As Computer Business Review went to press yesterday, Sun Microsystems Inc issued a statement that it has withdrawn from Aperi, and is to switch its allegiance to an open source program run from within the Storage Networking Industry Association, which will involve customers.
IBM set up Aperi last year with the intention of creating a multi-vendor, open source code base for storage management software. Sun was IBM’s largest storage ally in the program, which controversially was set up outside of the SNIA. Now even Sun has changed its mind about Aperi.
Given that Sun believes this initiative should be governed by SNIA, Sun plans to participate in software projects under the auspices of that organization, Sun said.
The statement gave no details of what SNIA is planning, but included quotes from SNIA itself that made it clear that the industry body is poised to unveil some form of open source project. Computer Business Review was unable to reach Sun or SNIA for comment, and IBM declined to make any statements.
Earlier yesterday sources had said that IBM itself was poised to make an announcement about Aperi, for which other suppliers were planning a spoiler. If Sun’s statement were a hurriedly released pre-emptive announcement, it would explain its reference to as-yet un-announced SNIA projects. One source said that both IBM and Hewlett-Packard Co are poised to donate software to programs – although to which projects is not clear.
Sun’s statement included this quote from the SNIA’s vice chair Ray Dunn: Software development within the SNIA makes a lot of sense. The SNIA… is the most logical place for new collaborative initiatives to come to fruition. The SNIA’s mission to include a strong end-user community makes it a perfect environment to accelerate and overcome storage management challenges that plague customers, through collaborative software projects.
Sun’s director of storage industry initiatives Adam Mendoza said in the statement: By engaging with the SNIA upfront, we are assured that a collaborative effort will take end-user requirements into account and that the storage community will adapt SNIA-endorsed open source storage management solutions.
