As the need for storage grows, so does the cost and complexity associated with network-based options. Sun Microsystems this week is unveiling a product that may help with both challenges.

For the first time, businesses will be able to operate regional storage area networks using industry standards and APIs that extend up to 300 kilometers, well beyond today's reach of only 10 kilometers. Sun is achieving the geographical span by combining Nortel Networks Corp.'s Optera dense wave division multiplexers, along with switches from Q Logic Corp. and Brocade Communications Systems Inc. and directors from McData Corp. Servers, storage systems, host-bus adapter cards, and the switches will link to one another via optical fiber.

The long-distance span could help companies' business-continuity efforts by letting them mirror data in disparate cities over a single SAN. IT staffing costs should drop because management is centralized.

Sun will offer up to 4,096 ports for server or storage-system connectivity; the norm is between eight and 48. The computer maker also is shipping software that will let administrators diagnose components from multiple vendors. Sun's SAN can carry data running on AIX, HP-UX, Linux, and Windows computers, in addition to its own.

	San Diego Supercomputer Center would have saved up to a year of work if Sun had debuted its new SAN sooner, says Banister.

Atlanta utility conglomerate Southern Cos. is assessing its storage architecture, IT manager Jocelyn Stargel says. She likes the distance, simplicity, interoperability, and diagnostic tools of Sun's system. "If Sun called, it would definitely get a call back," she says.

The price may keep Stargel on the line. A 5-terabyte regional SAN with diagnostic and replicating software will be priced at about $170,000, Sun says. Creating a customized long-distance SAN, which requires significant systems integration, would cost a few million dollars, analysts say.

Bryan Banister, manager of SAN and server infrastructure at the San Diego Supercomputer Center, says he wishes Sun's product came sooner. He oversees a 30-terabyte SAN running on Sun's low-end T3 system. "Sun is bundling a lot of the utilities we've been using for a long time," he says. He estimates the center would have saved six to 12 months work if Sun's offering had been available sooner.

Yankee Group analyst Jamie Gruener wonders whether latency problems will plague long-distance SANs, even with Nortel's optical equipment that moves data at about 200 Mbytes per second. "If it works," he says, "Sun is aggressively ahead of the pack." But for how long? Market leader EMC Corp. has already struck a deal with Nortel, but hasn't come out with a similar product yet.