Customers try to make it simple for storage area network vendors.
They ask only that it all work together. Since a SAN almost always includes products from multiple vendors, the request is critical. Yet unless customers lock themselves in with a single vendor for it all, data won't be able to move from point A to point B. IBM's Tivoli systems and storage management unit has introduced Storage Network Manager, a product that could help in the battle for SAN interoperability. The product is based on an ANSI standard and is available immediately. Customers will be able to set policies with the network manager so it monitors and steers data movement based on thresholds and parameters established by storage administrators.