Portable storage poses threat

Baptist Memorial Health Care, in Memphis, recently found itself dealing with a proliferation of user-owned plug-and-play USB port drives that posed a security risk to sensitive patient data, says Computer World.

Lenny Goodman, director for desktop management at the healthcare company, said users found it difficult to copy significant amounts of data to floppy disks, and the company "did not allow CD writers".

So users turned to USB flash drives. Baptist Memorial then created strict policies around the use of flash memory sticks, iPod music players and other portable storage devices by standardising on USB memory sticks that have native encryption and password protection.

Server virtualisation has made day-today life a whole lot simpler for systems administrators. However, if you've virtualised your servers but not your storage, you've only done half the job, says Virtualization Review.

Virtualising your storage infrastructure is critical to addressing the unique storage needs of VMware.

But the storage infrastructure and operational practices that were designed for physical server architectures are not well-suited to meet the demands of a virtual infrastructure and need to be changed radically and present myriad new challenges.

Lexar is showing off its latest USB flash drive, saying the JumpDrive Secure II Plus offers high mobile storage capacity while retaining security, enabling businesses to backup, transport and share large amounts of data, says IDM.

The 16GB JumpDrive doubles the capacity of the current generation of flash drives, and includes a built-in capacity meter and advanced security software that encrypts all stored information in case the device is lost or stolen.

The company says the capacity and security features of the drive make it perfect for mobile professionals who need safe and convenient storage and transfer capabilities.