This must be how BRCD locks in its oem customers:
STORAGE MANAGEMENT 2002, CHICAGO, March 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --
Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. (Brocade(R)) (NASDAQ:BRCD), the world's
leading provider of infrastructure for Storage Area Networks (SANs), announced
today the availability of Fabric Access API 2.0, the next-generation of its
Fabric Access Application Programming Interface (API) to the Brocade Fabric
Operating System (Fabric OS). In addition, the company announced five new
partners in the Fabric Access Program. As Fabric Access partners, Fujitsu,
Ltd., Hitachi Data Systems, Hewlett-Packard Company, NetIQ, and XIOtech can
use the information proactively delivered by the Fabric OS to inform and
empower their management applications. These companies join the thirty-six
other companies, including leading OEMs and software developers, which are
using the Fabric Access API to design applications and management products
optimized for Brocade SAN environments. Today, products that leverage the
Fabric Access API include BMC Software's PATROL(R) for SilkWorm, Compaq
SANWorks(TM) Network View, Creekpath AIM(TM) Suite, InterSAN(TM) PATHLINE(TM),
Netreon SANexec(TM), Prisa VisualSAN(TM), sanrise storagetone(sm), and VERITAS
SANPoint Control(TM).
"Current and future storage management frameworks will require access to
critical infrastructure-based information in order to become more intelligent
and more responsive to the needs of IT administrators tasked with doing more
with less," said John Webster, Senior Analyst at Illuminata. "Up to now, the
lack of open APIs from standards consortia has hindered this needed
development effort. However, Brocade's Fabric Access Partner program is an
example of a recognized approach that facilitates storage management
interoperability today."
Brocade led the market in October 2000 with the announcement of Fabric
Access API 1.0. Fabric Access API 2.0 builds on this established foundation,
allowing SAN software developers to easily harness the new capabilities and
advanced fabric services of the recently announced 2 Gbit/sec Brocade
entry-to-enterprise product line for their applications. Now third-party
vendors can deliver advanced fabric management features resident in the
Brocade intelligent fabric to customers through their applications. These
features automate configuration and operation of the SAN fabric, optimize
performance, and increase application availability and include:
-- A fabric-based event management interface to allow applications to
monitor key fabric events including port transitions and zoning changes
-- An interface to the new Brocade Secure Fabric OS to enable advanced SAN
security
-- Support for advanced fabric services such as aggregated trunking to
deliver 8 Gbit/sec speeds between switches in a fabric, hardware
enforced zoning, and content-based analysis based on the new Brocade
Frame Filtering capability
-- Access to full switch configuration facilities
"Through our open API, Brocade helps simplify the delivery of feature-rich
data management, movement, and administration applications from third party
application and technology partners that can take full advantage of the
intelligent features of the Brocade storage networking platform," said Jay
Kidd, Brocade Vice President of Product Marketing. "Brocade's open API
strategy, breadth of interoperability testing through our Fabric Aware
Program, and focus on driving standards is part of our continued commitment to
speeding heterogeneous SAN deployment for SAN customers."
Applications are developed to the Fabric Access API that span the
management needs of customers, including storage management and design, event
management, visualization, SAN configuration, security, performance
management, and capacity planning. Members of the Fabric Access Program
include companies such as BMC Software, Computer Associates, Compaq, Creekpath
Systems, EMC, Fujitsu, HP, Hitachi Data Systems, InterSAN, Micromuse, NetIQ
(NASDAQ:NTIQ), Netreon, Prisa Networks, sanrise, Sun Microsystems, XIOtech,
and VERITAS Software. For a complete list of Fabric Access Partners, visit
brocade.com
Brocade also contributes its technology and expertise to provide SAN
management standards and is leading efforts to develop standards for SAN
interconnect in the Common Information Model (CIM) standard. With its
partners, Brocade has already submitted standards for Fabric and Zoning. For
more information on Brocade standards contributions, visit
brocade.com
About the Fabric Access Program
Brocade unlocks the intelligence in the Brocade fabric and makes it
available to partners through the Fabric Access API. Brocade fabric switches
are based on the Brocade Fabric OS, which is an intelligent, distributed
operating system for Brocade fabrics. The Brocade Fabric OS provides a
feature-rich platform for SAN-designed applications and offers advanced
features for proactive SAN management and monitoring, enabling applications to
dynamically discover physical components in a SAN and monitor fabric
resources. Using the Fabric Access API, partners can use the information
proactively delivered by the Fabric OS to inform and empower their management
applications. Fabric Access is designed to conform to the emerging CIM
standard. For more information, visit
brocade.com |
