Microsoft Scales Data Center Wall with MPIO - Storage Technology Magazine

Microsoft Scales Data Center Wall with MPIO

Microsoft is exhausting data center managers' objections to running Windows in the data center. With its recently announced Multipath I/O (MPIO), applications running on Windows 2000 Server and .NET Server will access an I/O fabric across multiple channels.

Multipathing solves two problems: It provides for failover and load balancing between the multiple SCSI or Fibre Channel adapters.

"Many people will not run, say, an Oracle database without multipathing software," says Rahul Mehta, CEO at storage software vendor NuView.

Unix and mainframe operating systems are no strangers to multipathing. Veritas also delivers multipathing capabilities in Volume Manager, as does EMC with PowerPath.

Veritas and EMC are just two of the 23 vendors that have pledged to support MPIO. Why? "They're doing it so they can offer seamless support to the Windows environment, and not have to rely on third-party software," says Rick Walsworth, director of product marketing at Maranti Networks, which is building an MPIO-compliant multiprotocol switch.

    Requires Free Membership to View

    When you register for SearchStorage.com, you’ll also receive targeted emails from my team of award-winning editorial writers. Our goal is to keep you informed on the hottest topics, the latest news and the biggest challenges you face as a storage professional today.

    Rich Castagna, Editorial Director

    By submitting your registration information to SearchStorage.com you agree to receive email communications from TechTarget and TechTarget partners. We encourage you to read our Privacy Policy which contains important disclosures about how we collect and use your registration and other information. If you reside outside of the United States, by submitting this registration information you consent to having your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States. Your use of SearchStorage.com is governed by our Terms of Use. You may contact us at webmaster@TechTarget.com.

This was first published in November 2002