The date for the launch of the Symmetrix rework was made public some weeks ago, and IBM made no attempt to pretend that it was just coincidence that it chose the same date to announce that it is shipping an API for the Shark based on the CIM standard.

We pick one day out of 365, and this happens said Jim Tuckwell, marketing executive for worldwide enterprise storage at IBM. Maybe EMC is trying to spoil our day, he joked.

IBM’s announcement has no immediate effect for customers, but it does score a political point against EMC. It underlines IBM’s already public commitment to supporting the CIM standard in its storage products, and highlights EMC’s vaguer commitment to CIM.

Although it puts IBM ahead of EMC in terms of CIM support, in another sense it only represents IBM catching up with the rest of the high-end market. Unlike EMC, HP, or Hitachi Ltd, until now IBM has not been able to offer a practicable API for its flagship storage array – CIM-compliant or otherwise.

From February 21 this year the API will be part of the microcode shipping with the latest F model IBM Shark storage arrays, allowing software developers a far easier way to access the functions on the array than at present. As for other hardware device with no API, currently access to the Shark must be coded via clunky, labour-intensive CLIs and other methods.

By making the API CIM-compliant, IBM has joined ranks with suppliers such as Sun who have also created CIM interfaces to their storage arrays. A third -party software tool developed to access functions via any one CIM-compliant interface will be able to do the same with any other interface. The widespread adoption of CIM is therefore hoped to lower storage software development costs, increase interoperability and allow new tools to be developed more quickly.

IBM has been a vociferous supporter of the use of CIM in storage software, and like others has frequently accused EMC of not wanting the standard to succeed and so release its customers from a technology lock-in. Whatever truth there is in the allegation, CIM has such universal support that EMC cannot afford not to be seen to support it. In the Fall last year, the company’s CEO Joe Tucci said EMC’s hardware would begin supporting the standard this year.

EMC say they’ll do it sometime in 2003, but there’s been no evidence yet. It’s February, and we’ve already done it. That’s the difference between IBM and EMC, Tuckwell said.

The Shark API is CIM-compliant, and BlueFin-compatible. BlueFin, the specification of how CIM should be implemented, is not expected to be completed until the summer.

Source: Computerwire