Network Storage

Supermicro accelerates delivery of HPC clusters with a broad portfolio

Super Micro Computer is expanding its HPC market reach for a broad range of industries by innovating at the system and cluster level. With its Total IT Solutions, Supermicro can deliver complete rack-level solutions faster and at a lower cost to not only scientific research organisations but also to enterprise customers in diverse industries, such as manufacturing, life sciences, and energy exploration, as HPC and AI converge. The new Universal GPU server allows customers to choose the best CPUs, GPUs, and switch configurations for their applications and workloads, including dual-processor configurations using either the 3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processor or the 3rd Gen AMD EPYC processor. The Universal GPU system enables system administrators to standardise HPC/AI systems in their clusters for the desired workloads on a single platform that is both versatile and flexible. This unique system has been optimised for various GPUs, including the newly announced AMD Instinct MI200 series accelerators and NVIDIA A100 GPUs. Supermicro systems, such as the SuperBlade and BigTwin systems, are optimised for HPC applications where density, scalability, and power savings are critical. The Universal GPU server with AMD Instinct, MI200 series accelerators, will be showcased in Supermicro's SC'21 booth, #1117. "Supermicro is committed to delivering complete IT Solutions composed of advanced HPC clusters for customers that outpace industry standard lead times leveraging our newly expanded US and Taiwan manufacturing facilities," says Charles Liang, President and CEO of Supermicro. "We can now deliver large numbers of liquid-cooled clusters that use state-of-the-art computing technologies, allowing customers to get up and running quickly, resulting in reduced costs. With our Made in the USA initiative, plus other programmes, customers can design optimised HPC and AI systems for their exact workloads. In addition, the upcoming Universal GPU system will provide customers a variety of complete systems with a choice of the CPU, GPU, and switch technologies." While Supermicro continues to design the most efficient air-cooled systems, liquid cooling is becoming a necessary technology for high-performing servers, such as the Supermicro SuperBlade and GPU servers containing the latest CPUs and GPUs. The new Supermicro manufacturing facilities are equipped to manufacture entire liquid-cooled clusters, tested at scale before customer shipment. "We continue to work with Supermicro for some of our large-scale HPC systems for our open science projects," states Matt Leininger, Sr. Principal HPC, at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). "LLNL is a leader in investigating new computing technologies to reduce time to solve numerically intensive applications. We look forward to a continued relationship with Supermicro." Historically, Supermicro has designed and worked with partners on creating the most energy-efficient HPC systems available today. As a result, the Preferred Networks MN-3 Core Server optimised for Intel Xeon CPUs has recently been ranked #1 in energy efficiency on the Green 500 list, determining which large systems deliver the most performance per watt. Habana AI Processors and Supercomputing Case Study Tuesday, Nov. 16 | 3:00 PM (CST) Speaker: Thomas Jorgensen, Sr. Director, Technology Enablement, Supermicro Storage, Systems, Standardization, and Snakes Wednesday, Nov. 17 | 11:00 AM (CST) Speaker: Cameron Harr, LC I/O Strategist, Lawrence Livermore National Laborator

