Features - Storage Innovations:

HP AND IBM EXPAND STORAGE INTEROPERABILITY INITIATIVES

HP and IBM have announced a new interoperability milestone intended to help enable customers to more easily deploy open storage networks.

The agreement builds on the interoperability efforts by HP and IBM and serves as a tactical stepping-stone to the anticipated delivery of a standards based management platform based on CIM (Common Information Model) and Bluefin. Under the terms of the agreement, HP and IBM are cross-licensing storage application programming interfaces (APIs) and Common Line Interfaces (CLIs) to support the development and delivery of storage management products for the two companies' respective storage arrays. This will enable HP OpenView storage management software to manage IBM's TotalStorage Enterprise Storage Server, code named Shark, and IBM's storage management software to manage the HP StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array (EVA) and Enterprise Modular Array (EMA) storage systems. The implications of the resulting technology exchange include greater flexibility, improved service levels and operational efficiencies in customer's growing storage environments.

"For the past two years, HP and IBM have been driving the storage industry towards open standards and interoperability," said Mark Sorenson, vice president, Storage Software Division, HP Network Storage Solutions. "More progress is needed, which is why we are taking this step today. Multi-vendor storage environments are a reality now, and our customers need tools to centrally manage their networked storage solutions."

"The biggest concern facing customers today is the issue of interoperability and the ability to operate in today's increasingly heterogeneous environments," said Brian Truskowski, chief technology officer, IBM Storage Systems Group. "Customers want to know that the vendors are working together to provide interoperability. This agreement demonstrates to customers that we are working to solve their storage networking challenges today, even as we move forward with industry standards."

Bluefin & CIM Efforts

The exchange of interfaces is an interim step towards standards based interoperability, which is the goal of the emerging Bluefin and CIM standard. Bluefin and CIM provide a common management interface for all components in a storage area network (SAN), including disk arrays, switches, host adapters and servers. IBM and HP were active participants in drafting the Bluefin specification, which has now been adopted as the basis for future work by the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA). The future Bluefin standard will allow IT managers to connect multiple vendors' products into a SAN, and manage them all with a common set of tools. IBM and HP continue to support Bluefin in SNIA, most recently participating in a breakthrough demonstration of heterogeneous SAN management using Bluefin technology. "Organizations are looking for value through storage hardware and software that work in heterogeneous environments," said Sorenson. "Vendors that continue to try to lock-in companies with a proprietary approach will find themselves locked-out by customers." Truskowski added, "In today's environment, customers are making their technology purchases based on products that provide them the most flexibility. Vendors that make a bet on proprietary approaches over industry standards will lose."

About IBM

IBM is one of the world's leading server companies and information technology providers, with 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. IBM helps customers, business partners and developers in a wide range of industries that leverage the power of the Internet for e-business. For more information, visit www.ibm.com.

About HP

HP is a leading global provider of products, technologies, solutions and services to consumers and businesses. The company's offerings span IT infrastructure, personal computing and access devices, global services and imaging and printing. HP merged with Compaq Computer Corp on May 3, 2002. The merged company had combined revenue of approximately $81.7 billion in fiscal 2001 and operations in more than 160 countries. More information about HP is available at www.hp.com.