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February 21, 2000

Flexible SANs: The Storage Solution Of The Future
But a lack of interoperability has some companies hesitant to implement them

By Sam Dickey

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torage area networks--with the promise of server-independent, scalable, centralized storage--could solve a lot of problems for many companies, yet customers remain cautious. There are bold exceptions; indeed, 96% of respondents to an InformationWeek Research survey of 600 IT and business managers say their companies plan to deploy a network storage product in 2000, either throughout their companies, within specific departments, or as pilot projects.

But as they move forward, many IT and business managers are hesitant, wanting assurances that a complete solution is available, or they're choosing a slower-paced, phased-in approach to implementation. "In the future, we will go so far as to insist that we see interoperability," says Greg Cherry, technical systems leader at Acxiom Corp., a Little Rock, Ark., provider of information-management products that use consumer and business data.

Storage vendors and the makers of the host bus adapters, switches, and hubs necessary for networking have made progress in the past year in product interoperability--a key element of the SAN concept, in which servers running different operating systems connect to distinct brands of switches linked to a variety of storage subsystems. Most of the leaders--Compaq, EMC, Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi Data Systems, IBM, and Storage Technology--have set up interoperability labs to test the configurations they support.

True interoperability, however, isn't complete. "What I would consider interoperability is not a reality yet," says Sean Derrington, program director at Meta Group, an IT consulting firm.

Today, many vendors' SAN systems interface with servers running a variety of operating systems. The delay is on the storage side, in support for multiple types of storage devices. The storage-system vendors haven't disclosed specific dates when they will offer solutions that work with storage systems other than their own.

There has been progress, and--though no one can say when--standards for easy interoperability should emerge as a result of work being done by consortia such as the Storage Networking Industry Association and as vendors recognize a common benefit in compatibility among their product offerings. Meanwhile, interoperability is at the heart of a vigorous industry debate over open vs. closed systems, which only further complicates matters for customers.

The question of open vs. closed systems is a concern to some customers considering SAN implementation. To them, there is a principle involved: Although having a single vendor responsible for a complete solution will be attractive to early adopters, those customers eventually will want to integrate with other technology and standards. Also, a single vendor is unlikely to have all the best products all the time, and for companies to acquire products cost effectively, they need alternatives.

Photo by Giorgio Palmisano While sympathetic to the idea of open systems, some customers can't afford to wait for standards. "My heart goes out to the concept of open systems," says EMC customer Charlie Walden, executive VP of technology at E-mail services provider Mail.com Inc. in New York. "But if I'm dealing with a critical issue, the last thing in the world I want is to pull together multiple vendors and have them talk about something happening over a SAN. The fewer the vendors, the easier our job is."

The open-vs.-proprietary debate involves other vendors criticizing market-leader EMC for including only EMC storage in its SAN solutions, thus keeping its systems closed, while other vendors are working on what they promise will be open systems. In fact, even though EMC is moving ahead with its own products, the company is also working toward standards with Fibre Alliance, another industry group. "Ask the other vendors to show you an installation where they support EMC and their own storage with the same management software," says Roger Cox, chief analyst at Gartner Group. "That's not being done today."

Industry standards are evolutionary and are being defined as work progresses. "It's always the case that if you develop a proprietary solution, you have the ability to move more quickly," says Kevin Reardon, director of strategy, technology group, at IBM, a major storage-system provider. "You don't have to negotiate with other vendors as to what is the best solution. And there are people who would argue that you come up with a better solution. But we have found that for customers, the better answer is open. It gives them more options over the longer term."

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