EMC leads calls for storage standards

Storage giant EMC is urging the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) to set standards to improve interoperability between storage area networks (SAN) and network attached storage (NAS).

The company said its software, called network file system, can route files and other data traffic directly via Virtual Interface from a SAN server to the user without the intervention of a NAS server. The advantage of bypassing the NAS server is in avoiding the technology's inability to deal with larger files, such as graphics. NAS servers are traditionally more suitable for smaller files such as emails and other workgroup files. The proposed standard would allow SANs to bypass the NAS server and make file transmission faster as well as require less capacity. Other storage vendors such as IBM, Sun and Veritas have backed up the proposal. SNIA is expected to respond by the end of January.