American Slang, Adapted and Updated : NPR
American Slang, Adapted and Updated
What's a "blurker"? Or a "pavement princess"? Or a "plokta"? What does "peeps" mean? Writer Paul Dickson knows. A confessed addict to collecting and identifying slang words, Dickson has written a new and updated dictionary of American slang.
Copyright & 2006 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.
ROBERT SIEGEL, host:
From NPR News this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.
MELISSA BLOCK, host:
And I'm Melissa Block.
And I'm going to try and keep this next intro short so we can hit the post, fit in the web back and avoid busting the segment. You may not be able to decipher that radio slang but there's a guy who makes it his mission to do just that. Not just radio slang, but also sports slang, hip hop slang, war slang and real estate slang.
His name is Paul Dickson and he's the author of many books on American English. Among them, his Dictionary of Slang, which is now out in its third updated edition. Paul Dickson collects slang like others collect baseball cards or vintage cookie jars, with extreme passion.
Mr. PAUL DICKSON: It's a wonderful hobby because you don't do any trespass. Its not like you're collecting birds eggs or — it's there and it's there for the taking and the fun of it is just sort of decoding what other people are saying.
BLOCK: So if you meet somebody from a subculture, you'll be asking them, give me your lingo, what have you got?
Mr. DICKSON: Well it's hard to do that. I remember one time I asked somebody from a newspaper about the lingo and the jargon and the slang in the newspaper and they said absolutely not. There's no such thing. And the woman I'd said that to about two hours later called back and said you know, I was just in the sitting room and we were having lunch and I told them what I said to you. Then all of a sudden the terms kept flying out of their mouths. I mean calling a newspaper article a piece. I got a piece due this morning or led for the lead to a story and etcetera, etcetera. There's hundred of them. At the first blush, most people don't realize they're using slang and so I'm looking and talking into a mike sock, which is to prevent me from using (unintelligible).
BLOCK: Right now, at this moment.
Mr. DICKSON: Yes.
BLOCK: Do we call that a mike sock, Stu? Popper Stuffer.
Mr. DICKSON: Popper Stuffer.
BLOCK: Popper Stuffer. Add that to your next edition.
Mr. DICKSON: I'm writing, the pen is out.
BLOCK: Write it down.
Mr. DICKSON: I will. I wrote Popper Stuffer. I love that.
BLOCK: I was looking your chapter, you've organized these terms by topic or by sub group and I was looking in your section on auction terms.
Mr. DICKSON: Yes.
BLOCK: There's a whole new sub category now because of eBay.
Mr. DICKSON: eBaysian, some people call it. The new online auctions have some wonderful terms, one of my favorites is pinks. On any eBay if you are in a discussion group on eBay or there is something going on, eBay employees will occasionally chime in when they'll see something that they like or don't like. And they're called pink because the little dialogue box is pink, but what makes it a beautiful piece of slang is that it's reminiscent of Pinkerton, you know, the old private detective.
BLOCK: I liked in the same section on eBay words, reflecto porn.
Mr. DICKSON: People are going to go to their computers. There are people out there, and nobody knows who or why they do this, but apparently they will take a picture of a vase or something that's on eBay that's reflective or a hubcap or something. They will do it without any clothes on and I guess the reason, more than just naked, is because most of these things distort them like funhouse mirrors.
BLOCK: So some naked image reflected in something shiny.
Mr. DICKSON: Yes.
BLOCK: And there's a word for it.
Mr. DICKSON: Reflecto porn. And some of them, the reason aren't clear. Some of them are not the most attractive people in the world.
BLOCK: Naturally. The violatility of slang - let's keep you on your toes. When you're revising your book like you are, you're throwing some words out right?
Mr. DICKSON: Oh yeah, I'm throwing categories out. I mean this is the third time out with this book and they've been about 10 years apart, and whole new categories come in that weren't there before. Things like hip hop and java speak which was sort of Starbucks and that whole business. But one I love is the language of the modern office, which is called a cube farm. So.
BLOCK: Cube speak.
