Every business owner knows that information is much more than one of an organization's strategic resources. In a very real sense, information is the organization. For IT professionals, there's no shortage of challenges when it comes to protecting and managing such a vital asset efficiently.

The growth of business data continues to explode along with the need to store it. Workers generate more and more e-mail messages and file attachments, users demand instant access to data like never before, IT managers install more storage-hungry applications, and aging paper-based data continues to be converted into digital form. Information growth is so intense, in fact, that spending on data storage is expected to outstrip server spending.

Quadrics Ltd., the global leader in high speed interconnect for High Performance Computing (HPC), has established a wholly-owned subsidiary in North America, based in San Jose. The subsidiary will support Quadrics in the most important market for HPC and to provide sales support services to Quadrics? North American OEM partners and customers, the company said.

You wouldn't consider buying a laptop at your nearest consumer electronics store and bringing it into the office to work on, right? What about a RAID disk or a CD drive? - didn't think so. Yet one device that nearly everyone buys privately and keeps in their pockets these days to store both their personal data and confidential corporate data is seldom controlled or secured by the corporation: USB flash drives.

Storage networks have become critical components of corporate computing environments. Regardless of the type of storage technology, these networks have been designed as if the storage environment and all of the components are already secure because security is provided by other networked systems.

Because of today's emphasis on stakeholder accountability and changing oversight structures, business management is more answerable than at anytime in the past for assuring the accuracy, protection, and access to, financial and other business transactional information. This is creating a partnership of responsibility between the IT domain and the organization's executive management.

Current storage solution paradigms are facing a bumpy road ahead with the rapid emergence of the Linux-based cluster as a vehicle of choice in the enterprise storage market. Most readers will be familiar with the problems associated with the use of the Direct Attached Storage (DAS) paradigm in cluster applications, and many will have experienced the limitations of the Storage Area Network (SAN) paradigm.

Storage networks have become critical components of corporate computing environments. Regardless of the type of storage technology, these networks have been designed as if the storage environment and all of the components are already secure because security is provided by other networked systems.

Out of sight, out of mind. When storage systems are upgraded, retired due to proactive maintenance, reach the end of their lease, or are repurposed or resold, companies often delete the data from the disks and forget about it.