EMC Corp has added Fibre Channel hub connectivity support for Compaq, Dell, HP and Siemens Windows NT servers, enabling multi- vendor servers to be connected to a single Symmetrix disk port. It has also added direct Fibre Channel connectivity support for Unisys ClearPath and Groupe Bull Escala Unix servers. EMC is now offering Volume Logix configuration management software atop Symmetrix, enabling administrators to control access to specific parts of the disk. It is targeted at NT, which is designed to treat any connected storage as its own private domain. The software is priced from $15,000. EMC’s Fibre Channel strategy differs from other vendors where the both front end (controller to server) and back-end (controller to drives) provide fibre channel support. EMC only implements Fibre Channel at the front- end, not all the way to disk. It hasn’t announced its Fibre Channel switch yet, but it’s not far out.