Mr. DICKSON: Cube speak, and there are several number of terms that go with cube speak but I guess my favorite cube speak is prairie dogging, which is when there is a huge noise somewhere in the building or somebody yells at somebody, all these people pop up and down from their cubes and they look like prairie dogs on the prairie popping up and down.
BLOCK: What would be a category that you've gotten rid of completely.
Mr. DICKSON: I've gotten rid of the counter culture, the ‘50s, the ‘60s, the early drug culture. It's now become so much part of the language that it's now standard language. So bummer, or a trip, that counter culture of do your own thing, all that stuff has now become standard English. Even hip hop, there's 70 hip hop terms are now in the Oxford English Dictionary.
BLOCK: One of the words in your section on hip hop speak is the word grills.
Mr. DICKSON: Yes.
BLOCK: And we have a song here, this is a song Grills by the rapper Nelly. Let's take a little listen.
(Soundbite of song “Grills”)
NELLY (Musician): (Singing) I got like platinum and white, most traditional gold. I'm changing grills everyday like they change clothes. I might be grilled out nicely in my white T on South Beach in my wife beater. VV and (unintelligible) you can see my grandma might hate it but my little momma love it.
BLOCK: So Nelly, they're talking about being tricked out in his grills. Translate for us Paul.
Mr. DICKSON: Grills are now the, were teeth originally, but then they became these golden and diamond studded teeth a lot of the rappers are wearing. The VV in there, there is one point where he refers to VV, and that refers to clarity and it's a nickname for diamonds because VV is a rating for the clarity of diamonds. Of course the other one in there is wife beater, which is the male sort of tank top undershirt with a straps. What's interesting about that is it goes back to, the original allusion which that came from was when Marlin Brando in Streetcar Named Desire when he wore that sort of.
BLOCK: Stella!
Mr. DICKSON: Stella and he's slapping her around and so from then on that male undershirt without the arms was called a wife beater. The interesting thing for me to do is, I'm 67 years old and I'm trying, I'm basically trying to learn what all this hip hop language was and it's fascinating because it's like any other jargon or slang, it's just a question of decoding and finding context and then finding other examples and writing about it.
BLOCK: I was thinking that in the time that it took you to write the hip hop chapter and get it published, probably half those words have already fallen out of favor because they are totally passé.
Mr. DICKSON: Oh, yeah, and there's a thing they call in linguistics or it's a positive called the Couric factor, which is once a mainstream talk show host explains the term to his or her audience.
BLOCK: We call the Siegel factor.
Mr. DICKSON: That's right. Once it's explained on mass media then it becomes, it's gone. My favorite moment came when def, which was rap, hip hop for something that was good.
BLOCK: D-E-F, def.
Mr. DICKSON: D-E-F, def. When it was accepted, it was the first rap term or hip hop term that went into the OED and when that happened they had a burial, a funeral service for it on BET, Black Entertainment Television, and the Reverend Al Sharpton officiated at the funeral and it was such a tremendous moment in the history of slang. There are these moments when all of a sudden, the people take it so seriously that somebody has to stand up and actually bury a word because it's now so mainstream.
BLOCK: As someone who has so fondly collected slang over many, many years, do you think this is a especially furtile time or do you look back on the ‘20s and ‘30s and say, boy, that was really the golden age of slang.
Mr. DICKSON: It's hard to say. I think they're all golden ages but I think if you looked at it pure and simply that we lost certain slangs. The lumberjacks and the carnival people. They're still there but they're now a minor voice, but we're creating new ones everyday. You know, pizza delivery has a huge slang.
BLOCK: Pizza delivery?
Mr. DICKSON: Pizza delivery, yeah. That's one I've just started to look into, but any endeavor in which things are sort of fast moving and there are a lot of people involved would be subject to slang.
BLOCK: Paul Dickson, thanks for coming in and sharing your enthusiasm for slang with us.
Mr. DICKSON: Thank you, Melissa.
BLOCK: Paul Dickson's book is Slang: The Topical Dictionary of Americanisms. Now new and completely updated.
SIEGEL: And for a crash course in cube speak, you can check out our Web site, NPR.org.
Copyright & 2006 NPR. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to NPR. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.
Overheard at the Water Cooler (in Cube-Speak)
Just another day at the cube farm: prairie-dogging, facemailing and more ....
iStockphoto
hide caption
itoggle caption
iStockphoto
A very bad play in (mercifully) one act, otherwise known as a crash course in cube-speak. Two colleagues in an office somewhere in America take a water-cooler break.
In a chapter from his book Slang: The Topical Dictionary of Americanisms Paul Dickson collects and defines key phrases from modern America's office culture, such as those used below. (Already confused? .)
Britney: Boy, I needed a break from the cube farm.
Kevin: No kidding! Did you catch the prairie-dogging when Caitlin's coffee-maker exploded?
Britney: At least it provided a little drama to a morning when I was definitely glazing. Although did you get that weird e-mail that was being forwarded around?
Kevin: No, I think the digital hygienist struck again.
Britney: What are you working on?
Kevin: Oh man, I need to get granular on the latest fire drill.
Britney: Yeah, Irving is such a seagull manager. It's like, you gotta have triorities with that guy. I can't believe how long the obfun lasted yesterday, as if we didn't already have enough to do.
Kevin: At least they served lunch. Did you see Tiffany's canfusion?
Britney: Yeah, and the catering vultures lurking in the hallway? Don't those people have any shame?
Kevin: Anyway, there was a cloud of bozone in that room. Where are all our idea hamsters?
Britney: I think they realized working here was a big fat wombat.
Kevin: Amen to that. Well, I guess I better get back to my cube. Nice facemailing with you.
Britney: Excuse me, my cell is vibrating.
Kevin: Shhhh! Don't go all yellular.
Britney and Kevin exit, stage left. Irving emerges from the shadows by the water cooler. He is their boss.
Irving: Darn those young people. I didn't understand a word they said!
The Topical Dictionary of Americanisms
More on this book:
More From Books
Please enable JavaScript to view the
NPR thanks our sponsors
Support comes from:
Support The Programs You LoveRemarks by the President to the Nation on the BP Oil Spill | The White HouseLoading...
1-800-828-9264
About American Megatrends, Inc. (AMI)
American Megatrends (AMI) is a leader in BIOS, UEFI, Remote Management, Network Data Storage, Android Solutions and more - using a proven process to support its valued customers as they design, develop and bring their products and solutions to life.
With over 80% of global staff in engineering roles, AMI brings depth and flexibility to its customers as they design and build the world's most innovative products.
AMI's expertise, tools and utilities help speed the design and development process, allowing customers to reduce their time-to-market (TTM) and development costs.
AMI's global reach means
support for customers in their local regions and languages around the clock, for increased productivity and faster deployment.
The American Megatrends Brand Family
StorTrends Data Storage
MegaRAC Remote Management
DuOS Android Environment for Windows
SnapVDI Virtual Desktop Infrastructure
AMI VitalsFit Health Monitor
B.O.L.T Health Tracker / Lifestyle Device
PRESS RELEASES
February 10, 2015: StorTrends 3500i Hybrid Flash Array (HFA) and 3400i Dual Controller SAN to Ensure Optimal Electronic Medical Records (EMR) System Performance, High Availability (HA), Data Protection and Continued Seamless Scalability
NORCROSS, GA: (R) today announced that the
has added a StorTrends 3500i SSD
(HFA) and a StorTrends 3400i dual controller
unit to its existing StorTrends deployment, currently serving as the backbone for its Electronic Medical Records (EMR) systems. The added StorTrends storage will enable McLeod to achieve seamless expansion of its EMR environment, while ensuring flash-fast performance, as well as the highest levels of data availability and protection.
StorTrends was initially deployed to reinforce McLeod’s EMR system upgrade, as the company transitioned to a virtualized infrastructure.
