Easing Management For Networked StorageEasing Management For Networked Storage

IBM is readying a long-awaited software product for easing the management burden on companies using networked storage.

Storage area networks, with their advantages of fast speeds and flexible assembly, have become popular among managers of business data centers for archiving large amounts of data. But the file systems in most operating systems that manage that data have been unable to take full advantage of networked disks, making it hard to move data files among machines, and to set up rules for managing that data. That could inhibit market growth, IBM says. On Nov. 14, IBM plans to release the first version of a product called the TotalStorage SAN File System to address problems with SANs.

IBM's product, born in the company's research labs and previously known as Storage Tank, is a file system for the Windows 2000 and AIX operating systems that IBM says will improve visibility of data across disks and servers in a network. That can let administrators write rules to classify data for different applications in separate pools, and put less-valuable data on less-expensive storage media, IBM storage director Bruce Hillsberg says. Versions for Linux and Solaris are due next year.

Other companies, including Silicon Graphics Inc., sell SAN file systems aimed at high-performance computing users. IBM says TotalStorage will be aimed at business customers with millions or billions of files. IBM will package the product as software installed on an application server, plus additional metadata software pre-installed on Intel-based servers. A starting configuration that includes three servers will be priced at $90,000.

IBM has been testing the software with customers, including the Johns Hopkins University and CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research.