Project Mayhem: Security in Managed Operations. Controlled Anarchy

Sun launched it's OpenStorage  line last week at CEC, and I'm not gonna lie...it's products like this that make me proud to work at Sun. For those who weren't at CEC you can see the presentation here : http://www.sun.com/launch/2008-1110/index.jsp

Let me just highlight some of the features that I believe put this above other vendors storage:

1. DTRACE - 'nuff said? The ability to deep dive into service calls, to find out which protocols (NFS/CIFS/etc..), which clients, which storage pools, etc.. The ability to properly troubleshoot and issue cannot be underestimated. It's a fantastic development that will prevent a lot of "wheel spinning" when problems pop-up.
   


2. ZFS - I was a fanboy of NetApp's WAFL filesystem, but ZFS has literally changed the playing field of storage.
   


3. Hybrid storage - RAM, SSD, and regular HDs together to increase performance

Check it out for yourself: http://www.sun.com/storage/disk_systems/unified_storage/

I was able to talk to some of the engineers during CEC and got a close-up of some of these features. I highly recommend checking out a demo if possible to really see how easy this system is to use, yet feature rich to meet performance and troubleshooting needs. 

 I would love to see some of this backported to the thumper platforms, and can't wait for the future of this technology. However, if you are running into performance issue with your current storage platforms, If you want to purchase a storage platform thats optimized for YOUR needs, then this is the place to look!

Check out the DTrace for IP Providers http://wikis.sun.com/display/DTrace/ip+Provider

Have yet to play with it myself...but it looks pretty damn cool from where I'm sitting!

I have seen the following article several times in the last few weeks:

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/05/protecting-yourself-suspicionless-searches-while-t

Basically, explaining how DHS is now doing routine search and seizures of laptops entering the US.  Further how this could lead to other countries following suite. A lively discussion on a security mailing list occured, and the following product was brought up:

http://www.accutechco.com/2_product_02.html 

A thin client laptop! If the laptop is confiscated you and your company are only out a few hundred dollars in equipment costs....the really important stuff...your data is safe and secure.  The applications are fantastic! Replay the stolen laptop of the VA employee..instead of millions of SSN being stolen...the loss is a mere few hundred dollars.

I see this as another great innovation by Sun and it's partners. Tackling issues at the cutting edge.