Schneider Electric expands support of liquid cooled IT with Chilldyne

Schneider Electric has entered into an Alliance Partnership with Chilldyne, a pioneer in liquid cooling solutions for data centres. Through the agreement, Schneider Electric will offer the Chilldyne Negative Pressure Liquid Cooling Solution complementing its full portfolio of Uniflair cooling and chiller solutions, to enhance data centre sustainability and efficiency. Chilldyne holds patents on negative pressure liquid cooling technology, which allows for leak-proof cooling of the highest-temperature chips and GPUs on the market. The negative pressure approach mitigates risk, lowers the total cost of cooling, and improves server uptime. This partnership will allow Schneider Electric to provide worldwide distribution with service and support. Schneider Electric Director of Cooling Innovation and Strategy, Maurizio Frizziero says, “As the World’s Most Sustainable Company, finding sustainable innovation to address new demands of the digital world are core to our mission. To meet higher computing needs chips get hotter and liquid cooling technology presents a more energy efficient means than traditional methods to cool high-computing workloads. Schneider Electric’s partnership with Chilldyne will allow our customers to implement next-generation liquid cooling, while making their data centres more energy-efficient and less vulnerable to downtime.” Chilldyne CEO, Steve Harrington comments, “Our goal is to reduce data centre energy consumption with worry free, maximum uptime cooling. Schneider Electric shares our goal of a more sustainable future. This partnership expands Chilldyne’s reach to help even more customers realise the power of no-leak liquid cooling designed to make data centres more efficient and reliable.” The partnership gives system designers and customers confidence to deploy the latest high performance, liquid cooled compute, while at the same time improving energy efficiency, white space optimisation, and achieving world class TCO.  The next evolution in sustainable data centre cooling has arrived and it is better, cheaper and more efficient than the air cooling it replaces.

Siemon partners with Paessler to secure uptime of critical IT infrastructure

Global network infrastructure specialist, Siemon, has announced a new technology partnership with network monitoring expert, Paessler. Paessler will join Siemon’s Intelligent Building and Data Centre Complimentary Manufacturer Partner programme, which hosts industry leading organisations that work with Siemon in delivering additional value and support to its customers in the data centre and intelligent building markets. Paessler’s powerful PRTG offers comprehensive monitoring of IT systems, devices and applications as well as facilities and security systems. The solution will integrate with Siemon’s IT network infrastructure and physical layer portfolio to extensively monitor and control all components of a data centre or an intelligent building. Monitoring through PRTG helps optimise the performance of these environments, reducing resource consumption and operating costs. “We are proud to be partnering with Paessler who are known for great expertise, quality products and exceptional service”, says Bob Allan, global intelligent building solutions specialist at Siemon. “Through working together, we can offer our clients access to best-in-class technology that monitors the health and performance of their entire infrastructure for maximum uptime. Combined with our high-performance IT infrastructure solutions we will deliver greater intelligent building and data centre benefits to our client base around the world.” With both partners considering complementary partnerships an important element of business strategy, Siemon simultaneously joined Paessler’s Uptime Alliance technology partner program. The Uptime Alliance fosters collaboration with technology partners to provide integrated and combined solutions that ensure the maximum uptime of IT infrastructure and business processes as well as the functions that make it possible. “Partnering with Siemon is a great step forward for Paessler,” explains Marcus Kraus, corporate development and strategy manager at Paessler. “The innovative technologies and the knowhow of Siemon enrich Paessler’s Uptime Alliance ecosystem in the world of data centre and intelligent buildings. Joint customers benefit from this partnership through advanced integrations, enhanced visibility and a holistic approach for managing their data centre or intelligent building.”

