IBM and EMC to harmonise storage
IBM and EMC to harmonise storage
Long time rivals IBM and EMC have announced that they are to work together to harmonise their data storage systems to help customers to more easily install both EMC and IBM products in heterogeneous storage environments.
The agreement will see the pair extend interoperability and compatibility for their respective storage systems, servers and software.
According to Chuck Hollis, vice president of platforms marketing at EMC, the co-operative effort is largely designed to help customers who are using EMC storage technology with IBM mainframes.
"We know there are a lot of (EMC) customers out there running IBM mainframe technology, and we've always supported compatibility. Customers want more ability to deploy technology from both vendors faster, and that's what they're getting through this agreement."
EMC and IBM have agreed on a framework for the exchange of programming interfaces for their disk storage products, including interfaces that are conformant with the Storage Management Initiative Specification (SMI-S).
The two vendors have also agreed upon a framework to extend their existing cooperative support agreement to include a wider range of servers, storage and software products, to support more rapid escalation and resolution processes for issues arising in joint installations.
To support EMC's ability to implement compatibility on its Symmetrix DMX storage systems with Peer-to-Peer Remote Copy and Extended Remote Copy (XRC) functions, IBM has licensed interfaces for its TotalStorage Enterprise Storage Server to EMC. Additional IBM functionality including FlashCopy , Multiple Allegiance, and Parallel Access Volumes (PAV) are also included in the licensing agreement and will be supported on EMC Symmetrix systems.
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