Still, it may be unrealistic to expect too much of SAN management integration. The vendors, including those mentioned in this article, are taking their time getting the pieces in place. And as for standards, those have their limitations.
A lesson emerges from the history of corporate computing in the 1990s, when the use of networking made users clamor for better management tools based on IP. It was slow going. Standards were called for, and forums convened. Vendors paid lip service to standardized interfaces but delivered a plethora of virtually proprietary products, many of which were much more limited than vendors let on in their brochures. After numerous shakeouts, the market evolved to accommodate a small group of integrated "frameworks" capable of running partner products and many "point products."
What's more, by the time these solutions played out, the problems of corporate net management had shifted, and new challenges emerged. The goal had not been reached, but the game had changed.
None of this means integrated SAN management isn't a worthy objective. If users keep the pressure up, vendors will be forced to continue to pursue integration, and that improves the outlook overall. But a world in which one platform runs all SAN management, or more than a few key parts of it, is probably not in the cards. Better to expect to simplify, not solve, the problem.
Mary Jander, Site Editor, Byte and Switch
To realize the benefits of cloud-native software, an application must actually be cloud-native—designed to run in the cloud, interacting with disaggregated cloud services, fully manageable as code—to deliver the expected benefits.
By combining resources and expertise, the AI-Enabled ICT Workforce Consortium will offer a blueprint for how industries can adapt to an AI-dominated future.
IT leaders should heed the guidance of cybersecurity insurance providers who think businesses should prioritize security education, incident preparedness, regular internal audits, and ongoing vulnerability scanning and patching.
