It's a Barracuda 7200.10

What are the most serious physical threats to your data center? I am sure that there is a survey published somewhere on this topic, but bear with me, I am too busy (lazy perhaps) to look for it.

However I would bet that the risk of your storage array being hit by a bullet is very low. Don't you agree?

Which is why I found bizarre that HP went thru all the cost and the trouble to move an XP12000 to the National Technical Systems ballistics center in Camden, Arkansas, only to have the array shot in cold blood.

Unbelievable? Don't trust just my word: Here's the video of the shooting from HP.

Does this carefully aimed shot prove anything? I don't think so, unless of course you have a data center in a very bad neighborhood in Bagdad or similarly tormented places.

If you do, just make sure to hang a target at the right place on the side of the array, as shown in the movie clip, and hope that whoever will do the shooting will be as accurate as the folks at the NTS lab.

Get ready for the virtualized enterprise: A handful of vendors are offering products that further virtual I/O infrastructure   LISTEN!

From the Test Center: We look at Iomega's REV Loader 280, a fit for some, but not all, SMBs. Plus, the week in storage news   LISTEN!

With more products to follow

It's a new fast Cheetah

Adds entry level unit and more features

Maxtor is shipping a new portable drive

The last word on SNW Spring: When the old guard meets the up-and-comers, users benefit with new business analytics, large capacities slipped into a small footprint, and never before realized ease-of-deployment   LISTEN!

I have finally updated the blogroll for The Storage Network. Well, almost updated, I should say. A blogroll is never really finished and more entries will follow shortly.

Was this a big job? No, not really. I like to keep only storage bloggers in my blogroll, and as you can see I don't have to take my socks off to count all the entries.

Moreover, if I narrow down to only the bloggers that work for a storage company their number becomes, embarrassingly, much smaller.

Is it just me? Am I missing a big crowd of storage bloggers? I don't think so, and the proof is that, give or take a few entries, other blogrolls in the same space are not any longer or much longer than mine.

In my opinion storage bloggers should be a bigger crowd. I don't have hard numbers to back this up (please let me know if you do) but in my estimate the storage industry employs thousands and thousands of knowledge workers.

So, why aren't more of these smart people blogging?

A couple of reasons come to mind.

The first is that either those folks don't care, or are too busy to engage in this "frivolous" activity. Perhaps they consider blogging a temporary craze that will fade soon, so why bother.

A second possible reason is that many people working for a storage company can't share their comments and ideas on a public forum because doing so would violate corporate rules.

My answer to the first reason is: No way!

Blogging is not a passing fad. Techniques and tools may and will change, but going back to a pre-blog era is as unthinkable as it would be suppressing newspapers, magazines, books and live broadcasts: it ain't going to happen.

I don't have much of an answer for the second reason, but those vendors who think that every public word spoken by their employees should be filtered by a PR agent remind me of the worst and most oppressive dictatorships.

My advice to those corporate watchdogs is to loosen up. Set clear rules on what should and should not be made public, and then open the gates and let the kids play as some of your competitors are already doing.

Time to get off my soapbox now, but let me remind first that The Storage Network is open to anyone who wants to talk about storage: readers and vendors' employees are equally welcome to join.

Just drop me an email and I will open an account for you: it's free and you don't get spammed for trying.

The database backup wars are alive and kickin' -- we look at why you should care, and offer advice that might come in handy prior to purchasing. Plus, the week in storage news with moves from Intel, Toshiba, Exabyte, and more   LISTEN!

If you have a laptop running out of disk space or even if you want to learn an easy way to keep your working file in synch at home and at the office don't miss this podcast from Mike Williams, GM and VP of Maxtor's Branded Products Group.

Wait, there is more.

Is the security of data on your laptop keeping you awake at night? Need an easy way to share files between your PC and your entertainment center? Want to know what Maxtor is up to with Project Fusion?

If you answered yes at least once don't miss this podcast.

We examine data protection, specifically guarding against information leaks and unauthorized access. And the week in storage news   LISTEN!

A first taste of Storage Networking World Spring: new products bring serial attached SCSI, iSCSI, 10 Gigabit Ethernet, continuous data protection, and more   LISTEN!