Sun Microsystems Delivers the Industry's First Open Management Platform For the Storage Developer Community
Industry Leaders Oracle, VERITAS Software, Seagate Technology, Quantum And StorageTek Join Sun in Support of Building Open Applications That Reduce The
Cost and Complexity of Storage Management
PALO ALTO, Calif., Dec. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) today unveiled a comprehensive new development platform that will redefine the way storage management and data services are created and deployed. In an industry dominated by proprietary and incompatible storage solutions, Sun and its strategic allies are embracing the industry's first universal framework, code-named Project StoreX, for the development of open storage applications.
Project StoreX will extend the "Write Once, Run Anywhere"(TM) capability of Java(TM) technology in the fast-growing storage data services and storage management market. Project StoreX enables developers to write storage applications that can be deployed in a platform independent, distributed runtime environment and is initially available for both the Solaris(TM) Operating Environment and Microsoft Windows, as well as any compliant platform running JVM.
It is clear from recent announcements including those by Compaq, 3COM and others that vendors are motivated to solve the complexities inherent in heterogeneous networked storage. Sun believes the only way this can be accomplished is through a standard, open storage management software platform embraced by all industry vendors.
"The Project StoreX initiative was driven by the critical need for the industry to standardize. The days of proprietary lock-in storage interfaces are over," said Janpieter Scheerder, president of Sun's Network Storage. "Sun has taken a leadership position by working with its allies to deliver an open, industry-wide solution that benefits the customer. With three years of development behind us, Project StoreX is real. It's here and developers can begin implementation immediately."
In order to have standards for developing data and management services, Project StoreX has been developed to facilitate their interoperability, integration and management. "We gain time-to-market advantage for our solutions because we can leverage the infrastructure developed by Sun," said Peter Levine, senior vice president strategy and OEM sales, VERITAS Software. "Project StoreX eliminates the need to re-port the management applications that support our heterogeneous based data services. Additionally, we can deploy these management solutions across the enterprise in a consistent, reliable and timely manner."
Sun developers are already creating storage services using the Project StoreX framework, and at least a dozen companies have implementations in the planning stage. Project StoreX-compliant products under development include management services in the areas of performance optimization, self-healing, policy automation and component monitoring. Additional products underway include control diagnostics and data services such as cache and volume management, backup, and remote mirroring. For example, StorageTek provides its customers with tape, disk, software and switches. "Project StoreX provides the glue that allows us to deliver solutions that inter-operate across the enterprise," said Dave Weiss, CEO of StorageTek. "We are able to offer the mainframe class level of service that our customers have come to expect in a networked environment."
Automation is key to solving the storage management dilemma. With the industry cooperating on a standard platform, management services can now be created that deliver intelligent end-to-end storage management solutions. "Oracle, the data management leader, endorses the open system approach to storage management embodied in the Project StoreX architecture and believes it can bring significant benefits to our customers. By standardizing the management of storage resources and unifying the interface to storage services, users will achieve higher levels of service while at the same time reducing cost and complexity," said Jeremy Burton, Vice President of Server Marketing for Oracle Corporation.
"Storage management complexities exist throughout the storage network, including the disk drive. With Seagate single disk drive capacities rapidly approaching 100GB, effective management of distributed storage becomes increasingly important," said Steve Luczo, President and CEO of Seagate Technology. "The implementation of Project StoreX fits well with the vision of distributed, intelligent, scalable, connected storage that we have been working toward."
"The Project StoreX platform architecture has great potential to benefit the industry as a whole, and we would like to see this fully developed by Sun and its partners," said Peter van Cuylenberg, president of Quantum Corporation's SSPG business. "We believe open architectures such as Project StoreX will help Quantum and ATL Products continue to deliver advanced storage solutions that address the growing need for more manageable storage."
"Today storage management is dominated by point products and proprietary solutions," said John McArthur, director of storage systems research at International Data Corporation. "Sun's open framework, Project StoreX, promises the ability for storage management software providers to deliver open function that runs across a broad range of storage products. This open framework offers the potential to significantly shorten the time to market window for new storage function, but will require meaningful nearterm commitment on the part of the hardware community."
Strong support from the industry
Vendors of storage systems and services are quickly rallying behind Project StoreX. Early adopters include Oracle, VERITAS Software, Seagate Technology, Legato, Vixel, Gadzoox, Creative Design Solutions, Qlogic, StorageTek, Tandberg Data, Fujitsu, ATL Products, Quantum and Exabyte.
