But up to now, getting a comprehensive SAN view with plenty of information on the WAN and MAN links has been uncommon, unless a company paid for lots of custom work to link a framework and point products. By putting this into a readymade package, CNT thinks it saves those kinds of costs.
One analyst thinks that's a solid value proposition. "A lot of vendors really have what I'd consider device-level probing on a SAN fabric," says Jamie Gruener, senior analyst at Yankee Group. "Most of the market's focused on overall SAN management, including LUN masking and volume management... CNT appears to have more link data and network performance management."
inVSN won't support all touted features until later this year. There are two versions: inVSN Open Edition, available today for a starting price between $6,000 and $10,000, runs under Windows and manages Fibre Channel SANs running over IP or ATM/Sonet extensions. It supports SANs based on Fibre Channel switches from CNT or its partners, including Brocade Communications Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: BRCD) and McData Corp. (Nasdaq: MCDTA).
Unix and mainframe Fibre Channel connections won't come until the second quarter of this year, when CNT releases the inVSN Enterprise Edition, priced between $25,000 and $30,000 to start. That package will also be the first to support mainframe Ficon and Escon links, via CNT's UltraNet Storage Director,
CNT says it will support Fibre Channel switches from Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) and QLogic Corp. (Nasdaq: QLGC) in the second quarter 2004. It now supports Qlogic HBAs and plans support of Cisco DWDM gear, as well as optical MAN gear from Nortel Networks Corp. (NYSE/Toronto: NT), in the Enterprise Edition.
Bob Friday, Chief AI Officer for Juniper Networks, explains how the advanced technology is transforming operations.
Contact center leaders from 8x8, Awaken Intelligence, and 360insight discuss the importance of agent experience.
AI may force enterprises to rewire parts of their data centers so they are fully optimized to run such workloads. The question is do you use Ethernet or InfiniBand?