Optimized to support all of the leading virtualization platforms, StorTrends helped McLeod to achieve the dramatic enterprise performance and reliability it required, at an extremely affordable price point. When it came time to expand the environment, for McLeod the decision was simple regarding the storage that should serve as the foundation for the effort.
“We originally chose StorTrends after an extensive review of the likely options – such as Dell, EMC and HP.
We then met with the StorTrends team and completed an exhaustive evaluation of the StorTrends’ array – the results blew us away,” said Paul Ogle, a member of the IT team at McLeod Addictive Disease Center. “In addition to StorTrends performing exactly as advertised, the knowledge and support we have received from the StorTrends support team has far exceeded our expectations.”
Today, McLeod continues to use the StorTrends arrays to run all of their virtual machines (VMs).
Managing a large EMR environment, let alone one that sits on a virtualized infrastructure, can be a daunting task.
However, with StorTrends McLeod enjoys a single point of contact for all of the virtual hosts, simplifying overall management tasks such as automatic VM migration in the event of a virtual host loss or creating new LUNs on virtual machines.
And, if a question should arise, StorTrends is available 24x7 with the answer.
“I’ve worked in IT for well over 10 years and I have seldom enjoyed the quality of support I have received from StorTrends,” added Ogle.
“McLeod has moved from a single controller 2400i SAN to the 3500i as their primary storage. With this move, McLeod has increased redundancy with dual controllers, and further enhanced their DR strategy, by backing up to the 3400i SAN.
Moreover, by adding the 3500i hybrid flash storage they benefit from the ultimate combination of extreme performance and optimal capacity, at a price comparable to spinning disk – helping them to realize almost immediate and significant ROI,” said Justin Bagby, Director of StorTrends.
“However for me, the real news here is that there is absolutely no better seal of approval that can be achieved, then that of a satisfied customer that returns for more.”
To learn more about the McLeod Addictive Disease Center, please visit: .
To read the initial StorTrends, McLeod Addictive Disease Center case study, please visit: .
About StorTrends
StorTrends(R) from American Megatrends is Performance Storage with Proven Value. StorTrends SAN and NAS storage appliances are installed worldwide and trusted by companies and institutions in a wide range of industries including education, energy, finance, state and local government, healthcare, manufacturing, marketing, retail, R&D and many more. torTrends meets the challenges and demands of today’s business environments by offering a wide variety of solutions from ,
solutions. StorTrends is backed by 1,100+ customer installations, 100+ storage patents and nearly 30 years of IT leadership from a company that millions of people trust on a daily basis, . For more information, please visit: .
StorTrends and StorTrends iDATA are registered trademarks of American Megatrends, Inc. (AMI). All other product and company names are trademarks of their respective owners.
February 4, 2015: CIOs and IT Administrators to Learn Benefits and Best Practices for Deploying Hybrid SSD or Full-Flash Storage
NORCROSS, GA: (R) today announced
it is kicking off its 2015 “Steak & Storage” tour with initial stops in Charlotte, and Raleigh, North Carolina:\; Pittsburgh, PA; Columbus and Cincinnati, OH. CIOs and IT administrators attending the events will enjoy a complimentary steak lunch while learning the benefits and best practices for deploying Hybrid SSD (solid-state disk) and/or full-flash storage.
Attendees will hear from StorTrends solutions engineers as they discuss the advantages and potential obstacles of deploying Hybrid SSD Storage Arrays and All-Flash Storage Arrays, with insight based on actual user requirements. Participants will learn how these solutions can affect critical tier one applications and performance. From high performance databases to virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), learn the best practices for leveraging SSD technology while ensuring optimal performance.
