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Products
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| Evolving Data Storage, Management, and Access |
| An interview with Gabriel Broner, General Manager, Windows Storage Division
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Q: What do you perceive as the biggest trends coming in the storage industry?
A: Almost every business and industry has seen significant growth of data lately, and at Microsoft, we see the storage industry potentially evolving in a few ways to address the challenges of business data growth.
First, with data storage, we expect to see a shift away from proprietary solutions in favor of standardized hardware and volume software. This can help create more opportunities for all businesses to take advantage of storage capabilities once reserved for larger enterprises.
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Another significant change we anticipate is in the area of data management. Companies are spending potentially three times their storage acquisition costs just to manage data. I believe the industry is transitioning toward more integrated solutions that will enable IT professionals to cope with data growth and acquire more data protection, retention, and placement functionalities.
The third area that Microsoft believes is in a transition is data access and availability. Just as we can access e-mail from almost anywhere, we will see a move toward transparent data access over the next few years.
Q. How are Microsoft products addressing these shifts in the storage market?
A: The latest addition to the Microsoft Windows Storage Server* family is Windows Unified Data Storage Server* 2003, which is designed to unify both file-level and block-level storage within the same device. This is important because organizations will have an integrated storage environment that is more easily and efficiently managed than separate file and block storage networks.
Using Microsoft software and working with standardized hardware, such as Intel® SSR212MC2, the unified storage platform offers a step toward standardized storage solutions that are reliable, manageable, scalable-and don't require expertise in storage administration to grow and manage the environment. The unified storage platform uses the same Windows interface that is already familiar to end users.
In the area of data management, Microsoft Data Protection Manager* delivers continuous data protection for all Microsoft application and file servers and is expanding its data recovery, retention, and placement capabilities to best meet future needs.
For that transparent data access I mentioned earlier, Microsoft has made many enhancements to its platforms and caching techniques, especially in the Windows Offline Files feature for Windows Vista*. Some of the newer functionality includes automatic server availability detection, automatic synchronization of any files or folders changed by the user, and automatic redirection of any open files to online copies. And there's a button on the Explorer toolbar called Work Offline that allows easy transition between online and offline so that we can verify precisely what files we will see when actually working offline.
Q: What makes the Windows Unified Data Storage Server 2003 good for the Intel channel?
A: The combination of Windows Unified Data Storage Server 2003 and Intel SSR212MC2 gives resellers and integrators an exceptional integrated storage solution to offer their customers. Bringing together these two products provides a nimble, affordable way to manage and grow file and block storage inside one device. With this standardized solution, users can enjoy greater peace of mind-and greater flexibility-for storing critical applications and data without requiring any extra storage expertise.
At one time, only the larger enterprises could afford to operate sophisticated storage environments. Staff costs, software costs, and service costs made it nearly impossible for smaller businesses to attain higher-end storage capabilities. We believe that as the industry transitions to more standardized, integrated platforms such as the one Microsoft and Intel have designed, users will continue to benefit from more functionality and greater manageability for their storage environment at better price points.
Q: How does the Windows Unified Data Storage Server 2003 work?
A: File-level storage manages client/server interactions to store individual files and folder hierarchies. Block-level storage is a single unit or block of data transferred by a disk or tape drive. Traditionally, those storage types have required separate storage infrastructures-often a Fibre Channel or iSCSI network for block storage and Ethernet protocols for file storage.
The Windows Unified Data Storage Server 2003 offers iSCSI target capabilities to storage servers so that file, print, and block storage services can be integrated on a single platform. Because the Unified Server optimizes network storage devices in this way, users can share, provision, and scale-unify-both block and file storage from the already-familiar Windows interface.
Windows Unified Data Storage Server 2003 joins with the Intel SSR212MC2 for fast iSCSI network connectivity, and uses Intel® RAID Controllers and dual-core or quad-core Intel® Xeon® processors for high-performance storage.
Q: What are the strengths of the Microsoft/Intel relationship?
A: At Microsoft, we are always examining how to better address business issues affecting the market and we continue to evolve our products to meet those changes. Regarding storage, we want to bring the capabilities which were once only available to the higher end of the market to a significantly broader audience to help more businesses be successful. Our storage collaboration with Intel began more than two years ago, and together we can make a difference in how the industry delivers data storage, management, and access opportunities. I believe it is in the DNA of each of our companies to provide large numbers of solutions in a cost-effective way. Microsoft and Intel products exist broadly in the server and application marketplace and we are both motivated by bringing necessary features to these solutions in order to make storage simple, reliable, and scalable. Through this partnership and these products, we hope to help businesses of all sizes overcome data growth and complexity challenges to effectively boost productivity, lower total costs, and provide better data protection.
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