Addressing concerns about cost and redundant equipment, McDATA and Network Appliance
have partnered to help customers run mixed storage systems. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The companies, based in Broomfield, Colo., and Sunnyvale, Calif., respectively, now offer interoperable products that tie together network-attached storage
The aim is to provide central, secure and easy-to-manage systems. In addition to enabling current gear to work together, compatible storage equipment makes adding components simplier.
“The interoperability work between McData and Network Appliance will allow companies to utilize existing infrastructure and equipment which will lower overall IT costs,” said Randy Kerns, analyst and senior partner, Evaluator Group.
Early results of the McDATA/NetApp partnership support interoperability between McDATA’s family of multi-capable storage networking products, and NetApp FAS900 series and F800 series storage systems, along with NetApp NearStore nearline products.
In addition, joint offerings provide the ability to back up data on NetApp storage systems through a McDATA storage area network to tape libraries or NearStore for disk-to-disk.
The partnership comes as both companies move to expand their product set and markets following two slow years in corporate storage spending.
Earlier this year, McData struck a deal with Lucent to provide joint offerings for data centers. Meanwhile, Network Appliance, a specialist in medium to large enterprise gear, recently paid $9 million for patents from bankrupt Auspex Systems.