The latest storage push builds on the price benefits of Ethernet
Yet another industry alliance has been formed to promote storage
area networks (Sans), writes Antony Savvas
The Open Storage Networking Initiative has the backing of
several companies, including network-attached storage specialist
Network Appliance and Cisco.
The alliance takes advantage of the differences in prices
between Ethernet networks cand fibre-based ones.
Network-attached storage, which is a cheaper version of San,
places stored data on the local area network (Lan).
By contrast, San puts the stored data on a separate parallel
network.
While this approach is more expensive, it is much faster to use
when larger amounts of data are being moved from different
points.
The Open Storage Networking Initiative also has the support of
Amdahl, Foundry Networks, Legato Systems, Veritas, and
Quantum/ATL.
The move towards Ethernet as a storage solution has been made
because the companies believe it will give impetus to increased
Ethernet speeds.
While the organisations are immediately moving towards providing
storage systems that can take advantage of gigabit Ethernet speeds,
their ultimate aim is to move towards faster networking
systems.
Users will eventually be able to take advantage of 10Gbyte
solutions, following the launch of the 10Gbyte Alliance backed by
Cisco and 3Com.
Datacentre-class PC servers strategy
OSNI Ethernet-based solution
The industry-standard San model is built using fibre channel
products. Its backers include Compaq, IBM, Dell, and
Hewlett-Packard, but there are interoperability problems when
mixing storage products from different suppliers.
Both Compaq and IBM recently announced moves to make their
storage products work with those from other suppliers. And, at its
users' conference in Barcelona last week, StorageTek announced a
similar sort of strategy. But, by offering a one-stop shop for its
Ethernet solution proferring products built around established
technology, OSNI hopes more users will take the storage networking
plunge.
While admitting that initial offerings could be slower than
those built around fibre channels, OSNI says the cost per port for
Ethernet-based systems compared to fibre-based systems is an
obvious advantage in the market.
At the OSNI launch at Networld+Interop earlier this month, the
partners said the price differential was 2:1 in Ethernet's favour,
with an Ethernet system solution costing about $300 (£187) and a
fibre-based system costing at least $600.
OSNI is the fifth storage area networking initiative to appear
since the technology solution for busy corporate networks first
appeared two years ago. It is up against the Fibre Channel Industry
Association, the Storage Network Industry Association, the Celestra
Consortium which is also backed by Legato, and the Jiro initiative
from Sun Microsystems.