Network Appliance, BROCADE to Develop "Hybrid" Storage Network Architecture

File serving and caching software developer Network Appliance Inc. and Fibre Channel switch vendor BROCADE Communications Systems announced plans this week to develop a combined storage network architecture that will establish interoperability between storage area networks and network-attached storage (NAS) data environments.

A storage area network (SAN) is a high-speed network that provides the direct connection between data storage devices and servers. This approach enables storage and tape subsystems to be connected remotely from the server. Fibre Channel is the networking fabric of choice as an intelligent backbone for SANs.

Network attached storage (NAS) uses a TCP/IP network and makes use of industry standard protocols like NFS, HTTP, and CIFS (for the UNIX, Internet, and Microsoft Windows environments, respectively). NAS lets administrators consolidate storage from multiple desktop and server systems into a centrally managed pool of data.

When completed, the new, combined SAN and NAS architecture will use existing industry-standards such as TCP/IP and Fibre Channel. The goal is to simplify and improve data sharing, storage management, backup, and network administration.

OEM Agreement
Network Appliance also plans to OEM BROCADE's SilkWorm Fibre Channel switch and software products to develop storage networking products that include SAN and NAS technology.