Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) Wednesday teamed
with Network Appliance to market and sell enterprise network-attached storage (NAS)
Financial terms of the agreement were not made public but what is known is
that Santa Clara, Calif.-based HDS will fit Sunnyvale, Calif.-based NetApp’s
enterprise NAS gateway products for its Hitachi Freedom Storage
environments, which will be managed by HDS’ HiCommand Management Framework
storage management software. The deal will allow storage assets to be shared
across SAN and NAS data types based on customer preference or application
requirements.
The companies’ shared philosophy is that, with this arrangement, IT
customers will benefit from a storage pool that can be shared across storage
area network (SAN)
storage asset management and to lower costs associated with managing data.
Both firms also heartily support open standards, such as CIM, another popular
calling card for today’s storage vendors seeking to curry customer favor.
Dave Roberson, Hitachi Data Systems president and COO said in a public
release the pact is indicative of HDS’ reliance on its TrueNorth initiative to make storage
management easier and more open in a landscape where so many disparate
proprietary networks abound.
The NAS gateway will be available for Hitachi Freedom Storage high-end and
modular products in a phased approach starting in the first calendar quarter
of 2003.
The news comes a day after HDS, a unit of giant Hitachi ,
unveiled
its latest storage super system, the Freedom Storage Thunder 9500 V Series
storage cabinet system, as well as new tuning resource management software
and a string of strategic partnering programs.