Hitachi Data Systems Ltd says that it is working towards producing storage area network (SANs) systems that allow data sharing between NT, Unix and mainframe systems. On the back of the SAN strategy that the company laid out on Monday (CI No 3,647), Hitachi has been talking about the R&D work that the company has been doing to move its Freedom Data Networks (FDN) SAN architecture forward.
Vincent Francenshini, product manager for SAN solutions, explained that Hitachi can currently offer limited data sharing on SAN systems attached to mainframes or Unix server ‘farms’. Francenshini said that the aim of Hitachi’s work was to allow data sharing in heterogeneous environments, specifically developing a SAN capable of dealing with Unix and NT data.
The firm has set up $100m interoperability lab (I-Lab)to promote the open, heterogeneous SAN concept. Part of the FDN strategy saw Hitachi allying with enterprise storage partners such as Veritas and Gadzoox to put together a SAN architecture with existing components. However, Francenshini said that in practice the I-Lab would put together a SAN system using whatever components a customer wanted to use.
