SNIA embraces NAS

The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) is bringing network-attached storage networking into its mainstream activities by expanding its IP storage forum (ISF) into the Ethernet storage forum (ESF), says The Register.

SNIA forums are marketing bodies set up to provide marketing and educational materials explaining the features, benefits and best practices of the technologies they look after.

The ISF was, and remains, iSCSI-focused. That focus is expressed as a Significant Interest Group in the ESF. Its aim is to drive the market growth and broad adoption of iSCSI. Member companies include Compellent, Dell, HP, Intel, Microsoft, NEC, NetApp and Sun.

Avaya claims its new Sip-based architecture will shake up the business communications marketplace by offering resellers and end-users a multi-vendor management and integration platform, reports Channel Web.

Avaya Aura is designed to eliminate interoperability issues by allowing firms to manage all applications and tools on their network from a central point.

Unveiled globally next month, the unified architecture aims to allow businesses to incorporate social networking platforms into their network, and supports technology from numerous vendors.

A growing number of hospitals, healthcare providers and medical device manufacturers are turning to 3Com for advanced networking and security solutions to enhance communications, protect confidential patient information, and help them comply with privacy regulations, states Earth Times.

More than a million 3Com switches and routers have been deployed by a wide range of healthcare institutions that demand high-reliability, high-performance enterprise networking with a lower total cost of ownership that is essential in today's global economy.

Among the latest organisations to choose 3Com solutions are South Bend Medical Foundation in Indiana, Sarasota Memorial Hospital in Florida, and Instrumentation Laboratory in Massachusetts.