Inverness Caledonian Thistle nets IT partnerships

Inverness Caledonian Thistle FC (ICTFC) has signed up Scottish IT and cybersecurity company Converged Communication Solutions as its first IT partner. The SPFL Championship side has joined forces with Converged, which has offices in Aberdeen and Inverness, to upgrade its IT systems and invest in technology that will improve digital engagement with fans. Since last autumn, Converged has supported ICTFC’s investment in new laptops and other computer hardware at the Caledonian Stadium.  The independent IT firm has also managed the club’s transition to Office 365, installed new data back-up systems and firewall solutions, and controlled the migration and management of the club’s data to secure cloud-based systems.  In the longer-term, Converged will assist ICTFC by providing ongoing IT support and desktop device management, servicing of onsite infrastructure, software licencing and maintaining effective cybersecurity measures. The partnership will also see Converged deliver cybersecurity training sessions to ICTFC staff and players.  These will heighten awareness of different types of cyber threats and demonstrate the steps individuals can take to better protect themselves and their employer when online. By investing in strengthening its systems and technologies to make them more efficient and secure, ICTFC has enhanced the remote working facilities for its employees.  It has also put in place infrastructure for boosting interaction with supporters in the years ahead. The past year has forced all organisations to embrace technology to change how they operate and for football clubs that has included redefining the long-established matchday experience for fans.  As technology continues to progress, how ICTFC digitally connects with fans in the stands and in their homes will further evolve. Scot Gardiner ICTFC Chief Executive, says: “We have been very impressed with the seamless installation of the new systems by Converged and the ease with which staff have transitioned over to them.  This is very much an investment for the future.  It ensures the club has robust infrastructure and hardware in place as we embrace further digitalisation to enrich how we engage and communicate with Caley Jags around the world.”  “Creating long-term partnerships with established businesses such as Converged is important to ICTFC, as their knowledge and insight is hugely beneficial.  Cybersecurity has the potential to affect us all, either in our home or work environments, so for Converged to deliver cybersecurity training to our team is very valuable.” “We, like every Club in the SPFL, are hugely grateful to the generosity of James Anderson, the money he donated to the SPFL Trust enabled us to expedite this project, become technologically secure and help to future proof the business.” Neil Christie, Converged Communications Solutions managing director, adds: “The past year has underlined the need for all organisations to have up-to-date, robust, efficient and secure IT systems in place, and which can support their future growth.  As a business, we are committed to doing that, which is demonstrated in our partnership with ICTFC. “Working with ICTFC underlines the commitment to the Highland capital and wider region that we first made in 2018 when we opened our office in the city.  I know our Inverness-based team is excited to be working with the Caley Thistle team.  Having assisted the club in laying technical foundations on which its short and long-term digital ambitions to enhance the fan experience can be built, we look forward to supporting them in bringing those to life.” Inverness Caledonian Thistle Football Club, commonly known as Caley Thistle, is a professional football club based in Inverness, Scotland. The team currently competes in the Scottish Championship, the second tier of the Scottish Professional Football League, and hosts home games at Caledonian Stadium. Inverness Caledonian Thistle won the Scottish Cup in 2015 and was runner-up in the Scottish League Cup a year earlier. They have also won the Scottish Challenge Cup twice and the Scottish Football League First Division twice. Its highest Premiership position is 3rd in 2014–15.

Lenovo launches storage solution to help businesses embrace technology

Lenovo Infrastructure Solutions Group has unveiled its new range of All Flash Array (AFA) storage area network (SAN) offerings to help businesses today while better equipping them for their digital transformation journey needs of tomorrow.  The new hybrid cloud solution is Lenovo’s latest offering in their data management portfolio, as Lenovo continues to build momentum as the fastest growing all flash storage vendor globally.  The new storage solutions, DM5100F SAN and DM5000F SAN, bring best in-class data management down to a starting price of under $15k. They include comprehensive features such as integrated cloud connectivity, storage efficiency, encryption, built-in data protection, security, and consistent performance, while offering a reliable and secure base for businesses to build their IT infrastructure around.  Lenovo’s ThinkSystem DM5100F SAN and DM5000F SAN are the first to market with complete upgrade paths from block only to Unified (block, file and object) storage. Powered by ONTAP data management software, these latest solutions have upgradeable software packages to suit the needs of organisations today and as they grow in the future.  Key capabilities of these devices include:  Performance: Consistent low-latency controls via adaptive Quality of Service (QoS) and service level provisioning to also cater for additional workloads like AI and Data Analytics Cloud integration: Industry-leading solutions for backup, Disaster Recovery (DR), automated data tiering and burst workload management ThinkSystem Intelligent Monitoring: Predictive analytics and machine learning algorithms to uncover risk factors and opportunities to improve system health, availability, and security  Data protection: Built-in, easy-to-use backup/restore and DR, integrated with third party software including Veeam and Commvault SnapMirror Business Continuity: Non-disruptive failover active-active cross site clusters, ensuring data continuity  System availability: Six 9s or better system availability, including for planned activities and unplanned events Security: Regulatory compliance and protection against unauthorised data access including in-flight and at-rest encryption  Marco Pozzoni, Director, EMEA Storage Sales, Lenovo ISG says, “Our company mission to provide smarter technology for all is directly reflected in these new solutions. Traditional storage solution packages come with all capabilities built-in, raising the costs and making storage expensive for all businesses. We’ve decided to address this issue and offer solutions that help companies, irrespectively of the growth stage they are at. The DM5100F SAN and DM5000F SAN are both fully upgradeable from a hardware and software perspective, giving businesses a richer data management platform that grows as they do.  “With flexible working arrangements looking to be a more permanent factor in our lives, businesses need to be able to ensure that mission critical functions remain online in both a secure and effective way. Our tests have achieved efficiency rates of up to 20:1 when running virtual machines, and up to 3:1 in other more data intensive environments. These ratings dramatically lower the total cost of ownership of data storage, which combined with our flexible software and hardware packages provides businesses with an industry leading solution that meets their needs now and in the future.”   This launch also highlights Lenovo’s ongoing commitment to its channel partners. Lenovo is giving its Lenovo Data Champions, an exclusive community for Lenovo brand lovers and tech fans, including 10 channel partners, help, pricing support and access to these innovative data management solutions.  

