IBM has begun early customer testing of its Storage Tank file
system, which promises to ease storage management. Analysts claimed
the company could deliver the technology by the end of the
year.
Customers have started testing their applications, which run on
various server operating systems, with the Storage Tank file
system, said Linda Sanford, senior vice president and group
executive for IBM's storage systems group.
"The code is running," Sanford said. "We have shown Storage Tank
handling databases, file serving and file sharing with various
applications. We will introduce it when it's ready to perform
flawlessly and our customers tell us they have what they
need."
IBM has grand visions for Storage Tank, hoping the file system will
simplify the management of data sitting on servers and storage
systems made by a wide array of vendors.
The Storage Tank file system should give administrators a way to
pool servers and storage hardware and manage the data used by these
systems from one central location.
The technology would help remove barriers caused by different
vendors' hardware and allow data to travel across various file
systems without losing management policies set by the
administrator.
"It allows hardware from Sun [Microsystems], IBM, Hewlett-Packard
and others that is in a common SAN to have the same view," said
Steve Duplessie, an analyst at Enterprise Storage Group.
"Other companies that have been trying to develop that type of
technology have been too small, but IBM could pull it off. The
question is whether other tier-one vendors will want to partner
with them," he added.
IBM would like to see other hardware makers share in the
development of Storage Tank-based technology in order to solve the
painful task of storage management. IBM's Sanford claimed rivals
have shown a "very positive reaction" to Storage Tank, although
major competitor EMC is one vendor that does not share her
perspective on the technology.
"I don't think that trying to do something standard another layer
up will solve all these problems," said Jim Rothnie, senior
vice-president and chief technology officer at EMC. "I think it's
just another file system, and it's far-fetched to me that it would
be widely adopted."
The cloudy picture of Storage Tank's place among hardware vendors
may clear up by year's end when the technology rolls out, analysts
said.
Sanford claims IBM has a significant lead over competitors with
this type of management technology. Bringing products to market by
the end of this year would put the company in a good position to
compete against similar efforts by the likes of Sun and Veritas.