At Storage Networking World this week in Dallas, vendors are unveiling a number of products that make it easier for users to manage and protect their storage environments.

Among the announcements:

* EMC will introduce a new version of its Legato Networker data protection software and enhancements to its virtual tape library. Legato Networker now includes data de-duplication and continuous data protection capabilities. The company acquired de-duplication technology with its acquisition of Avamar; it acquired continuous data protection capability with its acquisition of Kashya. The company also introduced new capabilities for its EMC Disk Library DL4000 -- the appliance now supports RAID 6 and new 1TB disk drives.

* Hitachi Data Systems will enter the small and midsize business space with the announcement of a new modular storage array. The Hitachi Simple Modular Storage Model 100 is an entry-level storage-area network array with a capacity of as much as 9TB. It includes snapshot backup capability and supports iSCSI. The system starts at less than $5,000. Seagate, IBM and LSI announced data encryption of disks using what Seagate calls Full Disk Encryption (FDE). The company will be using FDE to encrypt its entire family of hard disk drives. Seagate, as a member of the Trusted Computing Group, is developing a security protocol for communicating with these self-encrypting drives.

* Emulex, Nuova Systems, QLogic and Network Appliance are collaborating to develop Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) products. Emulex OEMs will begin testing sample the first half of 2008, with shipments occurring before year-end. FCoE natively transports Fibre Channel traffic over the 10Gbps Ethernet network.

* ProStor Systems will unveil an archiving appliance that uses its RDX removable disk technology. The InfiniVault Archive Appliance is intended for small and midsize busineses and integrates ProStor’s Archive and Compliance Engine with online, nearline and offline storage for data preservation, regulatory compliance and e-discovery.

* Data protection vendor Arkeia Software today announced the Central Management Server, which manages the company’s EdgeFort backup appliances from a central point. The Central Management Server has a Web-based interface and allows enhanced reporting of backup performance, policy implementation and patching and upgrading of remote and branch office data environments.

* StorServer, a manufacturer of business continuity appliances, will introduce storage reporting software for IBM Tivoli Storage Manager and a backup agent for VMware Consolidated Backup. STORServer Reporter for IBM Tivoli Storage Manager collects data from TSM servers and lets users compile reports and alerts of servers.