Hospital trust deploys Schneider Electric's EcoStruxure

Schneider Electric, in collaboration with Advanced Power Technology (APT), has deployed its award-winning EcoStruxure IT Expert software at the Birmingham Women and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust. The open, vendor-agnostic and interoperable data centre infrastructure management (DCIM) platform will provide the Trust with a dedicated remote monitoring solution, offering data-driven decision-making, increased resiliency and uptime for its distributed IT and critical backup power systems. EcoStruxure IT Expert is an advanced remote monitoring tool providing wherever-you-go visibility, alarms, preventive management capabilities, and data-driven recommendations to mitigate security and failure risks and drive efficiency. It is part of Schneider Electric’s IoT-enabled EcoStruxure architecture. “For healthcare professionals, the availability of power infrastructure and mission-critical systems is a non-negotiable,” says Marc Garner, VP, Secure Power Division, Schneider Electric UK&I. “Our EcoStruxure software offers the Birmingham Women and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust greater visibility, increased resilience and will help mitigate downtime across its distributed edge environments.”   Founded in 2017 as a merger between two existing hospitals, the Birmingham Women and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust is a specialist provider of healthcare services for more than 140,000 patients. The Trust’s operations are supported by an extensive IT infrastructure system, whose functions were consolidated and integrated across both of its hospital campuses. They include two on-premise data centres, a growing number of distributed network closets and more than 100 uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) that safeguard critical equipment and patient data. Remote monitoring increases resiliency Continuous uptime is the top priority for the Trust’s IT department to enable always-on patient management and clinical applications. To ensure continuous operation in the event of a failure, the Trust maintains a detailed disaster recovery (DR) plan, which sees its data centres act as fail-over resources to one another. Further, its UPSs, which are deployed across a number of edge computing locations, need to be monitored in real-time, ensuring that their batteries, and other critical components remain in good working condition. Traditionally, manual inspections were required to check the health and status of its backup power and IT equipment. However, given the distributed nature of their infrastructure, the Trust had begun to experience longer intervals between inspections, increasing both the risk of battery malfunctions and of downtime to its IT applications. Realising that it needed to improve the resilience of its IT and UPSs, the Trust engaged the support of Advanced Power Technology (APT), a specialist provider of energy efficient power and cooling systems. Increasing uptime APT recommended the installation of Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure IT Expert software to help monitor and manage its UPS, battery systems and edge IT infrastructure. Its cloud-based architecture would allow them to connect its data centres, distributed IT and backup power systems, and monitor them from a central console. Further, it would enable status updates and alarms to be routed to any remote device, providing real-time visibility and preventing downtime. “The annual inspections traditionally provided assurance that the UPS systems were sufficient to meet the needs of emergency operations,” comments John Thompson, managing director of APT.  “Unfortunately, when called upon in the moment of need, the Trust found this approach to be lacking. The installation of EcoStruxure IT Expert means the team now has continuous 24x7x365 assurance of the UPS’s operational status, as well as the runtime available to support its critical loads.” Data-driven decision making to drive efficiency Additional capabilities within EcoStruxure IT Expert also allow the Trust to monitor environmental conditions such as temperature and humidity, which can affect the performance of its IT and network infrastructures. In these environments, cooling efficiency is essential and network closets can suffer from dust and poor ventilation. Here EcoStruxure IT Expert enables the IT department, in collaboration with estates management, to provide detailed information to key stakeholders. This will help drive investments that will not only maximise uptime, but enable the Trust to manage its hardware assets in a more sustainable and efficient way. “Through EcoStruxure IT, we’ve got a great tool from a leading vendor, which gives us complete peace of mind,” says Jas Purewall, ICT Infrastructure Manager, Birmingham Women and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust. “We can assess the impact of additional loads and use data from the application to decide whether to scale the UPSs up or down, right-size them, or optimise the system for efficient operations.”

