IBMFriday said it has filled out gaps in its virtualization
portfolio, adding support for EMC’s remaining Clariion systems.
The company added Clariion 300, 500 and 700 systems support for its SAN
Volume Controller (SVC), according to Jens Tiedemann, general manager of IBM
TotalStorage Open Software. IBM already
supports
Clariion 200, 400 and 600 systems.
SVC, which allows systems administrators to automate the movement of files
about the network, now supports EMC’s entire line of Symmetrix and Clariion
disk systems after rounding out support for EMC’s latest Symmetrix DMX
systems last month.
Supporting EMC’s products, as well as systems from HP and Hitachi Data
Systems, through virtualization is one way to win customers’ hearts.
Customers are tired of being locked into using products from one vendor.
Now users can move data around using IBM’s software on hardware from IBM
rivals EMC, HDS and HP.
EMC has promised
a Storage Router for 2005, a product greatly anticipated by industry
analysts and customers.
According to an EMC spokesperson, the device will enable non-disruptive
movement of data from one storage array to another, allowing admins to
perform lease roll-overs, upgrades, load balancing and maintenance.
While there’s no denying IBM is a couple of years ahead in virtualization
technology with SVC and SAN File System, the Armonk, N.Y. company
still has ground to make up in overall systems sales, according to recent
numbers from IDC.
EMC led the
external disk storage systems market for the third consecutive quarter with
21.2 percent revenue share, driven by 17.4 percent year-over-year revenue
growth for the quarter.
HP, with a revenue decline of 7.5 percent year over year, came in second
with 19 percent revenue share, followed by IBM with a 13.1 percent share.
Regardless, just as EMC has promised jaw-dropping virtualization in 2005,
IBM aims to make up ground in storage systems, owing in large part to its DS
8000 systems, the successor to the “Shark” Enterprise Storage System.
Despite rumors of a possible delay in the product, the DS8000 is
shipping now to customers. The DS8000 employs logical partitioning features,
which allow clients to run several storage workloads and create virtual
storage images.