What's IBM Doing With NetApp?

A document posted to IBM Corp.'s (NYSE: IBM) Website -- which was later removed -- described the use of Network Appliance Inc.'s (Nasdaq: NTAP) gFiler NAS gateway to front-end Big Blue's SAN storage.

And while IBM has been unable (or unwilling) to explain how or why the document ended up on its public Website, the company insists that it doesn't mean a partnership with NetApp to resell the NAS gateway is in the works.

"We have no plans at the present to resell this product within our storage business," says IBM spokeswoman Lisa Lanspery.

NetApp last year inked a deal with Hitachi Data Systems (HDS), which sells the gFiler NAS gateway in conjunction with its SAN storage systems (see HDS OEMs NetApp: Big Deal? and Hitachi Gives NetApp Hot Wheels).

The NetApp NAS gateway was described in a document, titled "gFiler Gateway Series," posted on IBM's PartnerWorld business partner Website. The gateway offers the same functionality that NetApp's filers do -- providing CIFS and NFS access -- except "the primary difference is that the gFiler uses IBM Storage," the document said.But by the morning of Saturday, Oct. 18, the gFiler document had been deleted from IBM's Website. Lanspery says she doesn't know which division of IBM posted the document, what the document referred to exactly, or why it was deleted.

NetApp declined to comment on the IBM document. "Unfortunately we cannot disclose any information at this time," says a company spokeswoman.

Industry watchers have been expecting IBM to take its NAS strategy in a new direction since it phased out its low-end Windows-based NAS systems this summer (see IBM Kills Runts of NAS Litter and IBM to Scrap Windows NAS Lines?).

But analysts caution that even if an IBM/NetApp deal on the gFiler gateway were in play, it likely would not be a reflection of IBM's longer-term NAS approach. "IBM offers all kinds of solutions... Many of them are only tactical in response to specific customer requests," says John McArthur, group VP of storage research at IDC, who notes that he has no firsthand information about what IBM is doing with the NetApp NAS gateway.

Adds Tony Prigmore, senior analyst with Enterprise Storage Group Inc.: "IBM is clearly committed to branding their own enterprise NAS solution leveraging IBM technology."For NetApp, a partnership with IBM would give it a potentially huge new ally in its fight with EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC), which has been trying to increase the pressure on NetApp in the midrange NAS market (see EMC Massages Midrange NAS).

The NetApp gFiler, based on the company's Data OnTap operating system, is available in three models, which are able to handle between 3 and 48 Tbytes of storage. Currently, the gFiler is available only for HDS storage. A gateway can be attached directly (or through a Fibre Channel switch) to Hitachi's Lightning 9970V, Lightning 9980V, or Thunder 9570V storage systems.

Todd Spangler, US Editor, Byte and Switch