90% of IT decision makers say flash-based object storage will replace primary storage

Scality has announced the results of an independent survey completed by IT decision makers across the UK, France and Germany. It revealed a fundamental shift in the industry towards flash-based object storage to fuel artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), automation, and big data analytics in place of other forms of primary storage. All-flash object storage provides comprehensive data protection of and rapid access to massive volumes of unstructured data, powering the heavy workloads of these digital business initiatives. The survey indicates that Europe is mature for this change, with 90% of respondents across all three countries stating that this move to all-flash object storage will occur within five years. Notably, France seems most convinced that this digital transformation will happen in under three years (76%), followed by Germany (72%) and the UK (43%). “As flash becomes available at higher densities and lower costs, it is now suitable for high-capacity data storage,” explains Paul Speciale, chief product officer at Scality. “Object storage has begun to embrace flash media and, as the cost of flash decreases, it is likely to become the default media for object storage and will effectively make object storage the new primary storage for a much broader range of applications.” Not only does all-flash object storage provide extremely high performance, thereby accelerating AI/ML environments, empowering business intelligence/analytics, and increasing infrastructure performance and utilisation, it also lowers TCO and improves application development. In the survey conducted by Vanson Bourne, IT decision makers across various industries including financial services, telecom, professional services, manufacturing, and retail, were asked: “Do you think flash-based object storage will dominate storage platforms to fuel artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), automation, and big data analytics, in place of other forms of primary storage?” Key findings in the UK include: The vast majority of UK respondents (77%) said this move to flash-based object storage will happen in the mid-term (one to five years), while respondents in France (76%) and Germany (72%) leant towards the short term (under three years). 3% of respondents said that it would occur within a year, 40% between one and three years, 37% between three and five years, and 1% beyond five years. 9% said it will not happen and 10% didn’t know. In the UK, participants from the IT, technology and telecom, (9%) and the retail, distribution and transport (5%) sectors were the only to state that this digital transformation will occur within one year.UK respondents in the business and professional services sector were most likely to state that the move to flash-based object storage will occur between three and five years, at 71% compared to an average across all UK respondents of 37%.UK respondents from smaller organisations (1,000 - 2,999 employees) were more likely to state that this transformation will occur within five years compared to larger organisations (3,000+ employees), at 92% to 76% respectively. Smaller organisations were also more likely to say all-flash object storage will dominate in the short to mid-term (8% under one year, 50% one to three years, 33% three to five years and 0% over five years). In contrast, larger organisations leaned more evenly towards the mid-term (1% under one year, 37% one to three years, 38% three to five years, and 1% over five years). These European results are in line with research carried out by ESG in the US earlier in the year, which found that 77% of IT professionals at organisations currently using all-flash object storage said the technology has had a high impact or has been a game-changing technology in their on-premises storage environment

