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Microsoft Blesses iSCSI Hardware

Posted by byteandswitch.com on November 20, 2003

Tags: Infrastructure,  Other

Channel: Data Center, Other

The Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) iSCSI train left the station today carrying 14 hardware vendors that passed compatibility tests for Windows (see Microsoft Qualifies 14 iSCSI Products).

The announcement is a signal from Microsoft to companies that compatible HBAs and arrays are available to begin implementing iSCSI networks on Windows.

"Microsoft's support of iSCSI is going to be very important," says James Opfer, research VP for Gartner/Dataquest. "You need targets for iSCSI to progress, and the users need to know it will work."

The first group of vendors awarded Microsoft's iSCSI Designed for Windows logo include those with host bus adapters (HBAs) -- or initiators -- and those with targets. The host/initiator category includes:

• Adaptec Inc. (Nasdaq: ADPT),
• ATTO Technology Inc.,
• Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO),
• Crossroads Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CRDS),
• Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC),
• McData Corp. (Nasdaq: MCDTA), and
• QLogic Corp. (Nasdaq: QLGC).

The target vendors are:

• Advanced Digital Information Corp. (Nasdaq: ADIC),
• EqualLogic Inc.,
• Intransa Inc.,
• LeftHand Networks,
• Network Appliance Inc. (Nasdaq: NTAP),
• Spectra Logic Corp., and
• Storageconnections.Net.

In June 2003, Microsoft released its iSCSI initiator software driver that supports Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003. That development helped iSCSI -- a protocol designed to move block-level storage traffic over IP networks -- pick up momentum after a few slow years in the larval stage (see iSCSI Gets Go-Ahead, Microsoft Sparks iSCSI Liftoff, and Panel: iSCSI Clear for Takeoff).

"This is certainly going to ramp up reasonably quickly," says Opfer, whose company forecasts that iSCSI will connect more than 1.6 million servers by 2007.