Found this article on www.techweb.com. Looks like we might see first revenue from IBM deal in Q2'98 since their product based on FileSpeed solution should be shipping in June 98. Here is a copy of the article:
h-End Storage -- IBM, Clariion to
ship data-storage, distribution products
By Martin J. Garvey
IBM and Data General Corp.'s Clariion unit will soon roll out new
solutions for meeting high-end data-storage and distribution needs.
IBM plans to ship in June its Tarpon storage-system sharing solution
that partitions storage segments to diverse operating systems, as well
as its InfoSpeed data-switching system, which is capable of moving
data between different systems at channel speeds. Clariion's FC 5500
architecture will be customized for specific applications residing on
multiple servers.
Neither vendor, though, says it had near-term plans to deliver true
data sharing, which many still see as a desirable but distant goal. Real
data sharing would let companies share a single copy of data among
multiple applications running on different operating systems, but it
requires operating system vendors such as Hewlett-Packard, IBM,
Microsoft, and Sun Microsystems to agree on standards for kernel
access. No such agreement has yet been made. "Even though data
sharing is the ultimate technology to manage and monitor information,
it's not in the top 10 things for the operating system vendors to do,"
says Ed Quigley, IBM's program manager for data sharing.
Clariion's architecture bypasses the question of data sharing by
supporting individual storage systems customized for particular Unix
and Windows NT server-based applications. "Storage by itself is
useless unless it's dedicated," says Peter Gibbs, director of marketing
for Clariion. "The utopian view of IBM and Sun servers sharing an
Oracle application is functionally impossible until the operating
system is reconciled."
The new architecture adds functionality to the company's FC 5500
units, letting customers set up systems for disparate functions such as
file and print, video streaming, and online transactional processing.
The architecture will be based on high-speed Fibre Channel hardware
paired with software.
Though no formal announcement has been made and no pricing has
been set for IBM's Tarpon unit, Quigley confirmed that the device will
ship in June. The unit is designed to segment storage for different
servers by partitioning multiple volumes for each of those units inside
the system. Significantly, this is the first time IBM has engineered a
storage system that works not only with IBM servers, but also with
units from competitors such as HP and Sun.
IBM's upcoming InfoSpeed data-piping product is built to transport
data between storage subsystems from a mainframe source to Unix or
NT servers. InfoSpeed works at channel speeds, which are much faster
than network speeds. The latter checks in at 3 Mbps, while channel
speeds vary from 17 Mbytes per second with the Escon traditional
mainframe interconnect to as high as 100 Mbytes per second with
introductory Fibre Channel speeds.
IBM licenses the technology for this solution from data-switching
vendor Computer Network Technology Inc., which sells its own
data-piping product, FileSpeed. CNT and General Signal Networks
Inc., another data-switching vendor, also demonstrated their existing
data-movement products-FileSpeed and the ESM/9000, respectively.
The attractions of such switching devices are their low prices and the
efficiency of resources they provide, according to Nick Allen, VP of
platforms and operating systems for Gartner Group. In addition to
InfoSpeed's $50,000 base cost, FileSpeed starts at $45,000 and
ESM/9000 pricing begins at $121,500.
Copyright r 1998 CMP Media Inc. |
