This, in general, is good news for end users. Analysts say that in the absence of standards, users have been forced to train their employees to use the different proprietary management tools for different devices in a heterogeneous environment. The creation of standards for both SAN and NAS management -- and the integration of the two -- promises to give end users the freedom to use both technologies and manage them through a single console. This, according to Webster, should greatly reduce both the cost and the complexity of the storage environment.
In joining forces, NetApp and AppIQ say that they will not only work to help push adoption of SMI-S 1.0, but that they will also help drive the efforts of the SNIA workgroup working on SMI-S 1.1.
AppIQ, one of the earliest developers of standards-based storage management software, has already signed similar partnership agreements with Brocade Communications Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: BRCD), CommVault Systems Inc., Hitachi Data Systems (HDS), Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ), LSI Logic Corp. (NYSE: LSI), McData Corp. (Nasdaq: MCDTA), and Sun Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW). Based in part on this traction, AppIQ is also, incidentally, No. 8 on our current Top Ten Private Companies list.
NetApp also says it has partnered with many other storage management vendors that provide products using its open APIs. These open APIs will coexist with CIM interfaces as CIM and SMI-S continue to make rapid progress in establishing storage management standards, says Suresh Vasudevan, NetApps senior director of product management.
Meanwhile, EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC) is displaying its typical ambivalence on these kinds of issues. The company is committed to the development of standards both for SAN and NAS, says spokesman Mike O'Malley, but he points out that the company's existing StorageScope product can already manage both technologies. "Standards are awesome," he says [like totally!]. "But standards take time."
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