Start-up Infineta Systems is coming out of stealth mode just in time to reveal that it is working on one of the knotty problems raised this week at the EMC World conference – how to connect data centers efficiently for backup, replication and cloud services that rely on live migration of virtual machines.

Comcast will bundle online storage capacity from EMC's Mozy division with its broadband service and let residential subscribers share the content they store with friends -- or with the entire Internet.

A storage start-up called Virsto Software has developed a Microsoft Hyper-V add-on that speeds up access to data in virtualized data centers.

With a 75-year retention requirement and 5 petabytes of data, the US Department of Veterans Affairs faces major challenges when it comes to storing data in its primary data center in Austin, Texas.

IBM will add support for SSDs to version 5.0 of its SAN Volume Controller and is promising a big boost in performance with or without flash storage.

EMC Corp. today introduced new virtualization-aware capabilities for its Clariion CX4 midrange networked storage systems, which make CX4 software and disaster recovery applications aware of connected virtual machines.

Storage companies are feeling the pain of companies cutting IT costs and overall spending, but the move to server virtualization is driving some demand, according to NetApp CEO Dan Warmenhoven.

Cloud storage startup ParaScale is targeting enterprises, as well as service providers, with new software that it claims can turn a group of heterogeneous servers and storage arrays into a redundant and self-healing private cloud of storage.

In just a few short years, storage virtualisation, also known as block virtualization, has proven its worth in the large enterprise and traveled that well-worn path from pricey boutique solution to affordable commodity. As a standard feature in all but the most modest mid-tier storage arrays, storage virtualization soothes a wide range of storage management woes for small and mid-size organizations. At the same time, dedicated solutions from top-tier vendors deliver the greatest ROI to large shops managing large SANs with intense data availability requirements.

As IT evolves to support everything from virtualized desktops to mobile and social networking, new advances promise to change the way the business side of the house gets the job done. Here's a look at some of IT departments' game-changing technologies and how they affect the everyday worker.

If you're an IT executive, chances are you're already thinking about storage virtualization. Nearly one-quarter of companies with at least 500 employees have deployed storage virtualization products already, and another 55 percent plan to do so within two years, a recent Gartner survey found.