Data storage spending to increase

The results of a survey conducted by Millward Brown Research International and Lightspeed Research comprised of about 450 technology professionals, found that of 26 technology categories, data storage was the only area for which spending would increase this year, says Computer World.

When it came to IT spending, overall budgeting on data storage technology is expected to increase by a marginal amount (.05%) but it was still in stark contrast to other hardware categories, which showed spending declines of between 2% and 3%.

"Storage technology is similar to insurance in the financial services industry. In times of a recession, you have to manage your risk. Storage protects what you have and reduces risk," says Steve Ingledew, MD of Millward Brown Research's technology practice.

EMC, a developer and provider of information infrastructure technology, has realigned its 'go-to-market' strategy for India to beat the slowdown, reports The Economic Times.

The 15-billion-dollar company has introduced an array of storage products customised for the Indian market which has reduced the entry-level price point by 35%.

The company also intends to bundle a no-frills version of its software solutions, along with the hardware, exclusively for the Indian market.

Marvell has released a new kind of personal computer, called SheevaPlug, along with its plug computing initiative to make a high-performance, ultra-compact and green computer that plugs right into a wall power socket, states Cnet.

The SheevaPlug uses a Marvell Kirkwood processor running at 1.2GHz, is equipped with 512Mb of flash memory storage and 512Mb Dram, and connects to a network via Gigabit Ethernet.

The computer has one USB 2.0 port that can be used to host directly-attached storage or to connect to other networking and storage devices.