PayPal network problems worsen

PayPal's recent outage was the result of a network hardware failure, and the problem worsened when the failover systems didn't spring into action as designed, reports Fierce CIO.

PayPal has more than 87 million active accounts in 24 currencies around the world. It is owned by e-Bay, who acquired the company for $1.5 billion in 2002.

The outage illustrates the challenges inherent to maintaining a cloud-based system in which zero downtime is tolerated, with merchants and customers globally relying on PayPal to be able to complete orders and transfer funds.

Tiered storage vendor Avere Systems upgraded the operating system for its FTX network attached storage (NAS) appliances, states Tech Target.

Avere FXT nodes can scale out under a global namespace, and its appliances can be attached to third-party NAS systems to improve performance.

With Avere OS 4.1, an FXT cluster can support 24 storage systems -- up from eight in the previous release. Rebecca Thompson, Avere Systems' marketing vice-president, says the firm's roadmap calls for the ability to scale higher in future roll-outs.

Virgin Media is making HD and 3D content available at the fingertips of consumers with the roll-out of its set-top box, says 3D TV Watcher.

The TiVo-powered hardware includes hardware with storage capabilities up to 1TB, which, according to the company, will be able to store 500 hours of content.

The product is set to make online content more convenient for users with a built-in modem, which won't cause problems for other devices using the same broadband connection, according to Virgin Media.