Intel® Solid-State Drive Data Center S3500 Series Gives Cloud Computing Major Boost

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS
Intel® Solid-State Drive Data Center S3500 Series delivers next-generation performance to meet the growing storage needs of cloud computing.Deployment of Intel® SSDs in data centers increases multicore CPU utilization, reduces rack space, lowers power consumption and improves total cost of ownership.Based on Intel's industry-leading 20nm NAND flash memory, the new SSD offers fast, consistent performance and stress-free protection in a cost- and power-efficient design.

Intel® Solid-State Drive Data Center S3500 Series
CLOUD COMPUTING EXPO, New York, June 11, 2013 -- Intel Corporation today announced the Intel® Solid-State Drive DC S3500 Series, its latest solid-state drive (SSD) for data centers and cloud computing. Designed for read-intensive applications such as Web hosting, cloud computing and data center virtualization, the Intel DC S3500 Series is an ideal replacement for traditional hard disk drives (HDD), allowing data centers to save significant costs by moving toward an all-SSD storage model.
Intel SSDs, including the Intel SSD DC S3500 Series, enable transformational improvements in cloud infrastructure, fostering new and enriching Web experiences. End customers experience quicker Web page loads and improved response times as a result of dramatically improved data access times and reduced latency. IT managers and cloud developers are rewarded with improved total cost of ownership as a result of reduced power consumption, more consistent performance and smaller space requirements. More than half of U.S. businesses now employ cloud computing applications, and IDC predicts that worldwide spending on cloud services will reach $44.2 billion this year1. Data centers powering these cloud applications need to quickly, efficiently and reliably scale to handle the tremendous growth of connected users and data traffic.
"The Intel SSD DC S3500 Series breaks through barriers – like the need for high throughput/low latency storage with a low total cost of ownership – to deliver the storage solution that meets the needs of the cloud, and its demand for storage, which has exploded in recent years," said Rob Crooke, Intel corporate vice president and general manager for the Non-Volatile Memory Solutions Group. "Intel's data center family of SSDs helps make cloud computing faster and more reliable, enabling more transactions and richer experiences."
In cloud computing and data center environments, fast and consistent performance, reduced power consumption, high multicore CPU utilization and stress-free data protection are important requirements. The Intel SSD DC S3500 Series offers enterprise IT and data center managers storage options that deliver increased IO performance, reliability and a lower total cost of ownership over traditional HDDs, ideal for cloud applications.
"Intel SSDs have enabled our chip designers to gain up to 27 percent performance throughput in our massive design distributed computing environment," said Kim Stevenson, chief information officer at Intel. "In fact, we are increasing our deployment of Intel SSDs in our data centers from 10,000 units to 40,000 by the end of this year to enable our global design team to help bring products to market faster."
By combining 20nm Intel® NAND Flash Memory technology with SATA 6 Gb/s interface support, the Intel SSD DC S3500 Series delivers sequential read speeds of up to 500 MB/s and sequential write speeds of up to 450 MB/s and a tight distribution of input/outputs per second with low maximum latencies. Random read performance can go up to 75,000 input-output operations per second.
The Intel SSD DC S3500 Series also includes data protection features to address IT and data center professional's concerns of data loss. Built-in capacitors provide a short period of backup power to the drive allowing it to finish operations in the event of power loss. The drives also use 256-bit AES encryption for data protection.
The new SSDs will be offered in capacities ranging from 80 gigabyte (GB) to 800GB and both 2.5 and 1.8 inch form factors. Available through Intel distributors and resellers, the Intel DC S3500 Series is offered at the suggested channel price of $115 for a 1.8-inch 80GB drive and $979 for a 2.5-inch 800GB drive. It is also accompanied by a 5-year warranty.
The new DC S3550 Series, as well as a previously released data center family (Intel SSD DC S3700 Series and 910 Series), are being showcased in Intel's booth (#519) at the Cloud Computing Expo. The event runs from June 10-13 at Jacob K. Javits Center in New York.
More information on Intel SSDs can be found at www.intel.com/go/ssd or by accessing the multimedia press kit at www.intel.com/newsroom/ssd. Follow Intel SSDs on Twitter: @intelssd, or communities.intel.com.
About Intel
Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) is a world leader in computing innovation. The company designs and builds the essential technologies that serve as the foundation for the world’s computing devices. Additional information about Intel is available at newsroom.intel.com and blogs.intel.com.
Intel is a trademark of Intel Corporation in the United States and other countries.
* Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.
1 "Neovise Report, Public, Private and Hybrid Clouds – When, Why and How They are Really Used."
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NTP Software taps into cloud for secure file management

File data management vendor NTP Software today launched Universal File Access technology designed to secure data on endpoint devices maintained by a corporation's users.

