Network Appliance, Veritas To Conduct Joint DevelopmentNetwork Appliance, Veritas To Conduct Joint Development
The vendors will team to develop and integrate products for data protection, high availability and storage resource management.
Network Appliance Inc. has focused on its filer appliances since the 90s, when it first offered a simple alternative to general-purpose servers for file sharing.
Since then, the vendor has grown up with its customers, with more- scalable systems that cause some IT executives to deploy the appliances as their primary storage system. Network Appliance realizes that its model takes a hit when the deployment of multiple appliances increases complexity, so it's getting as tight as it can with storage-management software leader Veritas Software Corp.
Under an agreement disclosed Tuesday, the vendors will jointly develop and integrate products for data protection, high availability and storage resource management. They will conduct joint sales, marketing and technical support. Veritas CEO Gary Bloom views the enhanced relationship as the ticket to a more-effective go-to-market process. Net App boss Dan Warmenhoven thinks the two vendors will be able to improve performance and value for appliance customers.
One analyst said he thinks the new relationship between vendors could lead to a more integrated approach for managing network-attached storage and storage-area networks at the same time. "Network Appliance now has a broader range of management products that we'll see over the next six to 12 months," said Jamie Gruener of the Yankee Group. "It has a solid suite for data management, snapshots, and delivery, but is not as strong with SRM and replication."
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