IBM introduces new solutions

IBM has announced new and enhanced storage virtualisation products for disk and tape storage, increasing IBM`s lead in storage virtualisation innovations, reports CNN Money.

"Businesses require that the management and storage of their data be done better, cheaper and faster. IBM is the only vendor poised to offer this level of solution with storage virtualisation, as well as disk, tape and services offerings," said Charlie Andrews, director of IBM system storage product marketing.

In a recent report, analyst group IDC predicted that over the next five years, virtualisation will emerge as an important competitive battleground in the storage industry, driving changes in storage system architectures.

Brocade Communication Systems is developing a Data Centre Fabric architecture. The product strategy is built around optimised server and storage virtualisation, application services and policy-based automation, reports ComputerWorld.

At the annual end-user conference in Las Vegas, Brocade said its Data Centre Fabric product roadmap will revolve around applications such as continuous data protection, disaster recovery, file and block data migration.

Cisco Systems recently announced a similar strategy at VMworld 2007 in Las Vegas, also calling it a "Data Centre Fabric" strategy.

Radiant Communications has released its "AlwaysThere" business continuity solution designed for SMEs, according to MarketWire.

Radiant`s first product offering in its new suite is an enterprise-level solution for hosting Microsoft Exchange that was previously unavailable to SMEs.

Based on grid computing, Radiant`s AlwaysThere hosted Exchange provides SMEs with a secure and fully redundant Exchange environment with continuous back-ups, and virtually unlimited disk space.