In an effort to integrate cross-platform environments using RAID storage systems, enterprise storage vendor MTI Technology Corp. announced a partnership yesterday with Linux vendor Caldera Systems Inc. The two companies are beta testing an integrated offering of MTI's Gladiator RAID storage system and Caldera's OpenLinux 1.3 platform.

The Gladiator is MTI's RAID modular storage system, designed for data centers with medium to large capacity requirements scaling up to 655 Gbytes. The new offering will be targeted at businesses with high levels of Internet transactions. "The general public thinks 'Linux is great for infrastructure, but you wouldn't want to run your company on it,' " said Kevin Liebl, VP of marketing at MTI. Liebl says the partnership is the first step in MTI's plan to show its Unix and NT customers that it's possible to run critical systems on the open platform.

Under the agreement, MTI support staff will be trained by Caldera in Linux and will assume all installation, training, and support responsibilities for customers. The offering is slated to ship in the second quarter. Pricing has not been determined.