Simple Strategy

6:00 PM -- Get ready for a parade of rollouts for those paradoxically titled "Simple SANs" that Microsoft and its storage partners have been promising for months.

IP SAN vendor EqualLogic got the ball rolling today, breathlessly declaring itself the first iSCSI vendor with a Simple SAN. (See EqualLogic Bumps Up Support.) At least one Fibre Channel vendor will follow next week.

The term Simple SAN isnt brand new -- Microsoft began listing vendors certified for the program last October. (See Microsoft Sets Sights on SANs.) Now those products are becoming available.

But what exactly is a Simple SAN? Isn’t that a contradiction in terms?

Simple SAN vendors say their wares have been tailored to take advantage of Windows Server 2003 R2 and can be set up in less than an hour. In EqualLogic’s case, for instance, the vendor upgraded firmware for its PS Series array and added a Windows integration kit consisting of a CD the vendor says can provision a Windows server in less than five minutes.Fibre Channel SAN vendors that qualify as Simple SANs will include similar components in their kits, along with low-cost switches and HBAs.

Sounds good, doesn't it? In reality though, a Simple SAN isn’t about a few cheap elements or the promise of quick implementation and easy management. It’s the SAN vendors’ way of telling their customers they love Microsoft. Which is what a lot of customers want to hear these days.

“Microsoft is a significant server OS vendor for us, and whenever they introduce new functionality, we want to know that other vendors will support it in a timely fashion,” says Jay Walusek, VP of server administration at Chicago-based financial services firm and EqualLogic customer Mesirow Financial. Walusek adds that EqualLogic’s willingness to work with Microsoft “gives us even greater confidence in our choice.” He means his choice of EqualLogic, of course.

In other words, sucking up to Microsoft is every bit as important as having the goods to make SANs available in lower-cost iterations. It shows SAN vendors aren’t so simple-minded as to think they can go it alone in a world dominated by Redmond.

— Dave Raffo, Senior Editor, Byte and SwitchOrganizations mentioned in this article: