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November 8, 2007 | |
EMC is the major beneficiary in the Storage Networking Industry Association's eXensible Access Method (XAM) specification for the application program interface (API) that some of the member storage vendors --EMC, HP, Sun Microsystems and Vignette -- have negotiated through the industry association. That is the observation of Greg Schulz, founder and principal analyst at Storage I/O. API facilitates the transfer of data between an application and a storage system. Up to now, each of the storage vendors have had separate APIs for their hardware The XAM standard essentially facilitates communication between a storage system and an application via a single API, regardless of whether the vendor is EMC, HP, Sun or Vignette. "It just makes it easier for vendors to adopt and support different solutions to reduce time to market." EMC's prominence means that the XAM is heavily influenced by EMC's API specification, stated Schulz. "The market leader, in terms of installed storage systems and footprint, is EMC. The market leader in terms of partners who have had their software written to storage is EMC. Most software vendors have their API written to EMC [hardware]." On the other hand, one common API means that those ISVs which are part of the EMC ecosystem can now support and access storage vendors other than EMC, Schulz continued. "It opens up rather than monopolizes a small pond [for EMC]." Vincent Franceschini, SNIA's 2007 chairman, estimated that more than 45 companies, including software providers, storage vendors and application developers are participating in the XAM initiative, which is slated to provide the specification next year. He also revealed that a XAM software development kit is being made available. "It enables companies to have a consistent interpretation for application and storage vendors." This process of standardization may be part of a broader SNIA mandate that also includes the blurring of the lines between storage and other IT areas, including servers and networks. These changes have been sparked by pressures from end users for greater integration and improved management of IT functions and technologies, stated Franceschini. "Enterprise storage is at the heart of all of all of this. For us it is a natural evolution to make sure the SNIA mission and activity is reflecting these changes." Franceschini noted that areas like storage and security have been "two different worlds" in IT until now. "Now, we need to mix and match and leverage what can be done in both worlds to deliver solutions. It really depends on the industry segment that we are talking about. Some IT users are ahead of the curve because they are more willing to invest in technologies and new ways of integration." Another new area for SNIA is the formation of the SNIA Green Storage Initiative, which is focused on advanced energy efficiency and conservation in network storage, and follows the announced working relationship with the Green Grid. Up to now, the storage industry has been left out in the cold on the various green initiatives in the IT industry, commented Franceschini. "It is not something that SNIA wants to drive," the SNIA chairman stated. "We want to make sure that we are not isolating the storage component from the rest of power efficiency tools in the data centre." SNIA and the storage vendors are seeking to ride the coat tails of the green IT bandwagon and perhaps have some influence in expected US federal environmental regulation on IT storage industry in the next few years, added Schulz. "It is a little late [for the storage vendors]; but at least they are doing something."
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