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Technology Stocks : Son of SAN - Storage Networking Technologies -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: J Fieb who wrote (2524)	1/4/2001 4:14:57 PM
From: J Fieb	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4808

EMC, Sun move to establish network storage standard By Dan Neel HOPING TO TURN some of its recent NAS (network attached storage) technology into a storage industry standard, EMC has requested that the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) form a standards body to endorse a mechanism for NFS (Network File Systems) and CIFS (Common Internet File Systems) to operate via a VI (virtual interface). The proposed standard is rooted in the HighRoad software technology introduced by EMC in December. An NFS/CIFS over VI standard would provide faster access to large data files that reside on a storage network by sending the file directly to the person requesting them, bypassing any NAS server. "Instead of servers having to process protocol stacks, the data will move more directly, and the NAS guys are trying to leverage that for faster access to data," said Tom Clark, a board member and co-chairman of the interoperability committee at SNIA. Officials at Palo Alto, Calif.-based Sun Microsystems also are supporting a proposed NFS/CIFS over VI standards body, along with IBM, Veritas Software, and Network Appliances, according to a transcript of the Dec. 15 proposal. EMC's HighRoad software can route files and other data traffic directly from a SAN (storage area network) to the user without the intervention of a NAS server, such as the Cellera, according to Jim Rothnie, senior vice president and CTO of EMC, based in Hopkinton, Mass. The advantage of having the option to bypass an NAS server when requesting data from a storage network is especially beneficial when calling up large files, such as graphics and other media files, Rothnie said. NAS servers traditionally have handled only smaller files used by workgroups, such as e-mail files. HighRoad technology and a proposed standard based on it are intended to better enable large files to run across workgroup networks. SNIA is not a standards organization, but rather a nonprofit group made up of storage vendors that listens to suggestions for standards, then helps form working groups to formulate requirements of a standard, SNIA's Clark said. "Vendors get together and decide they want a standard, then they draft a proposal and the technology council within SNIA reviews it, looking for overlaps, and whether or not a whole new working group can be formed," Clark explained. The most recent standard born of SNIA's involvement was the Host Bus Adapter API, created six months ago. Dan Neel is an InfoWorld senior writer.