Following last week's announcement, Inrange Technologies reports that its IN-VSN FC/9000 Fibre Channel Director has completed qualification testing and is fully supported for FICON connectivity with Hitachi Data Systems Freedom Storage Lightning 9900 Series systems.
With this latest development, Shoden Data Systems is now able to provide customers with certified FICON solutions on both the 64-port and 128-port models of the INRANGE FC/9000 Fibre Channel Directors.
"With the ability to scale to 256-ports, the FC/9000 meets and exceeds the current ESCON capabilities. Our Lightning 9900 customers will be able to leverage this scalability to simplify their mainframe infrastructure and reduce operational costs as they migrate from ESCON to FICON," comments Corni Naude, product manager at Shoden Data Systems.
The FC/9000 was the first director to provide Fibre Channel, FICON and FICON CUP support in a 64-port platform. Inrange is currently the only company currently shipping a 128-port model, with support for the 256-port model expected in the second quarter of 2002.
"With the general availability of FICON storage devices, large enterprises should consider the significant benefits of FICON, including faster data retrieval and storage, more capacity, more efficiency and greater distances between data centres," adds Naude.
"With the ability to deliver a Fibre Channel director scalable from 24- to 256-ports, Inrange provides mainframe users with a means to migrate from ESCON to FICON, thereby maintaining management and availability, while simultaneously increasing productivity and reducing costs," he concludes.
Share
Inrange Technologies Corporation, a subsidiary of SPX Corporation, provides large-scale, mission-critical storage networking products, software and services - the IN-VSN offering - which support "end-to-end, any distance - anywhere" solutions. These solutions include a unique family of switches, HBAs, directors, storage over WAN and optical networking products that allow storage networks to extend beyond traditional geographic boundaries.
Through the combination of the IN-VSN family of products with the INRANGE Global Consulting offerings of consulting and professional services, INRANGE creates solutions for customers' complex business problems and storage networking applications. INRANGE has a 33-year history of providing mission-critical networking technologies, servicing over 2200 customers in 90 countries. See www.inrange.com
Shoden Data Systems
With offices in Johannesburg and Cape Town, Shoden Data Systems (Pty) Ltd is the sole distributor for Hitachi Data Systems in SA. In addition, Shoden Data Systems is the sole distributor of INRANGE Technologies Corporation, the world's leading manufacturer of Channel Extenders, Fibre Channel and ESCON/FICON directors. Shoden Data Systems is also a Veritas Premier Partner and provides integrated, managed, best-of-breed storage area network solutions to the marketplace.
Based on more than 200 collective years of experience in the service, support and marketing of Hitachi products, Shoden Data Systems uses its intellectual capital and industry leading products to provide customers with total solutions in the storage, enterprise servers and connectivity arenas. The following offerings are available:
1. Storage - the HDS Freedom storage range, including Lightning 9900 and 9200
2. Connectivity - the Inrange FC/9000 Fibre Channel/ FICON Director, ESCON Directors and Channel Extenders
Hitachi Data Systems
Committed to helping customers exploit the value of information technology for success in the Internet economy, Hitachi Data Systems, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd (NYSE:HIT), is a leading provider of business solutions for the world's most information-intensive corporations. For further information on Hitachi Data Systems, access www.hds.com.
Hitachi Ltd
Hitachi, Ltd, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is one of the world's leading global electronics companies, with fiscal 2000 (ended 31 March 2001) consolidated sales of 8 417 billion yen ($67.9 billion*) The company manufactures and markets a wide range of products, including computers, semiconductors, consumer products and power and industrial equipment. For more information on Hitachi, Ltd, please visit Hitachi's Web site at http://global.hitachi.com.
* At an exchange rate of 124 yen to the dollar.
Editorial contacts