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IP SANs Are Sizzling
There's a rash of product and partnership news at SNW
October 28, 2004
4 Min Read
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Question: Whats the one thing just about everybody’s doing at Storage Network World that usually involves a partner?
Answer: iSCSI.
Although nobody’s sure how big a dent iSCSI is making in Fibre Channel market share, IP SANs are certainly gaining mindshare (and floorspace) at SNW.
IP SAN and other iSCSI devices have been a hot topic here this week, with startups and partnerships frequently involved. LeftHand Networks Inc., one of the early IP startups, has been particularly busy on the partnership front.
LeftHand announced it has deployed more than 750 systems in the last 18 months, and recently signed deals with MPC Computers, Silicon Mechanics, and Verari Systems Inc. to run its SAN/iQ software on their storage systems (see LeftHand Reports Progress).
“Many of these companies are able to participate in network storage now, where two years ago it was impossible,” says Tom Major, LeftHand’s marketing VP. “The building blocks are there now, like Gigabit Ethernet and intelligent architectures.”
MPC Computers runs LeftHand’s software on its new DataFrame 420 system, which replaces its FC-based DataFrame 310fc system. The new system supports 16 250-gigabyte SATA drives per 3U enclosure, with a 4-terabyte configuration priced at $20,000.
Silicon Mechanics announced the SANform M100 based on LeftHand software at the show, and Verari launched its PUREcluster ipSAN October 12 (see Verari Ships IP SAN). Both systems use LeftHand software.
Other iSCSI announcements at SNW:
Network Appliance Inc. (Nasdaq: NTAP) validated Symantec Corp.’s (Nasdaq: SYMC) LiveState Recovery Advanced Server 3.0 software on its IP SAN systems. Symantec’s software can be used to recover data on NetApp iSCSI volumes.
Intransa Inc.launched its midrange IP5500 IP SAN, a higher-end version of its entry-level IP3500 system. Pricing for the new system starts at $60,000 for a 2-terabyte configuration and $66,000 for 4 terabytes. Intransa demonstrated interoperability for its controllers with arrays from RASilient System, a startup coming out of stealth with iSCSI arrays it hopes to sell to OEMs (see Rasilient Readies iSCSI SAN for OEMs and Rasilient Rustles Up Cash).
LSI Logic Corp. (NYSE: LSI) demonstrated an IP SAN based on its iMegaRAID SATA 16 iSCSI RAID controller, running with Yosemite Technologies Inc. disk backup software.
and Studio Network Solutions launched globalSAN, an IP SAN based on Wasabi’s Storage Builder 1500i software and Studio Network’s iSCSI targets.
Broadcom Corp. (Nasdaq: BRCM) demonstrated an iSCSI HBA that allows organizations to boot over iSCSI from a remote array (see Engenio's Sun Rises).
AppIQ Inc., Silverback Systems Inc.,and OptiFacio Software Services Inc. demonstrated an IP SAN running OptiFacio’s SAN operating system, AppIQ’s software management suite, and Silverback’s iSNAP offload card.
SpectraLink Corp.announced its tape libraries will be available with TCP/IP offload engines (TOE) provided by QLogic Corp. (Nasdaq: QLGC) to facilitate iSCSI performance. The use of TOE cards will allow companies to attach Spectra Logic libraries without a bridge.
Chelsio Communications Inc. made its 10-Gigabit Ethernet iSCSI HBA available for OEMs (see Chelsio Delivers 10-GigE iSCSI Adapters).
iQstor Networks Inc. released the iQ1210 iSCSI SATA system with dual active controllers. The company positions its systems for use in long-distance asynchronous remote replication. Pricing begins at $9,995 for 640 gigabytes of storage, embedded asynchronous remote replication software, and SAN management software.
StoneFly Networks Inc. added synchronous mirroring to its StoneFly Backup Advantage IP SAN-based disk backup product.
Except for NetApp, one of the first entrenched Fibre Channel vendors to embrace iSSCI, the leading SAN vendors are missing from the above list. But they’re interested. IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) recently announced an entry-level iSCSI system and EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC)is expected to do the same by the end of the year (see IBM Slips iSCSI Into SAN).
How will that affect the startups trying to gain a foothold?
Major says that while larger players like IBM and EMC make their plans, the iSCSI pioneers already have several generations of products. “The big guys make a lot of noise, but as those guys jump into the market, they’ll find a lot of guys already running on distributed architectures,” he says.
— Dave Raffo, Senior Editor, Byte and Switch
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