Subj: FibreAlliance Builds Momentum Toward SAN Standards; Four...
Date: 07/13/1999 7:14:56 AM Pacific Daylight Time
From: AOL News
FibreAlliance Builds Momentum Toward SAN Standards; Four New Members Join Open Association of Fibre Channel Vendors To Speed Development of SAN Management Standards
HOPKINTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 13, 1999--The FibreAlliance (www.fibrealliance.org), an open association of Fibre Channel vendors accelerating the cooperative development of standards for managing storage area networks (SANs), today announced the addition of four new members: BMC Software, Inc., Datametrics Systems Corporation, Interphase Corporation, and Sequent Computer Systems, Inc. These companies join 19 other leading providers of SAN components and services to speed the widespread implementation of interoperable SAN management solutions.
"To fully embrace the promise of SANs, customers must have a simplified, integrated framework for managing them," said Don Swatik, Vice President of Product Management for EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC), which sponsors the FibreAlliance. "Through broad and growing cooperation among leading SAN providers, the FibreAlliance is spearheading the development of this vital framework. The result will be integrated SAN management products and services customers can implement rapidly, flexibly and easily. As we aggressively pursue this challenging goal, we welcome the contributions of new and existing FibreAlliance member companies."
Growing Industry Cooperation
The latest companies to join the FibreAlliance are: -0- *T
-- BMC Software, Inc., of Houston, Tex., (NASDAQ:BMCS), www.bmc.com, a leading provider of management solutions that ensure the
availability, performance, and recovery of business-critical
applications and data.
-- Datametrics Systems Corporation, of Fairfax, Va.,(AMSE:DC), www.datametrics.com, a global company providing IT professionals
with multi-platform automated performance analysis, correlation
software and services to keep business-critical systems, databases, and applications running at peak performance.
-- Interphase Corporation, of Dallas, Tex., (NASDAQ:INPH), www.iphase.com, which designs and delivers high-performance
server connectivity for enterprise network environments and
demanding embedded systems applications.
-- Sequent Computer Systems, Inc., of Beaverton, Ore., (NASDAQ:SQNT), www.sequent.com, a leader in Intel-based data
center and e-business solutions optimized for the scalability, manageability, and availability requirements of large corporate
infrastructures leveraging Internet and database technologies. *T -0-
The new FibreAlliance companies join other leading providers of Fibre Channel-based hubs, switches, host bus adapters, routers, storage, servers and management software, including Ancor Communications, Inc., ATTO Technology, Inc., Crossroads Systems, Inc., EMC Corporation, Emulex Corporation, Gadzoox Networks, G2 Networks, Inc., the OpenView Business Unit and Enterprise Storage Business Unit of Hewlett-Packard Company, JNI, Legato Systems, Inc., McDATA Corporation, Prisa Networks, Inc., QLogic Corporation, Siemens ICP Computer Systems, the Storage Management Division of Sterling Software, Inc., Storage Networks, Inc., Transoft Networks, Inc., VERITAS Software Corporation, and Vixel Corporation.
The FibreAlliance is working closely with the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) and other industry groups to develop and promote SAN standards for the benefit of customers and Fibre Channel suppliers.
Driving Storage Network Standards
Many heterogeneous components can exist in a SAN, making efficient management of the SAN a very challenging task. Ideally, SAN administrators would have a single, common view of the management software native to each component of the SAN. To accomplish this, each component's management software must be designed in compliance with open standards. Ultimately, standardized SAN management software enables SAN administrators to realize the full business potential of this powerful technology. Until now, however, the required SAN management standards have not existed.
To address this critical need, the FibreAlliance was formed to develop a specification describing a framework within which multiple vendors can develop integrated management environments for enterprise SAN customers. Products built in compliance with this framework can interoperate at the management level. A common standard enables SAN administrators to gain a high-level product view of the storage network, obtain detailed SAN performance information from across the enterprise, and launch the management software of each component in the SAN.
In March 1999, the FibreAlliance submitted the specification to the appropriate independent standards body, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), as an initial working draft toward possible creation of a standard. At Network+Interop'99 Las Vegas, the FibreAlliance successfully staged the first public technology demonstration of its work.
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. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
CONTACT:
EMC Corporation
Kenneth McDonnell
508-435-1000 x77424
mcdonnell-ken@emc.com |
