Net/Systems Management /
Last week's column talked about NetWorld+Interop 2000's emphasis on security, but SANs, which were also featured prominently, represent an emerging technology that enterprises will have to manage.
At a booth hosted by the Fibre Channel Industry Association (FCIA), more than 30 member companies exhibited new products related to Fibre Channel and storage-area network technologies. The demos involved such vendors as Adaptec, Ancor, Brocade, Datacore, Emulex, Hitachi Data Systems, IBM, McData, Vixel and others.
The FCIA's 175 members include hardware manufacturers, software developers, systems vendors, systems integrators and end users. The FCIA is one of the major industry organizations helping vendors work together to deliver SAN equipment. The Storage Networking Industry Association is the other major industry organization seeking to help vendors and customers create manageable storage networks.
Interoperability is key for SANs gaining a foothold in the industry, and the FCIA demonstrations of multivendor solutions gave SAN skeptics a chance to get a look at various components from different vendors working together and providing real benefits. The Interoperability Center demo showed progress in Fibre Channel device interoperability and included discussion of the SANmark Qualified certification - a joint effort of the FCIA, Fibre Channel standards committees and the University of New Hampshire to certify that products work together.
One demo showed how storage can be aggregated into manageable pools and allocated from a central point across multiple operating systems, including Windows NT, Solaris and Linux. Users may not explicitly rate such storage pooling as a high priority, but they do rate the benefits it provides as key drivers for looking at SANs, according to Enterprise Management Associates' recent research. Since SANs are relatively new, users are still grappling with terms and features and may not understand all the ramifications of features and benefits. Storage networks and pooled storage provide users with a way to distribute networked storage resources over a wider area while still allowing centralized management and resource allocation. Storage pooling management software has a drag and drop volume capability for multiple operating systems. Networked, pooled storage also promises higher availability and can improve performance.
While Interop traditionally has not been a hot spot for storage management, it is an interesting place for networked storage issues. Networked storage, including SANs and network-attached storage (NAS), is where networking and storage come together. From EMA's research in this area, it seems that the responsibility for evaluating, recommending, purchasing and managing SANs falls either to network managers or to data or storage managers within an enterprise's organization. The challenge from an organizational standpoint is that networked storage requires a high level of knowledge and skill, both in networking and in storage management. Interop represents an opportunity for the audience of network heavy hitters to learn about SANs and NAS and become senior partners in planning networked storage strategy. Watch for a new general track on Networked Storage at Interop in Atlanta in the fall, with session topics covering introductions to the technology, networked storage strategy, advanced SANs and management issues.
The FCIA demos gave Interop attendees a current look at SANs, interoperability and some of the benefits possible with today's implementations. Clearly, there are still issues to be resolved and improvements to be made, but there are working products today. For those companies that now want interoperability between the network management and storage management parts of the organization, there are technology solutions available.
EDITOR'S NOTE: While Network World focuses on enterprise networks, it also has long been a tremendous resource for anyone interested in service provider networks. Now, Network World is beefing up its coverage of application and Internet service providers by introducing The Edge. The Edge, which will debut June 5, comprises a comprehensive Web site (with articles, columns, research centers and more), a newsletter, and a supplement to the print edition of Network World. So visit the site on June 5 at www.nwfusion.com/edge/.
To subscribe to The Edge newsletter, go to www.nwwsubscribe.com/FOC32.
SANs show progress
 
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