But fear of single-vendor dominance also drives a spirit of "co-opetition,"
if only temporarily. In fact, the formation of the Storage Networking Industry
Association (www.snia.org) in the late '90s was the industry's response to the
growing hegemony of EMC Corp. But when such co-opetition ceases to provide
significant perceived value, API swaps and vendor alliances typically end, and
the customer is left holding the bag ... again.
Some vendors claim to be active participants in standards organizations such
as ANSI and IETF. Truth be told, they participate just to ensure that the
standards allow enough wiggle room for them to keep developing proprietary
products that don't interoperate.
There's Power in Numbers
Storage consumers must join forces to determine exactly what we need and
voice those needs in a way the vendors can't ignore. The Data Management
Institute (www.datainstitute.org)--a joint effort of CMP Media (this publication's parent
company), Boston University and Toigo Partners International (my company)--is
one such initiative. Local grassroots groups are also springing up. Ideally,
such efforts will crescendo into a full-on consumer revolt, forcing the vendors
to deliver the kind of storage infrastructure we need to provide the business
value we've promised our employers and our users.
Jon William Toigo is CEO of storage consultancy Toigo Partners International
and founder and chairman of the Data Management Institute. Write to him at
[email protected].
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