IBM has exchanged storage system APIs with HDS and HP. EMC has similar agreements in place with HDS, HP, and Veritas Software Corp. (Nasdaq: VRTS) (see EMC and Hitachi Bury Hatchet, HP Makes API Triple Play, EMC, HP Catch Each Other's Codes, HP, Hitachi Trade APIs, IBM, Hitachi SAN Compatible, and EMC, Veritas Swap APIs.)
One of the reasons for the prolonged standoff is that IBM and EMC have fundamentally different strategies for how they plan to manage other vendors' storage systems. IBM is focused on using the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA)-backed Storage Management Interface specification, which is based on the Common Information Model (CIM), to tap other devices. EMC's WideSky, by contrast, is a piece of EMC-developed middleware designed to do the same thing; EMC says it can plug CIM interfaces into WideSky once the standards become widely supported (see IBM's Tivoli Tightens Its Laces, The Common Code, Standards Clique Freezes Out EMC, and EMC Outlines CIM Support Plans).
Ader speculates that IBM is most likely offering its CIM-compliant API for Shark to EMC in return for access to the API for EMC's Symmetrix (see IBM's Shark Gets Bluefin).
EMC spokesman Mike O'Malley confirms that the two companies are in discussions but wouldn't describe where they stand. "We are in talks with a number of players in the industry, including IBM," he says. "That being said, we won't discuss the status of those talks or their finality until they are completed and we're ready to announce something... if and when such talks are completed."
Bruce Hillsberg, director of storage software strategy for IBM's systems group, emphasizes that IBM's multivendor storage management strategy is based on support for open standards. But he did allow that "there may be times when [an API exchange] makes sense."
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