The changing landscape of data centre energy storage

Rapid technology advances are about to shift the landscape of energy storage options for data centre operators, whether running 250kW edge computing sites or 100MW hyperscale facilities. From battery banks to gravity, for emergency back-up discharge in seconds or long-term discharge over days, weeks, and months; how energy is stored on-site and off-site has the potential to radically shake up data centre power chain design and operation. Solutions already in use include the increasingly common Lithium-ion batteries and the familiar kinetic flywheels. Less familiar may be gravity and liquid air energy storage. Here i3 Solutions Group offers a high level ‘What is...’ list of just some of the new and not so new technologies that are in use today and those that could find their way into the data centres of the future. Lithium-ion batteries Use of Li-ion has grown rapidly in data centres. As the Uptime Institute reported, this is mainly due to better energy density, rechargeability and management. It says “Li-ion energy storage is also regarded as a key component in renewable energy distribution, which is being adopted primarily to reduce carbon emissions.” In addition to being more compact and lightweight than VRLA equivalents, advantages of Li-ion include energy capacity superiority, lower battery discharge through efficiency; extended lifespan; software optimisation enhancement and better remote management capability. While questions remain about how sustainable Li-ion is when measured across its entire lifecycle, from sourcing raw materials to operation, disposal and recycling, the use of Li-ion battery banks in data centres of all sizes will continue to grow in the near term. The UTI says ‘there are now dozens of companies with Li-ion recycling services or technologies’, and it advises that ‘the best way for data centre operators to reduce the impact of Li-ion use will be to open a serious dialogue with suppliers.’ Meanwhile, large deployments are being planned. In late 2020 Google says: “In Belgium, we’ll soon install the first ever battery-based system for replacing generators at a hyperscale data centre… batteries are multi-talented team players: when we’re not using them, they’ll be available as an asset that strengthens the broader electric grid.” In every sector, data centres already make use of tens of thousands of cells in battery systems – they may also need to renew thousands of them each year. Lithium is not the only battery technology option available. More sustainable battery types, with high enough energy densities, are being developed and some may start to compete as they become more cost-effective; these include flow batteries, zinc nickel and sodium-ion. Using a less expensive and more common element than Lithium, Sodium-ion cells can be recharged in around a fifth of the time. The technology is cost-effective and sustainable, which includes using local bio-based energy sources in the battery supply chain. For example, researchers in Germany are exploring the use of local agricultural waste in sodium-ion energy storage chemistry.  Kinetic Flywheels have been used to store energy for thousands of years. Today in data centres across the world, tens of thousands of flywheels are used for short term energy back-up power. Kinetic energy as the name suggests is energy generated via motion of an object. In classical mechanics, kinetic energy (KE) is equal to half of an object's mass multiplied by the velocity squared. Kinetic energy = ½ (mass)*(velocity)2. A flywheel system stores energy mechanically in the form of kinetic energy by spinning a mass at high speed. Electrical or mechanical inputs spin the flywheel rotor and keep it spinning until called upon to release the stored energy. The amount of energy available and its duration are governed by the mass and speed of the flywheel. Kinetic flywheels have seen success as energy storage components in the UPS power infrastructure. These systems indirectly provide electrical energy for the data centre from low and high-speed flywheels. Compressed Gas Storage Liquid air energy storage Liquid air energy storage (LAES) stores liquid air inside a tank which is then heated to its gaseous form, the gas is then used to rotate a turbine. Compressed gas systems have high reliability and a long-life span that can extend to over 30 years. LAES, also referred to as Cryogenic Energy Storage (CES), is a long duration, large scale energy storage technology that can be located at the point of demand. The working fluid is liquefied air or liquid nitrogen (~78% of air). LAES systems share performance characteristics with pumped hydro and can harness industrial low-grade waste heat/waste cold from co-located processes. Size extends from around 5MW to 100+MWs and, with capacity and energy being de-coupled, the systems are well suited to long duration applications.  