July 19, 2004
(Computerworld)
Computer Network Technology Corp. (CNT) today will announce a line of multiprotocol director-class storage switches that use specialized blade devices to support capabilities such as data replication and capacity pooling across storage-area networks (SAN).
The UltraNet Multi-service Director (UMD) switches will eventually scale from a model for remote offices to a chassis with 512 ports for enterprise-class data centers, CNT said. However, the Plymouth, Minn.-based vendor added that it will take until the first half of 2006 to roll out the full product line.
CNT said the specialized blades slide into the UMD chassis to provide additional switch ports, advanced storage services or support for using various data transfer protocols to route information from application servers to shared storage devices on corporate SANs.
The UMD line also includes new software called inVSN Storage Network Manager, which lets the switches monitor SANs as well as storage-related traffic on wide-area and metropolitan-area networks.
"From CNT's standpoint, if they're going to stay in the [storage] switch business, they had to have a product with much greater range. This gets them into a much broader market," said Rick Villars, an analyst at IDC in Framingham, Mass.
Villars said the UMD line's most notable feature is the inVSN software's ability to monitor I/O traffic and provide IT managers with statistics, diagnostics data and network logs.
CNT plans four models, starting with a version of the high-end 512-port switch that is due to ship next month and includes Fibre Channel ports plus Ficon connectivity for IBM mainframes. An entry-level switch that offers 16 to 32 ports and supports 10Gbit/sec. Fibre Channel will be available in the first half of next year, CNT said. A midrange model with Internet SCSI and 4Gbit/sec. Fibre Channel ports is scheduled to follow in the second half of 2005, and a 512-port device that supports 10Gbit/sec. Ethernet is being targeted for shipment in the first half of 2006.