FibreAlliance Reaches Key Milestones Toward Open San Management Standards; Spec Submission, Public Demo, New Members Demonstrate Cooperation and Momentum
HOPKINTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 25, 1999--The FibreAlliance (www.fibrealliance.org) today announced several major milestones that help develop open standards for managing heterogeneous networks of storage systems and computer servers, which are also known as storage area networks, or SANs. Today's announcements highlight the expanding momentum the FibreAlliance has achieved.
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-- Members of the FibreAlliance have cooperated on drafting a
detailed engineering specification. The specification describes
an integrated management framework in which software products can
gain a high-level view of the storage network and launch
management software to provide detailed performance information.
-- The FibreAlliance recently submitted the specification to the
independent standards body as an initial working draft toward
possible creation of a standard.
-- Earlier this month, at NetWorld+Interop '99 in Las Vegas, the
FibreAlliance staged the first public technology demonstration of
its work. This ground-breaking demo showcased a storage network
consisting of EMC Corporation's industry-leading Symmetrix
Enterprise Storage system and EMC Connectrix Enterprise Storage
Network System, integrated with Sun and Compaq servers and Fibre
Channel-based SAN interconnect products from Ancor, Emulex, Gadzoox, McDATA and Vixel. The interoperability demo displayed
the multivendor Fibre Channel-based SAN topology and launched the
management software of each company's products.
-- Further, the alliance has attracted the membership of seven
additional companies. Now, 19 leading information technology
providers are working cooperatively under the FibreAlliance
banner to accelerate the development and implementation of common
methods for managing SANs.
*T -0- "The work of the FibreAlliance will provide customers enhanced integration and higher functionality among SAN interconnect components, such as hubs, switches and host bus adapters," said Don Swatik, Vice President of Product Management for EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC), the host company of the FibreAlliance. "As a result, customers will be able to manage storage networks more efficiently and cost-effectively, and the storage network market will grow more rapidly and more broadly."
The FibreAlliance will continue to drive standards relating to the management of interoperable SAN connectivity components. In addition, members of the FibreAlliance also are contributing significant resources to accelerate aspects of SAN standardization through other industry consortia.
"Over the next several years, storage networks will mushroom in size, complexity, speed, and technology mix," Swatik added. "As this evolution accelerates, the work of the FibreAlliance will help customers more effectively and efficiently implement heterogeneous storage area networks across the enterprise."
Industry Cooperation Grows
The latest companies to join the FibreAlliance are:
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-- ATTO Technology, Inc., of Amherst, N.Y., www.attotech.com, a
worldwide manufacturer of cross-platform Fibre Channel and SCSI
storage connectivity solutions for high-performance computer
applications.
-- Crossroads Systems, Inc., of Austin, Tex., www.crossroads.com, a developer and manufacturer of
storage routers and storage solutions for Enterprise
Data Center managers.
-- Prisa Networks, Inc., of San Diego, Calif., www.prisa.com, a
developer of high-speed digital network, storage and file
transfer solutions that use Fibre Channel technology for
entertainment production facilities.
-- Siemens ICP Computer Systems, of Munich, Germany, www.siemens.de, a worldwide provider of enterprise servers and storage; PCs, workstations, and systems integration services.
-- The Storage Management Division of Sterling Software, Inc., of
Dallas, Tex., www.storage.sterling.com/sams, (NYSE:SSW), which
delivers enterprise storage management. The division's SAMS
products help customers manage, monitor and automate data storage
in both distributed and centralized environments.
-- Storage Networks, Inc., (SNI) of Waltham, Mass., www.storagenetworks.com, a provider of enterprise storage
services, including turnkey end-to-end storage resources for
unlimited information protection, sharing, replication and
consolidation.
-- Transoft Networks, Inc., of Santa Barbara, Calif., www.transoftnetworks.com, Hewlett-Packard Company's recent
acquisition, manufactures and markets SAN management software for
both enterprise and imaging applications.
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The original members of the FibreAlliance are leading providers of Fibre Channel-based hubs, switches, host bus adapters, routers, servers and management software, including Ancor Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANCR), www.ancor.com; Emulex Corporation (NASDAQ:EMLX), www.emulex.com; Gadzoox Networks, www.gadzoox.com; G2 Networks, Inc., www.g2networks.com; the OpenView Business Unit and Enterprise Storage Business Unit of Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HWP), www.hp.com; JNI, www.jni.com; Legato Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:LGTO), www.legato.com; McDATA Corporation, www.mcdata.com; QLogic Corporation, www.qlc.com; VERITAS Software Corporation (NASDAQ:VRTS) www.veritas.com; and Vixel Corporation, www.vixel.com .
Driving Storage Network Standards
SANs provide a flexible, efficient way for customers to consolidate and manage growing pools of online enterprise information distributed throughout even the largest global enterprises. The emerging SAN model requires the use of Fibre Channel as the basic method of interconnecting the heterogeneous elements of the storage network, such as hubs, switches, host bus adapters, routers, servers and storage systems, over great distances and at very high speed.
Until now, however, there have been no standardized methods for monitoring and managing the elements in Fibre Channel-based storage networks. Without standards, customers are limited in their ability to effectively deploy and manage heterogeneous storage networks and realize their full business potential.
EMC Corporation, a Fortune 500 company based in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, is the world's technology and market leader in the rapidly growing market for intelligent enterprise storage systems, software and services. The company's products store, retrieve, manage, protect and share information from all major computing environments, including Internet and e-commerce applications, as well as UNIX, Windows NT and mainframe platforms. The company has offices worldwide, trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol EMC, and is a component of the S&P 500 Index. For further information about EMC and its storage solutions, EMC's corporate web site can be accessed at emc.com.
EMC and Symmetrix are registered trademarks and Connectrix and EMC Enterprise Storage Network are trademarks of EMC Corporation.
CONTACT:
EMC Corp.
Kenneth McDonnell, 508-435-1000 x77424
mcdonnell_ken@emc.com
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