Attendees will find answers to their most pressing questions and concerns including:
What you need to know about Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
Contemplating Hybrid Storage or All-Flash SSD Storage - what you need to know
How to determine the hot or active data within your environment
Learn More and Register Here:
Charlotte, NC
February 10, 2015 at
Register Here:
Raleigh, NC
February 11, 2015 at
Register Here:
Pittsburgh, PA
February 24, 2015 at
Register Here:
Columbus, OH
February 25, 2015 at
Register Here:
Cincinnati, OH
February 26, 2015 at
Register Here:
To review the continuously updated StorTrends’ events calendar, including all currently scheduled Steak & Storage events, please visit:
About StorTrends
StorTrends(R) from American Megatrends is Performance Storage with Proven Value. StorTrends SAN and NAS storage appliances are installed worldwide and trusted by companies and institutions in a wide range of industries including education, energy, finance, state and local government, healthcare, manufacturing, marketing, retail, R&D and many more. torTrends meets the challenges and demands of today’s business environments by offering a wide variety of solutions from ,
solutions. StorTrends is backed by 1,100+ customer installations, 100+ storage patents and nearly 30 years of IT leadership from a company that millions of people trust on a daily basis, . For more information, please visit: .
StorTrends and StorTrends iDATA are registered trademarks of American Megatrends, Inc. (AMI). All other product and company names are trademarks of their respective owners.
January 26, 2015: North Carolina CPA Firm Leverages StorTrends iDATA to Analyze Physical and Virtualized VMware IT Environment and Support Smart IT Investment
NORCROSS, GA: & today announced that
(TJ&T), a leading CPA firm in Raleigh, N.C., has deployed a StorTrends high performance storage area network (SAN) to ensure application performance and the protection of its financial and legal data, while adhering to its strict budgetary requirements.
Not wanting to sacrifice speed for cost, the new StorTrends SAN provides TJ&T with the performance of solid-state disk (SSD) caching and SSD tiering, at the cost of spinning disk.
The Certified Public Accounting firm of Thomas, Judy & Tucker was founded by Cliff Thomas, Chris Judy and David Tucker. As a large local CPA firm, TJ&T has the capacity and the capability to offer a myriad of services to its clients. Since 1990, TJ&T has been creating and sustaining partnerships that deliver professional, reliable results. As a full-service accounting firm offering attestation, taxation, outsource accounting and business valuation/litigation support, TJ&T is equipped to offer timely business, financial and tax services to a variety of clients.
As part of their business operations, TJ&T creates a large volume of data. From PDF documents of invoices and checks and volumes of financial documents to tax returns, time and billing data, to the Microsoft& Exchange& Server for 130 mailboxes, TJ&T found that its storage requirements continued to grow. Even while its existing direct-attached storage (DAS) primary storage system had enough capacity, its operation was becoming increasingly slow, impacting production performance and office productivity. TJ&T needed to find a storage solution that would deliver the high capacity they needed at speeds that would support the demands of their business.
Not wanting to compromise on speed and capacity, TJ&T ruled out many of the solutions it evaluated. Then they discovered StorTrends. StorTrends was able to offer the performance of SSD caching and SSD tiering with the dense capacity of spinning disk drives, all for an extremely reasonable price.
The results have even out-performed expectations. “I’ve looked at various metrics on our VMware& systems as well as on the StorTrends unit itself, and it’s performing better than I thought would be technically possible,” said Drew Green, Director of Information Technology for TJ&T. “I thought it would perform to our needs, but the numbers I’ve seen are better than anticipated.”
“For organizations like TJ&T, StorTrends high-performance storage solutions can deliver the impressive performance and functionality that truly makes them more productive, with the high capacity that will meet their business needs well into the future,” said Justin Bagby, Director of StorTrends.
“The StorTrends iDATA& performance analysis tool was also of high value to TJ&T because it precisely analyzed their environment to assure that the StorTrends solution they implemented exactly matched their needs.”
It was the sum of the StorTrends solution and experience with the StorTrends sales and support staff that further underscored the value TJ&T sees in StorTrends. “The couple of instances that I’ve spoken with support have been phenomenal,” added Green. “This has been the best support experience I have ever had. Everything has exceeded expectations.”
To read more about TJ&T, and other StorTrends customers, please visit: .
