The SNIA Demonstrates the Future At Storage Networking World; First Internet WBEM Implementation, Plus 15-Vendor Interoperability Plugfest Debut At Storage Networking World.

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 21, 1999--

Two Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) technical working groups gave conference attendees at the Storage Networking World Conference and Expo, here, a view of the future. Attendees could see and "feel" the tremendous progress the storage networking industry is making toward delivering trusted, distributed heterogeneous storage networking solutions.

Conference attendees viewed the first implementation of Internet Web-Based Enterprise Management (WEBM), which managed heterogeneous storage systems

spanning two continents at the conference demonstration center. In the same room, 15 vendors participated in the kickoff of the SNIA Interoperability Lab effort, demonstrating interoperability based on a common Fibre Channel fabric.

"The storage networking industry has taken its lessons from LANs and other technologies where acceptance was a long time in coming because of interoperability issues," said Larry Krantz, SNIA chair. "The SNIA took to heart calls for rapid progress in developing trusted, shared, heterogeneous storage networking solutions, and our working groups have provided some outstanding results. With our continued outreach to other bodies working toward the same goal vendor and user alike, we expect to continue in our goal of setting the pace for the industry."

Common Information Model

The Disk Resource Management Working Group was able to move from concept to the first public demonstration in less than half a year. Led by co-chairs Mike Dutch, director of Hitachi Data Systems enterprise architecture and technology, and John Tyrell, senior storage software architect for IBM in San Jose, the DRMWG spent the last three months working through what Dutch called the "first level" of the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) WBEM model. Today, eight storage systems, ranging from low- to high-end, which were located in California, Colorado, Massachusetts, and France, were managed over the Internet from a hotel room in Seattle using the same CIM.

"The implications for the industry are tremendous," said Dutch. "In working through the challenges of getting the 'plumbing to work,' we have learned valuable lessons on what will be necessary to get WBEM enterprise-ready."

"Until today, the CIM implementations available were applied only in homogeneous environments. Now we have a heterogeneous physical disk resource management system prototype up and running that can be used as a tool for all SNIA working groups," said Tyrell.

Vendors CLARiiON, Compaq Computer Corp., EMC2, Hitachi Data Systems, IBM, Microsoft Corp., Storage Technology Corp., and Sun Microsystems Inc. demonstrated outstanding cooperation and effort in achieving this milestone in record time.

Interoperability Lab

For the kick off of the Interoperability Lab effort, 15 vendors participated in a storage networking "plugfest" where the objective was to see what could go wrong. According to Gary Phillips, chair of the Interoperability Lab program, "If we don't have some problems, then we haven't set the bar high enough. The only way we can learn more about interoperability issues is through learning from our mistakes."

With only 30 days from inception to demonstration, the interoperability group has created a working heterogeneous SAN that allocates array sets from a Compaq RAID array to all storage systems in the demonstration. Brocade provided Fibre Channel fabric integration. ADIC, ATL, Crossroads, Mercury Computer Systems, Spectralogic, Storage Technology, and Veritas also participated in the demonstration, which included a Jiro demo supported by Ancor, Exabyte, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Legato, Sun, Storage Tech, and Veritas.

Based on the enthusiastic reception that met the demonstration, Phillips predicts an increased popularity in interoperability demonstrations at future Storage Networking World conferences, as well as the development of a virtual lab.

"On the horizon, we expect high interest in co-hosting our interoperability environments as we develop conformance test suites. Already there is high interest in the CIM area," said Phillips.

ABOUT SNIA

The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) is a not-for-profit organization, made up of more than 110 companies and individuals spanning virtually the entire storage industry. SNIA members share a common goal, to set the pace of the industry by ensuring that storage networks become efficient, complete, and the trusted solutions across the IT community. To this end the SNIA is uniquely committed to delivering standards, education, and services that will propel open storage networking solutions into the broader market. For information, contact the SNIA at 650/949-6720 or via e-mail at [e-mail], or visit the SNIA web site at http://www.snia.org.