Features - Enterprise Data Insights:

InterSAN JOINS LEADERS TO ACCELERATE INTEROPERABILITY

InterSAN Inc, a leading provider of applications-based storage area management (SAM) software, announced recently that it has joined with 19 leading storage vendors, also SNIA members, to accelerate interoperability in multivendor storage area networks (SANs). As part of the SNIA Interoperability and Solutions Demo at Storage Networking World, InterSAN demonstrated its flagship product, PATHLINE, providing support for the Bluefin specification.

Leveraging the Common Information Model (CIM) and Web Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) standards, the new Bluefin specification provides customers with complete, open, interoperable storage networking solutions. Future management frameworks based on Bluefin will be capable of automatically discovering, managing, and provisioning multivendor SAN resources through common interfaces. The 19 SNIA members who participated in the Interoperability and Solutions Demo at SNW demonstrated a multivendor SAN managed through a single management backbone built on CIM and WBEM technology (CIM-SAN-1). The goal of InterSAN and the other vendors who participated in the demo was to leverage CIM and WBEM technology to develop a standard management interface that allows individual solutions to be easily adopted and integrated into existing storage networks.

"The seamless interoperability of multiple vendor products is essential in providing storage networks that are easy to manage," said Sheila Childs, chair of the SNIA board of directors. "It is through the relentless hard work and unfaltering support of our participating member companies in the CIM-SAN demonstration that the SNIA Storage Management Initiative has now moved ever closer to its goal of ensuring that all storage networks are managed using an enhanced version of CIM/WBEM."

During the CIM-SAN-1 demonstration, InterSAN showcased a CIM client version of its award-winning SAM software, PATHLINE. The PATHLINE CIM clients integrate with a variety of CIM providers to automate discovery, topology visualization, health monitoring, and service level tracking of multivendor storage networks from a single management console. General availability of a PATHLINE CIM client is expected during the first half of 2003.

"We are delighted to be in the company of storage leaders all dedicated to accelerating the interoperability required to support multivendor SANs," said Karen Dutch, vice president of marketing, InterSAN. "The industry's deepened commitment to interoperability -- which is at the heart of InterSAN's solution -- will accelerate our delivery of enhanced storage area management automation to reduce the cost and complexity of managing large, multi-vendor SANs."

Extending the Partnership for Joint Success

InterSAN's commitment to key industry standards and multivendor interoperability benefits the company's customers and partners by enabling them to more cost-effectively manage the lifecycle of large heterogeneous SANs. InterSAN is partnering with industry storage leaders to accelerate the adoption of the CIM/WBEM standard that allows comprehensive solutions to be easily implemented and incorporated into existing storage networks.

Brocade: "As a standards leader and contributor to CIM and Bluefin, we are pleased to form the intelligent SAN foundation for this interoperable and open environment for storage area management based on CIM/WBEM. Working with partners like InterSAN, we are demonstrating our continued commitment to the SNIA and advancing SAN standards," said Jeffrey Brooks, Brocade chief marketing officer.

Hitachi Data Systems: "Hitachi Data Systems and InterSAN are working closely with SNIA to identify significant milestones toward open, heterogeneous storage management that accelerates the adoption and implementation of CIM technology by the storage industry," Scott Genereux, vice president, Global Marketing and Business Development, Hitachi Data Systems.

INRANGE: "Working through SNIA, INRANGE and InterSAN continue their partnership to promote interoperability and to move required end-user capabilities into standards that provide an open storage management layer with rich extensions to specific functions that INRANGE and InterSAN provide," said Dale A. Lafferty, vice president, marketing and alliances, INRANGE.

LSI Logic Storage: "LSI Logic joins InterSAN in its commitment to the SNIA Bluefin initiative to find more efficient ways to manage expanding storage capacity in a time of tightening IT budgets," said Joel McGill, alliance manager, LSI Logic Storage Systems Inc. "By leveraging a standard interface, integration with powerful management products such as InterSAN's PATHLINE becomes much simpler."

QLogic: "The Bluefin initiative allows QLogic and InterSAN to simplify and optimize open storage networks for their mutual customers and reduce their total cost of ownership," said Frank Berry, vice president of marketing, QLogic Corp.

About InterSAN PATHLINE Software

InterSAN PATHLINE is the first application-based SAM software that automates the management of shared storage services across the entire life cycle from planning, implementing, and provisioning to monitoring. Using patented Virtual Private DataPath (VPD) technology to provide end-to-end path management, PATHLINE software manages the relationship between applications and their data storage, masking the complexities of disparate SAN devices and technology. With PATHLINE software, customers can proactively track application service-level agreements (SLAs), fully automate and optimize storage provisioning, and control complex, geographically distributed multivendor SANs from a single console. Unique business-relevant views allow customers to monitor and control storage networks from the perspective of the application, line of business or location, or by storage domain. PATHLINE software delivers truly heterogeneous interoperability by supporting the storage industry's most strategic products from virtually all leading vendors.

About InterSAN

InterSAN Inc is a leading provider of applications-based storage area management (SAM) software that enables enterprises to reduce the complexity and costs of managing large heterogeneous storage networks. InterSAN PATHLINE is the industry's first solution to deliver automated, policy-driven shared storage services life cycle management based on business metrics applications. Using the patented Virtual Private DataPath technology, the InterSAN PATHLINE software solution improves application availability, data security, and service-level management. By centralizing and automating the management of complex storage networking infrastructure, PATHLINE improves operational efficiency and business scalability for large enterprises. PATHLINE has been honored as Network Magazine's storage management 2002 Product of the Year, and InterSAN is listed on Byte and Switch's list of Top 10 Privately Held Companies. For more information about InterSAN, call 831-430-0692 or visit the Web site at www.intersan.net.