PHOENIX - Interoperability and manageability of data storage will be the primary focus of products that Network Appliance, Hitachi Data Systems, Cisco and others introduce this week at Storage Networking World.

Among the announcements expected:

• Network Appliance will launch a version of its NearStore disk-based back-up appliance that can be used to interchangeably store data that must be archived and readily available to meet government regulations, or back up nonregulated archival data.

• Cisco will release modules for its 7200 Series routers, Fibre Channel director-level switches and IP storage router that let users extend the reach of storage-area networks (SAN) across a WAN.

• Hitachi and Network Appliance will announce a network-attached storage gateway - the first NAS for Hitachi - that lets network users access data contained on their SANs via a Network Appliance file server.

• CNT, which acquired director-level switch vendor Inrange Technologies last week for $190 million, will roll out a version of its mainframe-based, director-level switch for Unix and Windows networks, letting users intermix SAN data from both environments.

• Microsoft and Nishan Systems will introduce a protocol service that lets management software running on Windows 2003 discover devices on a SAN or IP storage (iSCSI or Fibre Channel over IP) network.

Network Appliance's NearStore array now will support retention of regulated data, such as that found in financial, healthcare, government and pharmaceutical businesses, in addition to the back-up data it traditionally has stored. NearStore incorporates SnapLock's software that has write once read many times (WORM) capabilities, which will let it store e-mail, transaction records and medical images, which need to be retained unaltered and accessible for long periods of time.

"The Network Appliance announcement is very important for the marketplace because it is a major vendor providing a solution that helps companies that have regulated and nonregulated business better manage and develop life-cycle capabilities for specific data types," says Tony Prigmore, a senior analyst with Enterprise Storage Group. "In some regulated businesses, there is no question that what Network Appliance is doing will be viewed as an excellent, easy-to-manage addition to customers' current Network Appliance infrastructures without adding incremental equipment."