Universal

File Access (UFA) integrates with Microsoft Active Directory though the cloud to provide secure file management of information that belongs to the company but resides on users' devices. It is aimed at helping corporate IT manage assets in this age of bring your own device (BYOD). The idea is to keep data on these devices behind the corporate firewall, and to give IT administrators control over permissions and data flow through Active Directory.

"Companies are under pressure to expand into BYOD," NTP Software CEO Bruce Backa said. "When we look at corporate file data, we view this more [as] capture-and-secure data rather than sync-and-share. Our software captures data and removes it from the device immediately. If you create corporate IP, the last thing you want to do is spread it around."

NTP Software's UFA consists of three parts: Cloud Connector, BYOD Manager and BYOD Suite. The Cloud Connector runs on a virtual machine (VM) in the data center and communicates with either the Microsoft Windows Azure public cloud or a company's private cloud. Backa said NTP Software will add support for other public clouds.

The BYOD Manager resides on a VM that runs in the cloud provider and handles authentication, manages the connection, and formats the individual application on each mobile device. It also provides flexible caching options, functions as a firewall, and enforces the Active Directory policies for security.

The Cloud Connector takes data from the storage filer and hands it to the BYOD Manager, which sends it back to the data center.

"We use the cloud as a transport rather than a repository," Backa said.

Backa said after data is returned to the data center, "it is immediately recognized as a corporate asset. So it becomes a secure corporate asset as opposed to something you share with ten of your friends."

The BYOD Suite is the client software for endpoint devices. It allows users to upload and delete data and enables secure file management by allowing admins to upload and delete data and wipe the device if it is stolen or lost.

Terri McClure, a senior analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group, said NTP uses its storage resource management (SRM) capabilities to differentiate its product from popular online file-sharing vendors such as Box and Dropbox.

"They have knowledge of customer files because they do SRM," McClure said of NTP. "What they are doing is being an information broker in the cloud that coordinates mobile access to corporate data. You get files via a connection remotely from devices, but data does not live on your mobile devices. In time, they will have a sync of individual files or folders, which is important for marketing and sales. But this is more of an access solution from mobile devices."

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NetApp promises bring-your-own-device security without using the cloud

NetApp Inc. is putting technology from its February ionGrid acquisition to use in an application that lets users securely access data stored on NetApp storage systems through endpoint devices. The vendor bills its NetApp Connect application as a way to provide bring-your-own-device security without the use of cloud file-sharing products.

NetApp Connect lets users download, edit and share files on mobile devices. The software is integrated with NetApp's Data Ontap operating system, but runs on a mobile device to authenticate users and grant access to file shares.

Connect allows employees to access corporate data without using a VPN, cellular connection or Wi-Fi, said Nick Triantos, NetApp's senior director of mobile software and former CEO of ionGrid. Unlike online storage and file synchronization software from such vendors as Dropbox and Box, NetApp Connect doesn't store data in the cloud. The software is based on Stratos ionGrid's flagship application developed for bring-your-own-device security.

Employees can share and collaborate through Microsoft SharePoint or intranet applications. IT administrators maintain control via Active Directory.

"It's for companies that don't want to throw out their existing infrastructure," Triantos said. "The challenge when companies move to iCloud or Dropbox is that there are tradeoffs to security. Also, if data is moved out to the cloud, all the workflows have to change."

NetApp is offering Connect as a license option. It's available as a download from the Apple App Store and supports iOS devices, but NetApp plans to make it available for other mobile devices.

Jorge Pazos, chief information officer for the city of Melrose, Mass., said his team has done a proof of concept of NetApp Connect for the city's school district, which has 3,700 students and hundreds of staffers. The city, which uses two NetApp FAS2240 filers, will install the product for school staff, then gradually expand it for students, he said.

"We have a lot of teachers using Dropbox and Google Drive," Pazos said. "We have no idea what they are doing. They can be putting a student picture and their name on a paper or blog, which is against our policy without approval. There is a lot of file sharing going on, and we have no idea if it's meeting compliance [regulations]. This product is a good front-end snap-on that can access files, and we don't have to add another management layer."

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