The Compaq Enterprise Storage Group and its storage technology partners have completed interoperability testing for StorageWorks FC-IP and DWM in WAN and MAN networking solutions. CNT, SANcastle and SAN Valley products have completed StorageWorks FC-IP interoperability testing and are fully compatible with StorageWorks arrays. Cisco Systems and Controlware Inc. products have also completed interoperability testing of Wave Division Multiplexing (WDM) and are ready for production environments.
Evaluator Group comments:
This is an excellent addition to the SANworks family and positions Compaq in a leading position in remote replication using IP-Networks. Compaq demonstrated its DRM FC-IP last September by linking Fibre Channel-based SANs across three continents and has listed global data replication in its SAN roadmap.
Now that Fibre Channel SANs are established as a viable and cost-effective technology, linking Fibre Channel-based SANs over long distances was the next logical step in SAN technology. Several vendors are taking different approaches: Fibre Channel-to-ATM routers, building Gigabit Ethernet connectivity into a switch and Fibre Channel-to-Ethernet switches.
The Evaluator Group believes these new technologies will shake out over the next few years, but that the dominant solutions will be those that:
1. Use a standards-based approach to implementation
2. Capitalize on the existing Fibre Channel SAN infrastructure including storage management
3. Minimize the latency and overhead associated with protocol translation
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