NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: ANNE SKAMAROCK
on STORAGE
10/23/01 - Today's focus: News from Storage Networking World

Dear Wincenty Kaminski,

In this issue:

* A closer look at announcements from Compaq and Brocade
* Featured reader resource

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Today's focus: News from Storage Networking World

By Anne Skamarock

As Storage Networking World gets underway this week in Orlando,
Florida, my e-mail has been overflowing with press
announcements from the conference. Among some of the more
interesting news is Compaq's introduction of two network
storage products and Brocade's launch of a 16-port switch.

Not one to sit still for long in the storage market, Compaq has
unveiled Universal Storage and the Enterprise Virtual Array
(EVA), the first product to incorporate the vendor's VersaStore
technology. EVA allows users to aggregate storage into
multiple, virtual pools that can be expanded in real-time.

EVA allows customers to define the data protection requirements
for each of the virtual pools on a pool-by-pool basis.
Traditionally, once the data protection, or Redundant Array of
Inexpensive Disks (RAID) level is set for a disk subsystem,
that protection must be used throughout. The V-RAID (Virtual
RAID) capability in the EVA allows the protection level to be
specified for each pool.

Included in the EVA is the ability to produce snapshot copies
of your data. EVA supports the traditional "Snap" capability
whereby storage space is pre-allocated to create the copy. The
technology also supports V-Snap, which uses space as updates
are made to the data. Finally, EVA supports what Compaq calls
"Snapclones." Snapclones are similar to traditional snapshots
however, instead of having to wait for all the data to be
copied, applications can access the Snapclone immediately after
the Snapclone call. This makes performing backups of changing
data significantly easier and faster.

Compaq's other announcement, Universal Storage, is not a new
concept as EMC is offering the functionality too. Very simply,
Universal Storage allows customers to manage all their storage
in a storage-area network (SAN), whether the data is being
accessed directly by an application via block-level transfers
through a server, or by a network-attached storage appliance
connected to both the local network and the SAN. As with the
EVA, Universal Storage gives customers flexibility in managing
their current storage resources as well as scalability when
more storage resources are required.

Finally on the storage-networking front, Brocade announced a
16-port switch, the Silkworm 3800. The 3800 brings together
Brocade's third generation ASIC technology that supports 2G
bit/sec speeds, as well as new Advanced Fabric Services. The
fabric services include hardware enforced zoning for greater
security; inter-switch trunking for greater performance and
reliability; plus improved performance and health monitoring.
The latest version of Brocade's API is available for storage
management software vendors.

There are many, many more announcements that came across my
desk this week and I could write about them for days. However,
I found these especially interesting.

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To contact Anne Skamarock:

Anne Skamarock is an analyst with Enterprise Management
Associates (http://www.enterprisemanagement.com).  She has
worked with networked storage for the last 15 years and is
currently focused on the storage practice within EMA. She
can be reached at mailto:askamarock@enterprisemanagement.com
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RELATED EDITORIAL LINKS

Compaq
http://www.compaq.com

Brocade
http://www.brocade.com

Storage Networking World
http://www.storagenetworkingworld.com/orlando_2001/
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FEATURED READER RESOURCE

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Copyright Network World, Inc., 2001

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