Louisville, Colorado-based Storage Technology Corp is planning to carve a niche in the networked data storage market, and according to Computer Systems News, the company is setting up a number OEM agreements and strategic partnerships with companies that have network storage expertise. Two such partners are Epoch Systems Inc and Interlink Computer Sciences Inc, and StorageTek has taken an undisclosed equity stake in Epoch Systems. StorageTek is incorporating Epoch’s Renaissance architecture into a product due next year, while it has an OEM agreement with Interlink on SNS/TCPaccess and SNA/API software for communication between the TCP/IP network and a mainframe under MVS. Observers say that networked storage will be accomplished via the OSI standards, but until those are published, TCP/IP protocols will give it a foothold. Networked storage will be applied to tape library products initially, and subsystems running with Interlink software will be available in 1992, with the Epoch offering scheduled for the second half.
