Vendor warfare accused of destroying SAN market

The burgeoning market for Storage Area Networks (SAN) is being in killed at birth because of a destructive vendor war over standards.

The UK Computer Measurement Group (UKCMG) - an organisation representing users' interests - and US IT giant Compaq, claim warring factions are damaging the market, and confusing users.

Geoff Petherick, CEO of UKCMG, said: "This is like the early days of Unix. There were promises it would be totally open, but it's fragmented, creating problems.

"There will always be proprietary solutions - that's a way to make money - but it doesn't help users who want to know what the hell's going on," he added.

Donal Madden, Compaq storage business manager, claimed storage giant EMC is guilty of fragmenting the SAN community through its involvement in the FibreAlliance. The alliance includes BMC, Exabyte, Gadzoox, HP, Legato and Veritas as well as EMC.

According to Madden, EMC is leading the group towards its own proprietary technology, rather than working on open standards which simplify user choice. "EMC is trying to paint itself as an industry standard, but in fact it's driving users to a de facto standard."

Nigel Ghent, EMC UK marketing director, denied that claim. He said the FibreAlliance shouldn't be characterised as a standards body. "We need to be precise. The FibreAlliance promotes open Fibre Channel management standards. EMC is a member of SNIA, and behind their work, but the FibreAlliance was born out of the sheer frustration of advancing SANs, as things stood."

Compaq's Madden hit back though, saying: "The market's going to decide what happens. De facto standards will fail. The FibreAlliance is doomed to failure."

Currently, the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) oversees broader vendor co-operation, and organisations such as ANSI and IETF set actual standards. SANs provide high-speed access to distributed storage via fibre channel (FC) technology.