"We are delighted with the strong support we have received from the storage industry," said Jeff Allen, vice president of marketing for Sun's Network Storage. "Together with our allies we will aggressively pursue rapid adoption by other industry vendors. Like Sun's internal developers, these vendors should benefit from dramatic reductions in development cost, complexity and improved time to market. As a result, customers will receive open products, giving them freedom of choice over their storage system components. Plus, the Project StoreX user interface will provide ease of use across storage applications that will greatly simplify operations and reduce administrative costs in the data center, features desperately needed by our customers."
Management Services and Data Services
Both management services and data services will benefit from the Project StoreX framework.
Initially, management services will include:
* SNMP connectivity, which facilitates integration with enterprise management frameworks, also allows all storage devices with SNMP management including switches and hubs, to be accessed by the management services.
* Distributed management capabilities, including a distributed object kernel that enables enterprise management services, as well as distributed services that enable persistent, automated management.
* Platform independence through Java technology and support for interfacing to platform-dependent native interfaces.
Initially, data services will include:
* Platform-specific storage software with dedicated functions.
* Well-defined APIs that specify how components interact with each other at interface boundaries.
* Integration with operating system components such as drivers and file systems in the data path.
Availability
Information on the early access release and the Project StoreX developer kit is available immediately by contacting tom.awe@sun.com. Starting in the first quarter of next year, StoreX will be available in a runtime version, which can be incorporated into StoreX compliant products, and as an SDK for vendors who wish to make their products Project StoreX compliant. The StoreX developer kit is available on a CD-ROM and includes StoreX Runtime, tools, documentation and tutorials.
Support will be available through the Sun Developer Connection Program(TM), a subscription based support service for developers, and will include quarterly delivery of early access software, documentation and source as well as currently shipping Project StoreX compliant components.
About Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision, "The Network Is The Computer(TM)," has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc., to its position as a leading provider of high quality hardware, software and services for establishing enterprise-wide intranets and expanding the power of the Internet. With more than $10 billion in annual revenues, Sun can be found in more than 150 countries and on the World Wide Web at sun.com.
StoreX partner quotes:
"The Sun StoreX open architecture is an ideal complement for managing devices in both NAS and SAN environments. CDS strongly endorses the distributed resource with centralized management concept and anticipates that StoreX will help fuel the growth of scalable appliances in both environments."
Wo Overstreet
President and CEO
Creative Design Solutions (CDS)
"Exabyte is pleased to be working with Sun's Network Storage Division and to offer our endorsement of the StoreX Architecture. Exabyte is currently working with Sun to develop storage management tools, devices and services that integrate into this storage management architecture and the industry and end users will benefit through a robust, well defined and integrated, heterogeneous storage and data management environment."
Mike Koclanes
Vice President and General Manager
Storage Automation and Solutions Division
Exabyte Corporation
"The platform independent nature of Java technology provides the ideal foundation for truly open system, heterogeneous storage management and data services. The universal framework offered by Project StoreX enables Gadzoox to leverage our position as the leading provider of managed SAN networking hardware and software. The comprehensive platform allows us to expand our time-to-market leadership to all operating platforms simultaneously."
David Tang
Vice President of Marketing
Gadzoox
"Legato is pleased to be expanding our existing partnership with Sun for their StoreX Network Storage Appliance Architecture project. We are committed to seamlessly integrating Legato's products with Sun's StoreX management architecture, thereby offering customers maximum flexibility in protecting and managing their business-critical data."
Nora M. Denzel
Senior Vice President
Legato Systems, Inc.
"As the supplier of the broadest range of high-speed, high-capacity tape back-up products and technologies in the industry, Tandberg Data is proud to be a SUN partner in the Project StoreX open platform for storage software development. History does, indeed, show that open standards win, both for customers and vendors."
Al Duras
Vice President of Marketing
Tandberg Data, Inc.
"QLogic's leadership role in providing Fibre Channel technology has provided us the opportunity to work closely with Sun Microsystems as they have led the deployment of Fibre Channel storage solutions in the market place. StoreX technology builds on the solid foundation Sun has established with Fibre Channel and takes the next critical step in providing the open, management infrastructure required to deliver the end-user applications that will make the SAN vision a reality."
HK Desai
President and CEO
Qlogic Corporation
"As a leader in SAN interconnect hubs, switches, transceivers and SAN interconnect management, Vixel believes that serviceability and manageability are key to accelerating the deployment of SAN solutions. Upon those values, Vixel builds solutions and enthusiastically supports the universal framework of StoreX, allowing an open framework to manage and service the entire SAN system, including peripherals and storage, Fibre Channel connections and the entire fabric within switched environments. We are pleased to expand our long-term partnership with Sun by supplying Fibre Channel Interconnect products and furthering the acceptance of storage area networking,"
Brian Reed
Vice President of Marketing
Vixel
SOURCE Sun Microsystems, Inc.
CO: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
ST: California
IN: CPR
SU: PDT |
