What's It Used For?

A company called RAID Inc. has come out with a compact RAID-based storage solution that it says in a news release "is ideal for small spaces such as cockpits, tanks [and] submarines..." As such, one of the company's biggest customers is the U.S. government.
While I was chatting with COO Bob Picardi, I supposed that the 2 1/2-inch, 15,000 RPM drive was used in those setting to store data about gun firing sequences, or intelligence about the enemy. I was surprised when Picardi told me he isn't exactly sure how the government is implementing the solution. Then, of course, I realized that military intelligence (I know, an oxymoron) is something the government just doesn't share, even with the vendors that supply the hardware and software to run these systems. It must be strange to have your biggest customer not reveal to you how it's using your product. Talk about flying blind... To find more about the Razor storage solution, which was unveiled at Storage Networking World earlier this month, visit www.raidinc.com/razor.php .
-- David Rubinstein