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Windows Soaks Up Storage: Page 2 of 3

Veritas, for its part, insists that today’s Microsoft launch is purely beneficial. "Nothing they’re doing is stepping on our toes,” insists Mike Ivanov, a director of product management at Veritas. "They’re just providing the plumbing that we end up using... They’re enabling their software partners to do more with less."

He points out that as Microsoft pushes into the data center, it is helping provide business opportunities for the likes of Veritas, since any operating system in a data center needs to be hardened. “That’s what we bring,” he says.

EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC) also says that the Windows Server 2003 launch is good news. “We see this as a very good thing,” says VP of platform marketing Chuck Hollis, pointing out that up until now there was no standard way to access snap functionality. “They’re creating very clear and unambiguous APIs on their operating system.”

Meanwhile, Microsoft itself is careful to emphasize the importance of its storage partners for its new platform. “We are not competing,” insists Adam. “We are just enhancing value for our customers… Our partners can develop products on top of our platform.” He admits, however, that “as with any large company, there are parts where we compete and parts where we partner.”

While industry observers may disagree on what impact Microsoft may have on storage management, they all seem to agree that the company’s foray into supporting iSCSI is significant. “This is opening up the iSCSI market to potentially inflict some damage on Fibre Channel [vendors],” Duplessie says.