SNW: Day two recap

Brocade is now shipping an FCoE switch and adapters to OEMs, Symantec has added DR testing software to its product line via a partnership and solid-state specialist Fusion-io just bagged close to $50 million funding.

Day two of Storage Networking World was uneventful from a news perspective, but we were able to track down some industry insiders and SNIA members to explain some of this week's announcements.

First up, a keynote from Symantec's new CEO, Enrique Salem, during which he said:

"Stop buying storage."

Not a surprising statement when you consider it came from a software company, but Salem says data reduction technologies and better management can defray the cost of additional hardware through better utilization.

"In many companies there are differences in storage hardware, and often islands of storage. One department might have plenty of free storage while another is adding arrays," Salem told a standing-room crowd this morning. "You need to identify and reclaim what you've bought but aren't using. Find that orphan storage, and bring it home. The hardware vendors will tell you they can show you how your existing storage is being used. Remember, their ultimate goal is to sell you more hardware."

Salem says storage resource management (SRM), thin provisioning, data de-duplication, and intelligent archiving can all bring those orphans home.

On the cloud storage front, I was able to sit down with Storage Networking Industry Association Chairman Emeritus and member of the Board of Directors Vincent Franceschini to discuss the Association's formation of a Technical Work Group (TWG) for cloud storage.

"It has become very clear that we need to clarify the definitions and terminology surrounding cloud storage," said Franceschini. "We believe we can help the market overall by delivering reference models to describe different solutions and cloud frameworks."

He also said industry collaboration is a must if cloud storage is going to be a viable option for enterprise storage in the future.

"We are going to be collaborating with other industry groups. There is no way it is going to work if [cloud platforms] are not integrated," he said.

The SNIA has also set up a Google group in an effort to maintain a "public face" on the Cloud Storage TWG's work.