Industry Leaders Oracle, VERITAS Software, Seagate Technology,
Quantum and StorageTek Join Sun in Support of Building Open Applications That Reduce
the Cost and Complexity of Storage Management.
PALO ALTO, Calif. -December 14, 1998 -Sun Microsystems, Inc. today unveiled a
comprehensive new development platform that will redefine the way storage management
and data services are created and deployed. In an industry dominated by proprietary
and incompatible storage solutions, Sun and its strategic allies are embracing the
industry's first universal framework, Project StoreX (code-name), for the development
of open storage applications.
Project StoreX will extend the "Write Once, Run AnywhereTM" capability
of JavaTM technology in the fast-growing storage data services and storage management
market. Project StoreX enables developers to write storage applications that can
be deployed in a platform independent, distributed runtime environment and is initially
available for the Solaris Operating Environment SoftwareTM and Microsoft Windows,
as well as any compliant platform running JVM.
It is clear from recent announcements including those by Compaq, 3COM and others
that vendors are motivated to solve the complexities inherent in heterogeneous networked
storage. Sun believes the only way this can be accomplished is through a standard,
open storage management software platform embraced by all industry vendors.
"The Project StoreX initiative was driven by the critical need for the industry
to standardize. The days of proprietary lock-in storage interfaces are over,"
said Janpieter Scheerder, president of Sun's Network Storage. "Sun has taken
a leadership position by working with its allies to deliver an open, industry-wide
solution that benefits the customer. With three years of development behind us,
Project StoreX is real. It's here and developers can begin implementation immediately."
In order to have standards for developing data and management services, Project
StoreX has been developed to facilitate their interoperability, integration and
management. "We gain time-to- market advantage for our solutions because we
can leverage the infrastructure developed by Sun," said Peter Levine, senior
vice president strategy and OEM sales, VERITAS Software. "Project StoreX eliminates
the need to re-port the management applications that support our heterogeneous based
data services. Additionally, we can deploy these management solutions across the
enterprise in a consistent, reliable and timely manner."
Sun developers are already creating storage services using the Project StoreX framework,
and at least a dozen companies have implementations in the planning stage. Project
StoreX-compliant products under development include management services in the areas
of performance optimization, self-healing, policy automation and component monitoring.
Additional products underway include control diagnostics and data services such
as cache and volume management, backup, and remote mirroring. For example, StorageTek
provides its customers with tape, disk, software and switches. "Project StoreX
provides the glue that allows us to deliver solutions that inter-operate across
the enterprise," said Dave Weiss, CEO of StorageTek. "We are able to offer
the mainframe class level of service that our customers have come to expect in a
networked environment."
Automation is key to solving the storage management dilemma. With the industry
cooperating on a standard platform, management services can now be created that
deliver intelligent end-to-end storage management solutions."Oracle, the data
management leader, endorses the open system approach to storage management embodied
in the Project StoreX architecture and believes it can bring significant benefits
to our customers. By standardizing the management of storage resources and unifying
the interface to storage services, users will achieve higher levels of service while
at the same time reducing cost and complexity," said Jeremy Burton, Vice President
of Server Marketing for Oracle Corporation.
"Storage management complexities exist throughout the storage network, including
the disk drive. With Seagate single disk drive capacities rapidly approaching 100GB,
effective management of distributed storage becomes increasingly important,"
said Steve Luczo, President and CEO of Seagate Technology. "The implementation
of Project StoreX fits well with the vision of distributed, intelligent, scalable,
connected storage that we have been working toward."
"The Project StoreX platform architecture has great potential to benefit the
industry as a whole, and we would like to see this fully developed by Sun and its
partners" said Peter van Cuylenberg, president of Quantum Corporation's SSPG
business. "We believe open architectures such as Project StoreX will help Quantum
and ATL Products continue to deliver advanced storage solutions that address the
growing need for more manageable storage."
"Today storage management is dominated by point product and proprietary solutions,"
said John McArthur, director of storage systems programs at International Data Corporation.
"Sun's open framework, Sun's Project StoreX promises the ability for storage
management software providers to deliver open function that runs across a broad
range of storage products. This open framework offers the potential to significantly
shorten the time to market window for new storage function, but will require meaningful
nearterm commitment on the part of the hardware community."
Strong support from the industry
Vendors of storage systems and services are quickly rallying behind Project
StoreX. Early adopters include Oracle, VERITAS Software, Seagate Technology, Legato,
Vixel, Gadzoox, Creative Design Solutions, Qlogic, StorageTek, Tandberg Data, Fujitsu,
ATL Products, Quantum and Exabyte.
"We are delighted with the strong support we have received from the storage
industry," said Jeff Allen, vice president of marketing for Sun's Network Storage.
"Together with our allies we will aggressively pursue rapid adoption by other
industry vendors. Like Sun's internal developers, these vendors should benefit from
dramatic reductions in development cost, complexity and improved time to market.
As a result, customers will receive open products, giving them freedom of choice
over their storage system components. Plus, the Project StoreX user interface will
provide ease of use across storage applications that will greatly simplify operations
and reduce administrative costs in the data center, features desperately needed
by our customers."
Management Services and Data Services
Both management services and data services will benefit from the Project StoreX
framework.
Initially, management services will include:
SNMP connectivity, which facilitates integration with enterprise management frameworks,
also allows all storage devices with SNMP management including switches and hubs,
to be accessed by the management services.
Distributed management capabilities, including a distributed object kernel that
enables enterprise management services, as well as distributed services that enable
persistent, automated management.
Platform independence through Java technology and support for interfacing to platform-dependent
native interfaces.
Initially, data services will include:
Platform-specific storage software with dedicated functions.
Well-defined APIs that specify how components interact with each other at interface
boundaries.
Integration with operating system components such as drivers and file systems in
the data path.
Availability
Information on the early access release and the Project StoreX developer kit
is available immediately by contacting tom.awe@sun.com. Starting in the first quarter
of next year, StoreX will be available in a runtime version, which can be incorporated
into StoreX compliant products, and as an SDK for vendors who wish to make their
products Project StoreX compliant. The StoreX developer kit is available on a CD-ROM
and includes Storex Runtime, tools, documentation and tutorials.
Support will be available through the Sun Developer Connection SM Program, a subscription
based support service for developers, and will include quarterly delivery of early
access software, documentation and source as well as currently shipping Project
StoreX compliant components.
About Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision, "The Network Is The ComputerTM,"
has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: SUNW), to its position as a leading
provider of high quality hardware, software and services for establishing enterprise-wide
Intranets and expanding the power of the Internet. With more than $10 billion in
annual revenues, Sun can be found in more than 150 countries and on the World Wide
Web at http://www.sun.com.
@Macarlo, Inc.
@Macarlo's Shareware & Web
OS/2
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