Solid state disk, data deduplication, compression and data protection were hot items at Storage Networking World in Dallas last week. Intel rolled out enterprise solid state flash drives for servers and storage. Developed in collaboration with Micron, Intel released NAND flash drives called the X-25E Extreme Serial Advanced Technology Attachment Solid State Drive. The company's flash drives are priced at $695. The 32GB drive is available now and a 64GB version is expected by Q1 2009.

HP introduced controller-based encryption for its high-end StorageWorks XP2400 and XP2000 storage arrays. The encryption feature is expected to be available in December for $23,000.

Hitachi upgraded its Universal Storage Platform and offered new features such as controller-based encryption and business continuity. Copan Systems introduced the 100T Remote Office Virtual Tape Library, which has de-duplication features.

Also in the de-duplication space, Hifn unveiled deduplication capability to its adapters that are focused for use by OEMs and systems integrators.

As far as compression goes, Storwize rolled out a STN-6000p appliance that lets users reduce the amount of primary enterprise data stored by a 15:1 ratio. The STN-6000p has a throughput of more than 600Mbytes/sec and features a high-availability AutoSynch feature.

Finally, a start-up named Axxana introduced replication hardware it calls Enterprise Data Recording. Axxana uses a black box concept to recover 100% of the data or transactions that weren’t replicated when a link failure took place. Its first appliance will be available next year.

Deni Connor is principal analyst for Storage Strategies NOW.