Storage networking vendors Hitachi Data Systems, IBM, Inrange Technologies, StorageTek and Veritas have announced the completion of interoperability testing on two jointly-developed storage area network (SAN) solutions.
"The solutions are designed to streamline storage management and offer customers multiple options for protecting and enhancing data availability," explains Fanie van Rensburg, MD of Shoden Data Systems, local distributor of Hitachi Data Systems in SA.
The open SAN solutions consist of multi-vendor disk storage, tape storage and backup/restore software, all connected through a scalable networking fabric.
Design highlights of the SAN solutions include:
* A 192-port fabric comprised of cascaded 64-port and 128-port Inrange FC/9000 directors.
* IBM Enterprise Storage Server and Hitachi Data Systems 'Freedom Storage Systems', configured in the same data zone.
* IBM 3494 Tape Library with 3590E tape drives, and StorageTek L700 Tape Library with 9840 and 9940 tape drives, configured in the same data zone.
* Veritas NetBackup and Tivoli Storage Manager software applications, tested as separate solutions, to perform LAN-Free backup/restore of disk storage to/from tape libraries.
* Complete path failover, dynamic multi-pathing and load balancing for all disk accesses using Veritas Volume Manager with Dynamic Multipathing (DMP) disk storage volume-management software.
* Sun and Windows-based servers configured with access to all storage targets, operating across both disk and tape data zones.
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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:
* Storage - the HDS Freedom storage range, including Lightning 9900 and 9200
* 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.
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