First off, it's important to realize that much of what SNIA is proposing
already happens informally. Storage networks are often expensive and
complicated, embracing, as they do, a diverse range of hardware and software. That's forced vendors to work closely together to make sure that joint projects
will perform as promised. As a result, most vendors already have ready-made solutions for common user
requirements, based on agreements with other vendors. Most vendors have
also announced "open SAN" initiatives aimed at encouraging such
partnerships.
The SNIA scheme aims to take this concept to another level, holding out to users the
promise of a wider range of ready-made options from a wider
range of vendors. At least, that's the idea. Right now, however, the jury's still out on whether the SSF will go the way of other initiatives aimed
at establishing industry-wide interoperability -- many of which have gotten mired in vendor politics and lost contact with the
real world. Think
ATM Forum.
The danger of getting bogged down in vendor politics is implicitly acknowledged by Don Swatik, vice president of global alliances at
EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC), one of the six founding members of the SSF. "We kept the initial group [of members] small for time-to-market reasons," he says. The other founding members are Brocade Communications Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: BRCD), Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ), Hitachi Data Systems,
IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM), and McData Corp. (Nasdaq: MCDT).
These vendors represent a significant share of the SAN market, but the SFF
is unlikely to achieve its goals unless it gets support from two potentially huge players namely, Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) and Nortel Networks Corp. (NYSE/Toronto: NT), each of which is gearing up for an onslaught on the storage market (see Cisco Announces Storage Strategy). SNIA also has about 200 members that have yet to decide whether or not to back the SFF.
If they do join the party, the risk of vendor politicking is likely to escalate.
The SFF has been launched with pre-tested "qualified solutions" for a couple of typical customer requirements:
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