Storage Technology Corp is aiming for a slice of the server vendor market with the roll out of its Vista open storage architecture. Mel Taylor, StorageTek’s business development manager, makes no bones about taking on the vendors, saying that they have no interest in providing open storage and that the StorageTek system allows users to work with storage and server systems that they have already installed. The Vista architecture is the result of three years research and development which began when StorageTek bought Network System Corp. Taylor characterizes Vista as an information-based storage model – allowing connection to NT, Unix and mainframe servers and any manufacturer’s storage device. Taylor contrasts this with server-centered storage systems which offer captive storage and cannot share data between systems and storage-centered models which can only share data between systems of the same make. The Vista architecture is made up of 6 tiers – the physical layer, the storage access layer, the storage administration, the storage management layer, the applications layer, and the systems layers. The physical layer is the actual storage medium, usually tape or disk but Taylor claims that any storage device can be connected. The storage access layer consists of the interconnects – scuzzy cable, fiber channel, Escom – and the storage area network (SAN), products such as the firm’s StorageNet series. The storage management layer is a software layer that reports on the status of the storage, how much is being and how that space is being used. The storage management layer uses management products from companies such as Veritas Software Corp and Legato Systems, which switch storage as needed between upper layer software. The applications layer has open APIs to connect to such apps as Oracle, SAP and JD Edwards, Taylor claims that this will allow more efficient storage for data-hungry apps such as datawarehousing. Finally, the systems layer has APIs that connect to transaction processing monitors such as CA’s TNG Unicenter and Hewlett Packard Co’s OpenView. StorageTek has not yet rolled out all the pieces of the Vista architecture, it expects a slew of announcements around the scheme over the next year. The first of these will be a Computer Associate’s systems management announcement before the end of the year. Taylor claims that the already booming market for storage will only grow into the next century, citing customer services applications such as datawarehousing as the drivers behind the storage boom.
