HDS readies virtualization strategy |
 |
By the451.com, Special to searchStorage
25 Jun 2001 | the451.com |
|
|
Hitachi Data Systems will reveal its much anticipated
storage virtualization strategy in the fall, the451
expects. Products are expected in 16-18 months' time.
HDS chief technical officer Hu Yoshida is understood
to favor the in-band approach to virtualization, with
some custom-built supporting silicon, versus the
alternative out-of-band route. The company hasn't
disclosed its plans to anyone but a few analysts with
whom it's putting the strategy together -- plus partner
Veritas.
A senior HDS executive, however, told the451 the
strategy will see HDS invest in one or more companies,
with a plan to acquire them at the point at which they
would otherwise go public. It has an existing
relationship with Troika Networks and sees CommVault
Systems as an important future player.
specialist DataCore Software. If HDS goes ahead with
an OEM deal for that company's SANsymphony product and is
serious about investing in strategic partners, then it
could open up in an interesting bidding war for the Fort
Lauderdale, Florida based-company. Other industry
players, including HDS competitor EMC and fabric switch
leader Brocade, are also understood to be watching
DataCore with keen interest.
Being able to manage and monitor every storage device
as a single storage resource -- virtualization -- is the
holy grail of storage area networking. There are
currently many different approaches. In-band metadata
server appliances offer file sharing and virtualization
across different vendor platforms. They're cost-effective
but difficult to scale and to make fault-tolerant.
In-band network storage servers -- arrays front-ended by
NFS/CIFS processors -- can back up to a SAN, but both
approaches are in-band, don't scale well and need
clustering to become highly available.
The Storage Networking Industry Association,
meanwhile, is working on an out-of-band API that all
vendors could use -- and implement in hardware -- with IBM
and Compaq pushing their VersaStore technology as its
foundation.
By September, HDS will also be shipping its Hi-Command
console, which offers a single graphical view of (and
command line access to) the multiple storage management
applications a user may be running.
More Thunder and more Lightning is the way HDS
describes the development of its disk product lines. It
points out that by adding higher-capacity drives -- 144GB
rather than the current 73GB -- it could deliver over 50TB
in a single Lightning, up from 27TB now.
HDS claims that new products, channels and
distribution agreements it has in the pipe will change
the competitive face of the storage industry. But it's
not giving much away. The existing relationships with
Veritas and Microsoft (where HDS is eyeing the 6,000
enterprise NT users) are primarily to develop better
integration.
Indeed, having been sat on by Sun for revealing it was
in talks about a reseller deal, it now won't say how
those talks are progressing, simply that the situation is
ongoing.
HDS dismisses Sun's claim that the tie-up between
Brocade, McData, IBM, EMC, Compaq and HDS to certify the
interoperability of their respective SAN products was a
closed process. For starters, Sun isn't even a member of
the industry-wide Storage Networking Industry
Association, so it can hardly complain about being closed
out of any process. Besides, it was specifically invited
to join the effort.
the451 (www.the451.com) is an analyst firm that
provides timely, detailed
and independent analysis of news in technology,
communications and media -
to evaluate the service click here.
|
|
|
|
