Storage Interoperability Takes Giant Step Forward

Storage companies Brocade Communications Systems, Inc., Compaq Computer Corporation, EMC Corporation, Hitachi Data Systems Corporation, IBM Corporation and McDATA(R) Corporation today announced several initiatives intended to provide storage product customers with qualified cross-vendor, interoperable storage networking.

According to the companies, they have completed joint qualification of two open storage area network (SAN) solutions that enable the coexistence of data zones containing Compaq, EMC, Hitachi Data Systems and IBM storage system products on a single, shared Fibre Channel fabric. In addition, the four storage system vendors have signed bilateral cooperative support agreements intended to simplify joint customer support in multivendor environments.

The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) also announced today a new Supported Solutions Forum which will expand upon these initiatives. The six companies will serve as founding members of the forum. Future work of the SNIA Supported Solutions Forum will bring enhancements to the initial open SAN solutions. Planned enhancements include expanding the size of the configurations, involving additional vendors, adding more components, increasing the level of component interoperability, adding multi-vendor switch interoperability and integrating popular storage networking applications.