About StorTrends
StorTrends& from American Megatrends is Performance Storage with Proven Value. StorTrends SAN and NAS storage appliances are installed worldwide and trusted by companies and institutions in a wide range of industries including education, energy, finance, state and local government, healthcare, manufacturing, marketing, retail, R&D and many more. torTrends meets the challenges and demands of today’s business environments by offering a wide variety of solutions from ,
solutions. StorTrends is backed by 1,100+ customer installations, 100+ storage patents and nearly 30 years of IT leadership from a company that millions of people trust on a daily basis, . For more information, please visit: .
StorTrends and StorTrends iDATA are registered trademarks of American Megatrends, Inc. (AMI). All other product and company names are trademarks of their respective owners.
January 6, 2015: Customers across Education, Energy, Finance, Government, Healthcare, Manufacturing and Retail Speak out on the Benefits and Value of StorTrends Flash Storage Arrays
NORCROSS, GA: (R) today announced the close of a record breaking year as sales for its storage appliances grew by 500% with the introduction of the StorTrends Hybrid (HFA) and All Flash Arrays (AFA).
flash storage system delivers the first and only storage area network (SAN) to combine solid-state drive (SSD) caching and SSD tiering into a single storage appliance. Optimized to support VMware(TM), Microsoft(R) Hyper-V(TM), Citrix(TM) and RHEV enterprises of all sizes, the StorTrends 3500i is available as a hybrid or full flash array, and delivers dramatic enterprise performance and reliability at an extremely affordable price point.
“The flash-based storage market, which includes both AFAs and HFAs, is on fire. In the first half of 2014, the combined markets grew at noticeably higher rates than what IDC had forecast it to grow with previous projections. Individually, each market segment also outgrew our 2013 forecast projections,” said , Research Director, Storage, . “End users are learning that flash storage provides improved performance, higher reliability, longer endurance and compelling TCO when deployed at scale, as well as enterprise-class data services.
Clearly, if you are an end user, you should be considering flash-based arrays when the time has come to retire your existing enterprise storage platforms.”
StorTrends Key Milestones:
– StorTrends 3500i SSD Array offers an all-inclusive set of features including SSD Caching, SSD Tiering, Automatically Tiered Volumes (ATV), Automated Data Tiering, and replication with WAN optimization. These features, together with the unique combination of SSD and HDD technology in a slim 3U configuration, deliver up to 64TB of storage capacity within the 3U and expansion capacity of up to 256TB. The SAN storage solution features hot-swappable dual controllers with Active/Active or Active/Passive high availability and redundant, hot-swappable power supply units.
– This free intelligent data analysis tracking application (iDATA) provides a comprehensive and accurate assessment of IT infrastructure statistics such as performance, capacity and throughput requirements, in order to find and assess pain points, before they become disruptive, as well as to enable IT professionals to proactively and accurately plan for future IT investment/deployment.
– This program offers one of the highest protected margins in the industry to allow channel partners to capitalize on the exploding demand for cost-effective hybrid and/or full flash storage solutions.
Industry Lab Validations Speak to Power of StorTrends 3500i Storage Array:
– “We observed in our hands-on Technology Validation of the StorTrends 3500i array that StorTrends has crafted SSD into a mature, field-proven, and well-architected storage system. With a comprehensive set of storage features and an intriguingly flexible ability to integrate SSDs with the StorTrends cache and tiering architecture, the 3500i showed us that it is ready to deliver superb performance, extreme versatility, and serious value for mid-range storage customers,” said , Arun Taneja when asked about the report. “The NetNet is there is no need to look for alternatives to make solid state more affordable and practical for the mainstream – with the AMI StorTrends 3500i, it is clearly here.”
