example is the confirmation by Bank of New York Mellon Corporation that unencrypted data storage tapes holding personal information of more than 4.5 million customers were lost in transport more than three months ago by a third-party vendor.

So far, the bank said, none of the unencrypted data has been accessed or used. The loss is causing big headaches for the bank - a lawsuit and investigations by several states.

CIOs know the risks of lax security and the consequences of data theft, and need to be constantly vigilant to make sure their IT staff take every precaution to protect their companies, customers and employees.

To read more about this problem:
- see this ComputerWorld.com article

Check out storage resource management

Mon, 19 May 2008 06:59:58 -0400

When economic times were good and IT departments found themselves short on storage capacity, the solution was simple--throw more money and capacity at the problem.

Today there is an expensive storage hangover in the works, especially with power cost growing and a need to find new storage resource management solutions. InformationWeek asked for advice from SRM software vendors on how best monitor storage system and interconnect status; automate routine configuration tasks; and facilitate movement of data across the storage infrastructure.

They received responses from BridgeHead Software in California, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Network Appliance, Northern, Symantec, and Tek-Tools Software, along with newcomer Olocity.

To read what they had to say:
- check out this informationweek.com article

For more stories from the FierceCIO network:
> Dell pledges to be more energy efficient. Article
> HP works to fix Windows XP SP3. Article
> Opera Mini 4.1 released. Article

The growth of the digital world

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 07:59:59 -0400

The digital world is growing so fast that by 2011 it will be 10 times what it was in 2006, according to a new report by IDC. The report, called The Diverse and Exploding Digital Universe, pointed to faster growth in digital cameras, digital-TV shipments and a better understanding of information replication. The estimation is something that IT organizations will have to pay attention to, according to the report. IDC said businesses will have to deal with creating, storing, management, retention and disposal of data.

The study said businesses will have to deal with a host of other issues, including:

- Policies for information governance, retention and access.
- New tools for data storage, database analysis and security.
- Increased use of RFID tags to find information.

"What's interesting about the unfamiliar and emerging data sources is how difficult they will be to manage and leverage successfully," Charles King, principal analyst for Pund-IT, told CIO Today.

For more on the growing digital world:
- Check out this CIO Today article

Firefox 3.0 beta 4 released

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 07:59:58 -0400

Beta 4 of Firefox 3.0 was released just yesterday. According to Mozilla, this latest iteration sports more than 900 enhancements over the previous beta, and is a direct result of community feedback. The new beta includes drastic improvements to performance, stability and memory usage--the latter especially over long browsing sessions. Other notable mentions include a new download manager to make locating downloads easier, the inclusion of a full page zoom, improvements to JavaScript and offline data storage for web applications. In addition, continuing look and feel improvements have been added in terms of platform-specific icons, buttons and other user interface elements on the various platforms such as Windows Vista, Mac OS X and Linux.

For more on Firefox 3.0 beta 4:
- check out the Mozilla blog

Tech storage grows up

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 06:59:58 -0400

Data storage is becoming more sophisticated. The use of a rotating magnetized disk is receding, and taking its place are solid state drives (SSDs), sometimes referred to as flash drives. They use no moving parts. SSDs are changing the way CIOs view storage for workstations and data centers. Once packaged, these drives are no different from platter-based predecessors as far as interface controllers are concerned. The key difference is the lack of moving parts, and advancement that will deliver an immediate result: data access is near instantaneous.

For more about storage:
- see InformationWeek article

Where to put the data?

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 06:59:59 -0400

Your garage is just not big enough to store all of the data that your company expels each year. And it's getting harder and harder for many CIOs to find a safe place to store all that information. You could try Iron Mountain, which transmits data to a secret location in Pennsylvania. Or you could try someplace more local. To meet this demand, there are several projects underway in Northern Virginia, one of the biggest data hubs in the United States, to store and protect data closer to its origin. Data-center construction accelerated this year, according to John Kraft, chief executive of Server Vault, a data center manager in Northern Virginia. For CIOs, data storage is a growing problem especially in the wake of two recent catastrophes--Sept. 11, 2001, and the Katrina hurricane which devastated parts of the South. It is estimated that there are now 15,000 to 20,000 data centers across the country. Where is yours, and do you need more space?

For more on this:
- see Washington Post article

New nanowire tech advances nemory capabilities

Sun, 10 Jun 2007 20:01:38 -0400

American and South Korean Scientists have fabricated a memory device that combines silicon nanowires with a more traditional type of data-storage. ZeeNews reports that this new hybrid structure may be more reliable than other nanowire-based memory devices built recently, and could be easily integrated into commercial products. The device is a type of "non-volatile" memory, like flash memory, which is widely used in digital camera memory cards and USB memory sticks. What's more, stored information is not lost when the device is without power. Nanowires are integrated with a higher-end type of non-volatile memory that is similar to flash, a layered structure known as Semiconductor-Oxide-Nitride-Oxide-Semiconductor (SONOS) technology.

For more on the new storage technology:
- see this ZeeNews article

Why audits are a good thing

Sun, 22 Oct 2006 20:01:38 -0400

Surviving an IT audit is a major accomplishment given the work necessary to meet increasingly stringent mandates on data storage, protection and security. The key is to understand the three elements--policies, documentation and log files--and what's required for the audit process. As one expert relates, viewing auditors as the enemy isn't a good approach and oftentimes, an audit will help reveal unknown issues and can end up strengthening your enterprise security efforts.

For more on making an audit work to your advantage:
- read the column at Network Computing

SPOTLIGHT: How to build cost effective data storage farms

Thu, 19 Oct 2006 20:01:34 -0400

A constant cost item for IT is data storage, so the goal of efficiency and savings for this ever-growing element is a good IT best practice. Learn some valuable efficiency tips from three experts and hear about why consolidation isn't the cure-all you might believe it is. Article

ALSO NOTED: An effort to educate on identity theft vulnerability; Provider aims to meld mobile network with WiFi access; and mu

Thu, 07 Sep 2006 20:01:33 -0400

> An effort to educate on identity theft vulnerability. Article

> Provider aims to meld mobile network with WiFi access. Article

> EMC puts rights management into data storage product. Article

> HP investigation reveals media phone records were accessed. Article

And Finally... The world's tallest living thing. Article