Source: Energy Storage Association Adiabatic Compressed Air Energy Storage An Adiabatic Compressed Air Energy Storage (A-CAES) System is an energy storage system based on air compression and air storage in geological underground voids. During operation, the available electricity is used to compress air into a cavern at depths of hundreds of metres and at pressures up to 100 bar. The heat produced during the compression cycle is stored using Thermal Energy Storage (TES), while the air is pressed into underground caverns. When the stored energy is needed, this compressed air is used to generate power in a turbine while simultaneously recovering the heat from the thermal storage. Source: https://ease-storage.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/EASE_TD_ACAES.pdf Pumped hydro Pumped-storage hydropower (PSH) is classified as a hydroelectric energy storage that is configured with two water reservoirs at different elevations which generates power as water passes through a turbine and draws power from the water pumps recharge to the upper reservoir. PHS are characterised by two different capabilities - the first is an open loop connected to ongoing hydrologic connection to a lake and the second is where two reservoirs are separated from an outside water body. According to the US Government Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy “Pumped-storage currently accounts for 95% of all utility-scale energy storage in the United States.” Tidal current This renewable energy source is powered by the natural tidal activity of the ocean tides and currents. The movement is a type of kinetic energy, and the tidal power surrounds gravitational hydropower that uses water movement to push a turbine and generate electricity. The submerged turbines are similar design to miniature wind turbines. Vortices, whirlpools and eddies are common occurrences on almost every global coastline and are predictable and powerful movements. Tidal data centre projects under development include SIMEC Atlantis Energy ambition for a facility in Caithness, Scotland, powered by 80MW of tidal power. Other projects are proposed for construction near the shoreline in locations such as Atlantis Singapore, Hammerfest Strom Norway, MCT Northern Ireland, and Open Hydro Orkney Islands. Gravity storage A Gravity storage scheme involves a piston with millions of metric tons raised by water pressure to store energy. As the piston descends this pushes water through a generator to deliver electricity. Prototype gravity storage projects are being developed by firms such as Scotland based, Gravitricity. It is building a prototype 250kW gravity power unit using towers. It says its units could deliver peak power outputs of between 1 and 20 MW, function for up to 50 years with no loss of performance and deliver full power in under one second. At the other end of the scale Gravity Storage concepts are based on the hydraulic lifting of a large rock mass using water pumps. The rock mass acquires potential energy and can release this energy when the water that is under pressure is discharged back through a turbine. According to Heindl Energy Gravity Storage, a rock mass with a diameter of 250m would result in a storage capacity of 8 GWh, which is comparable to the largest pumped storage power station in Goldisthal, Germany (8.4 GWh). It says gravity storage of this type is a concept with which unprecedentedly large quantities of power can be stored over long periods. The capacity of energy storage can be between 1 and 10 GWh, comparable to large Pumped Hydro Storage.  New power storage, new power chain In the drive for Green House Gas abatement and net zero operation, every energy storage option at source, grid, switch, battery, UPS and generator back up in data centres is changing. The i3 Solutions Group and EYP Mission Critical Facilities Inc., (EYP MCF) collaboration on greenhouse gas abatement has issued the first in a series of white papers providing detailed technical analysis for data centre operators as they move to carbon net zero operations. The new series of white papers aims to provide vendor-neutral decision-making support together with insights into the factors associated with the many technology options currently available to the sector for lowering the carbon footprint of data centre operations.