– During independent testing the StorTrends 3500i storage array was deemed a “powerful and easy to deploy hybrid storage platform built for high performance and maximum capacity” – demonstrating top-of-the-class performance in benchmark conducted against well-known Tier 1 storage vendors. “The AMI StorTrends 3500i provides businesses with a powerful and easy to deploy 3U hybrid storage platform built for high performance and maximum capacity. It didn't take long for the StorTrends 3500i to demonstrate its top-class performance during our benchmarking. In the first application test, which measured performance with VMmark, the StorTrends 3500i posted excellent results. The StorTrends 3500i cluster was at or near the top of the pack, slipping ever so slightly at the 10th tile. In the 15k and 30k virtual-user SQL Server benchmark, the 3500i was easily the best of the bunch especially when measuring the average latency. The 3500i recorded only 41ms latency during 30k virtual users benchmark where the second place system posted 133 a significant gap in responsiveness. The StorTrends 3500i is able to achieve all of these impressive numbers for a variety of reasons, one of the biggest being how they handle flash. First off, the array offers both caching (a copy of the hot data on SSDs) and tiering (a permanent location of hot data on SSDs), which is relatively rare among the hybrid storage array vendors. Most provide one or the other, which certainly adds to top-line performance, but as we see here, there can be a benefit to using both. AMI is also using higher capacity SSDs for tiering, at 4x800GB in RAID10, 1.6TB usable in a 16-bay system is well above what many competitive systems offer. The drives are also modern, many of the large storage vendors are using SSD technology that's very stable but a few years older. The only thing really working against the 3500i is lack of awareness that likely won't last long though as the 3500i really shines.”
– StorTrends iDATA accurately assesses IT infrastructure in order to find and eliminate pain points, avoid business disruption and make informed storage investment decisions.
Customers Speak Out on Value of StorTrends Flash Storage Appliances:
“We needed something that was going to perform at the level our SQL servers needed. The specification certainly seemed to be there and pricewise StorTrends compared favorably against other devices in its same class. We found that metrics such as IOPS, throughput, capacity and replication - as well as the flexibility of being able to connect to multiple devices of StorTrends products were higher than our current solution and in the range that we wanted to be.”
RTI - Phil Blakely, Network and Systems Administrator
“I cannot stress enough how good the customer service is. The StorTrends team has done nothing but accommodate our needs and bend over backwards for us. Everything has performed as they described and I have never had the feeling of being over-promised or under-delivered.”
Charlotte Radiology – Tony Maynard, Manager of Information Technology
“The StorTrends array had the specific capabilities we were looking for, the integration with Hyper-V and a price tag that was much less than we anticipated.”
National Fish and Seafood - Andrew Marenghi, IT Director
“When I started here there were already two StorTrends appliances that had been here for about four to five years. They ran flawlessly, untouched for about two more years. I didn’t even have to reboot the boxes. I really paid very little attention to them. So, when it was time to add storage for our video project – I was already looking in StorTrends’ direction.”
University of Western Ontario - Clint Bourdeau, Network Systems Specialist
“Indeed, 2014 was a stellar year for StorTrends. Driven by our number one asset – our people - combined with the industry’s top storage solution – StorTrends - and relationships with the channel’s superstars as the icing-on-top, we grew our customer base with companies large and small, across virtually every industry vertical, around the world,” said Justin Bagby, Director of StorTrends. “We look forward to this year, as we continue to hone our product roadmap in order to innovate and deliver the features our customers require to accelerate application performance, protect and ensure data availability, and decrease overall cost and complexity.”
About StorTrends
StorTrends(R) from American Megatrends is Performance Storage with Proven Value. StorTrends SAN and NAS storage appliances are installed worldwide and trusted by companies and institutions in a wide range of industries including education, energy, finance, state and local government, healthcare, manufacturing, marketing, retail, R&D and many more. torTrends meets the challenges and demands of today’s business environments by offering a wide variety of solutions from ,
solutions. StorTrends is backed by 1,100+ customer installations, 100+ storage patents and nearly 30 years of IT leadership from a company that millions of people trust on a daily basis, . For more information, please visit: .
StorTrends and StorTrends iDATA are registered trademarks of American Megatrends, Inc. (AMI). All other product and company names are trademarks of their respective owners.
November 24, 2014: Resiliency, Redundancy, Lightning-Fast Performance and an Unbeatable Price Combine with Microsoft(R) Hyper-V(TM) Integration to Make StorTrends the Perfect Catch
NORCROSS, GA: (R) today announced that , one of the nation’s leading suppliers of seafood to distributors, retailers and restaurants, has deployed a StorTrends high performance storage area network (SAN) to ensure the resiliency and protection of its data, and consequently, its business.
