Storage software management vendor Veritas has announced a slew of
partnerships with hardware and software makers at its Veritas
Vision user conference in Dallas, USA.
As companies like Sun Microsystems and Microsoft encroach on
Veritas' core business, the company is focusing on its strengths in
supporting multiple hardware and operating system platforms, while
rivals like Sun tend to focus on their own platforms.
"We are sort of like Switzerland," said Mark Bregman, executive
vice-president of product operations at Veritas. "While there is a
lot of rhetoric floating around from some other guys, there are
large barriers of entry for them. Users want a system that allows
them to mix and match hardware suppliers; they want software that
is independent of, and agnostic about, the hardware."
Vendors like Sun, IBM, EMC and Microsoft have indicated plans to
bundle additional storage management features into their core
software systems over the next few years. This puts additional
pressure on Veritas to stay ahead of the pack by offering a richer
product justifying its higher price, according to analysts. The
company must also manage a delicate balance with its partners, some
of whom are also competitors, as it continues to open its software
to as many platforms as possible.
A further step in this direction will come this week when Veritas
is set to announce that its suite of storage management software
will now run on IBM's AIX operating system, joining Sun's Solaris,
Hewlett-Packard's HP-UX and Microsoft's Windows. The full suite of
software should also be ready for Linux this year, Bregman
said.
Along with this announcement, Veritas said its Database Edition/HA,
Cluster Server, Global Cluster Manager and Volume Replicator
software products are now certified to work on PeopleSoft.'s
PeopleSoft 8 applications. Veritas has also launched new partner
programs designed to help ensure that its software works with
hardware from other storage vendors as well as networking companies
such as Cisco Systems.
Partnerships like these should help Veritas retain its position as
a vendor-neutral software supplier and build out its portfolio into
new areas, Bregman said.
"Our customers need to have a supplier whose software will support
storage arrays and things like switches from many vendors," he
said. "As the technology changes from direct attached storage to
storage area networks and iSCSI (Internet Small Computer System
Interface), they will need the flexibility we can provide."
This strategy could help Veritas maintain its position as a leading
storage software company even as it faces heavy competition, said
one analyst.
"There's definitely a move by guys like Sun and Microsoft to add
storage management functions into things that look like operating
systems," said John Webster, senior analyst and founder of the Data
Mobility. "Still, there is only so far an OS vendor wants to go
with trying to take storage business away from its partners with
tweaks to the operating system. I think there is always room to add
value in the software market, no matter what the OS guys do."
Sun executives have said the new Solaris 9 operating system, which
is due out by mid-year, will add new file system and management
technologies that will make the storage capabilities in Solaris
stack up well against Veritas. Microsoft has also indicated plans
to add new file system and management tools in future releases of
Windows. The developments could potentially allow both Microsoft
and Sun to undercut Veritas on pricing for some applications,
Webster said.