Research shows that IT leaders are prioritising product development over hybrid working

82% of business leaders have increased their investments in digital initiatives as a result of the pandemic, with 62% of that group adding money to their technology budgets to fund them. That is according to new research released by The Harvard Business Review and technology cost management company Apptio. The research explores the key investment priorities of 338 business leaders across agile, hybrid working, cloud and more. The report demonstrates that Agile and other processes/technologies which improve product delivery are the top tech investment priority for business leaders over the next year, followed by hybrid working and cloud migrations. The report also finds: Customer experience is the main driver of tech investment decisions, ahead of other strategic priorities such as automation and improving productivityLeaders don’t have the right data to make informed decisions; while 92% said that insights on how tech contributes to business value are key, only 62% had confidence in their dataMore than half of organisations’ data on spending is out of date, with 55% unable to make timely decisions on IT spendingTop investment goals include opportunities to automate business or manufacturing processes, tied at 51% with reducing overall business operations costs/improving productivity; the development or enhancement of new digital business models (50%), and opportunities to expand their customer base or enter new markets (49%).  Business leaders are clearly seeking greater agility and flexibility from their technology investments. However, the survey findings suggest that a lack of information about the business value of technology investments, and a shortage of timely data in general, presents a challenge to executing their plans. Without visibility into their current spending on technology and the return on these investments, business leaders are hard pressed to determine which are delivering the greatest value and where money might be put to better use. This chimes with a recent report released by PwC on the "cloud value gap," a survey of more than 500 business and tech leaders conducted last month. This concludes that companies are waking up from last year's cloud-computing splurge and realising that while that spending was justified, they're having trouble making progress on their goals.  The draft HBR and Apptio report, along with an infographic, can be downloaded here.

Spectra Logic StorCycle Software Migrates and Manages Storage

Spectra Logic has announced that ColorTime deployed Spectra’s StorCycle Storage Lifecycle Management software to automate cleanup of their production storage area network (SAN) and free up space for their incoming digital content. At the same time, ColorTime also installed a Spectra BlackPearl Converged Storage System, a Spectra BlackPearl Object Storage Disk System with 500 terabytes for quick recall of active projects, and a Spectra Stack Tape Library to ensure safe, scalable and economical preservation of its high-resolution digital media. ColorTime, an established Hollywood post-production studio that specialises in all aspects of digital media, content creation, and management and distribution for TV, needed to find a solution to their overflowing repository of digital content. ColorTime ingests raw camera footage to be colour corrected and edited, and also scans original film as high-resolution digital intermediate files to be stored. All of this amounts to the processing of millions and millions of small files as part of their busy media workflow.  Their growing content was overrunning ColorTime’s SAN, and they wanted to reduce the amount of data on their primary storage tier, freeing up room for incoming projects. They also needed to manage their folders and files based on customer, age and type so that assets could be searched and recalled easily and quickly. Lastly, they wanted to copy projects to a tape library where they could be stored until finishing as well as for cost-effective, long-term archiving.    After a thorough review, ColorTime chose a complete storage solution from Spectra Logic that improves content management, helps to streamline post-production workflows, maintains content availability, and safeguards data for distribution and future use. ColorTime deployed StorCycle software because of its ability to identify inactive files and migrate them off the SAN to lower-cost storage options via their new BlackPearl Converged Storage System, while still enabling ColorTime professionals to easily find and restore those media assets. In addition, StorCycle makes it possible to re-use predefined migration jobs and automate the cleanup of production storage on an ongoing basis. “Spectra’s StorCycle storage management software was exactly what we needed to scan and move files to free up space on our storage area networks, enabling us to reduce spending on additional SAN clusters,” says Bill Wornack, chief technology officer at ColorTime.  The studio also deployed a BlackPearl Object Storage Disk system that stores active projects and high-resolution work-in-progress files with expiration dates of 30 days for efficient use of space and quick recovery. In addition, the newly deployed Spectra Stack Tape Library provides ColorTime with a modular long-term data repository that will enable them to seamlessly scale as their storage needs grow.   “I am amazed at the size of ColorTime’s projects, the depth of their attention to detail, and the breadth of their organisation’s capabilities. I am proud that Spectra Logic is a part of their workflow and viewed as a trusted vendor,” says Nathan Thompson, Spectra Logic CEO and Founder. “Working with Spectra has been seamless from sales to implementation, and we are confident in the solution’s future roadmap and our long-term relationship with the company,” Wornack adds. Hossein ZiaShakeri, Spectra Logic vice president of business and strategic alliances, comments, “We could not be more pleased that ColorTime selected Spectra Logic’s total solution to help automate their workflows and create efficiencies that are directed toward high-quality creative work.”