National Fish & Seafood’s value to its customers and partners is directly related to its ability to not only provide the highest quality and freshest seafood, but in its consistent delivery of the highest levels of customer service.
In order to help ensure these goals, National Fish & Seafood utilizes an immense implementation of Infor Adage ERP software to support its team at its headquarters office in Gloucester, Massachusetts, manage hundreds of transactions each day, control a highly sophisticated supply chain with hundreds of touch points, product SKUs, etc., as well as to support its buyers across the globe in managing thousands of supplier and partner records.
Together, these systems and activity create a veritable sea of data, which can be as slippery as a freshly caught flounder to manage.
In order to help streamline management of its front office operations, National Fish & Seafood recently updated portions of its physical server infrastructure into a virtual environment. Along with easing the management burden, additional goals identified were to increase data protection and resiliency, as well as reduce cost. National Fish & Seafood then turned its attention to finding a data storage solution that would support these goals.
Working with , a leading end-to-end IT solutions provider, National Fish & Seafood evaluated a number of potentially viable solutions. In the end, StorTrends stood out and was chosen for its superior features and functionality, as well as its price.
The StorTrends , which were deployed utilizing two single controller units in a high availability (HA) configuration (SAN), delivered the required levels of resiliency, redundancy and failover protection, as well as automatic data tiering and Zoned Bit Recording for performance, an easy to manage interface via its ManageTrends(TM) GUI, and certified integration with Microsoft Hyper-V.
“When we sat down with Prevare to review options, it became clear that StorTrends was the right choice for our business,” said Andrew Marenghi, IT Director at National Fish & Seafood. “The StorTrends array had the specific capabilities we were looking for, the integration with Hyper-V and a price tag that was much less than we anticipated.
A true value.”
“The StorTrends HA configuration has lived up to its promise – its failover capabilities have been tested and met the challenge perfectly – allowing National Fish & Seafood to recover virtually instantly and maintain service availability,” said Justin Bagby, Director of StorTrends. “And because I/O performance remains lightning fast and creating new volumes via ManageTrends is easier than ever, National Fish & Seafood can efficiently and cost effectively manage its high volume workload environments and consequently maintain its uncompromising levels of customer service.”
“We are very happy with our StorTrends investment,” concluded Marenghi. “I’m completely satisfied with its performance and ease of management with the software GUI, as well as the fact that it works seamlessly with Hyper-V.
And now the array is truly battle-tested.
Of course, we are also delighted with the cost reduction we have seen since implementing the StorTrends arrays.”
To read more about National Fish & Seafood, and other StorTrends customers, visit:
About StorTrends
StorTrends(R) from American Megatrends is Performance Storage with Proven Value. StorTrends SAN and NAS storage appliances are installed worldwide and trusted by companies and institutions in a wide range of industries including education, energy, finance, state and local government, healthcare, manufacturing, marketing, retail, R&D and many more. torTrends meets the challenges and demands of today’s business environments by offering a wide variety of solutions from ,
solutions. StorTrends is backed by 1,100+ customer installations, 100+ storage patents and nearly 30 years of IT leadership from a company that millions of people trust on a daily basis, . For more information, please visit: .
StorTrends and StorTrends iDATA are registered trademarks of American Megatrends, Inc. (AMI). All other product and company names are trademarks of their respective owners.
AMI IN THE NEWS
"The AMI StorTrends 3500i hybrid array brings SSD caching and tiering to market in a dual-controller, 3U, 16-bay chassis. The 3500i excelled just about everywhere, creating new performance standards for the hybrid category letting it stand out in a crowded field."
"Are you a gadget lover, not a doctor? International teams are working to create portable devices that could quickly and easily detect common ailments."
AMI Partners & Industry Associations
In line with the diversity of its technology and products, AMI is a long-standing member of key industry associations and standards groups, maintaining technology partnerships with the leading manufacturers whose products are used every day in homes, offices and institutions worldwide.
Scroll to Top}