Cisco Enters Storage Market

Networking giant Cisco Systems took a step into the fast-growing storage market by unveiling a router that allows existing Fibre Channel storage devices to be accessed over IP networks.

The San Jose-based company is a newcomer in the $1 billion storage market, but it says its first step is significant because the SN 5420 storage router is the first router that will work with the upcoming protocol known as iSCSI. More than 250 companies are working to develop a draft of iSCSI.

The technology for the router comes from Cisco's acquisition last year of NuSpeed. The box contains a Gigabit Ethernet port to connect to an IP network and a Fibre Channel port or iSCSI port to connect to storage devices.

The router, though just one piece of a storage system, will ultimately lower costs for end users because it essentially allows servers in remote locations to access the same centralized storage pool, says Mark Cree, general manager of Cisco's storage router business unit.

An advantage of Cisco's storage router, according to TidalWire, a VAR based in Westborough, Mass., is that it will let customers add it to their Fibre Channel storage area networks instead of having to switch to other technology.

Cree outlined the router and Cisco's storage initiative at the Storage Networking World conference in Palm Desert, Calif.

"It fools the servers into thinking the remote storage is actually internal, when really the server can be based anywhere," Cree says. "It makes storage much more accessible, and it lets you centralize it so it's less costly to maintain. And since it's over IP, you get the benefit of security. We guarantee that it's encrypted."

According to information from Cisco, the storage market will be a $4 billion industry segment by the year 2003. Cisco wants to be a player by providing storage devices that are compatible with products from other better-known storage vendors, such as Veritas, Brocade, EMC, Network Appliance, IBM and Intel.

"We're forming that total network core that all of us can use," says Doug Ingraham, manager of product management for Cisco's storage router business unit.

The SN 5420 storage router will be available this month for $27,000.

Sixty VARs and system integrators have qualified to sell the device. Cree says qualified partners must show that they can sell and install multi-vendor solutions.

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