United we SAN

Six leading storage vendors have announced moves intended to provide storage product customers with cross-vendor, interoperable storage networking solutions. The agreement also calls for improved cooperative support among storage product vendors.

The companies include: Brocade Communications Systems, Compaq, EMC, Hitachi Data Systems , IBM and McData.

According to the Storage Networking Industry Association, the companies have completed joint qualification of two open storage area network (SAN) solutions that enable the coexistence of data zones containing Compaq, EMC, Hitachi Data Systems and IBM storage system products on a single, shared Fibre Channel fabric.

The four storage system vendors have signed bilateral cooperative support agreements intended to simplify joint customer support in multivendor environments.

The association also announced the new Supported Solutions Forum, which will expand upon the initiatives. The six companies will serve as founding members of the forum.