Huawei Sets Sights on IP SANs

Hong Kong-based Huawei-3Com (H3C) is putting together the pieces to make an Asian IP SAN push, as U.S. vendors are eager to come along for the ride -- with products U.S. customers may never get to see.

In the past four months, H3C has revealed partnerships with IP software vendors FalconStor and Intransa, chip startup iVivity, and systems OEM Xyratex. H3C is a joint venture between Chinese networking vendor Huawei and U.S.-based 3Com. (See Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd..)

So far, H3C's storage plans have come out in drips through releases from its U.S. partners. The iVivity deal disclosed this week, for example, calls for H3C to integrate iVivitys 1-Gbit/s and 10-Gbit/s programmable iDiSX storage chips into its storage and networking products. (See H3C Picks IVivity Chips.)

Separately, HC3 previously said it is getting a 3U 16-drive storage system from Xyratex that it will market as the Neocean IX5000 iSCSI SAN. (See Xyratex Lands Huawei-3Com.) H3C also says it will run Intransa’s Storcontrol IP SAN software with some modifications on the IX5000, and it has a deal with FalconStor for data protection software. (See FalconStor Teams With Huawei-3Com.)

While H3C hasn't provided any launch timeframe or specs for its Neocean IX5000, its partnerships paint a clear picture of its goal of becoming an iSCSI player. One of the U.S. partners told Byte and Switch H3C could begin shipping storage systems late this year, with volume shipments expected in 2007. The source says H3C plans to market the system only in China and Asia for the foreseeable future.Huawei, H3C's parent, is among the leading Chinese networking vendors, with a product line consisting primarily of Ethernet switches and routers. Analysts say Huawei has cut into Cisco's base in China by offering cheaper products and greatly outnumbering the U.S. firm's sales force in that country. (See Huawei 2006 Target: $8 Billion.) With a stake already in the IP market and no large Fibre Channel storage base to compete with, it's no wonder the company is looking to make its storage mark with iSCSI.

"They are not saying a whole lot about storage, but Ethernet is the common denominator in China rather than Fibre Channel," says Heavy Reading analyst Scott Clavenna, who follows Huawei and the Chinese networking market.

Although H3C isn't saying much about storage, its U.S. partners are excited. No wonder: H3C is big enough to make a huge difference in the fates of startups such as Intransa and iVivity, and its business presents a potential windfall for OEM-focused firms such as FalconStor and Xyratex.

"They want to be the EMC of China," iVivity founder Zulfiqar Qazilbash asserts.

"We are clearly a small part of their product portfolio," Xyratex CEO Steve Barber said on his company's earnings conference call last month. "But we see Huawei as a very key target customer for us."Analyst Arun Taneja of the Taneja Group agrees that H3C can be a major driving force for its U.S. partners, though he doubts it will make much of an impact on U.S. storage customers.

"That one company could put all these guys on the map," Taneja says of H3C's partners. "They're lining up to be a major force in Asia."

According to Taneja, the iVivity chip gives H3C the ability to build in features such as replication, snapshots, and mirroring on its systems. (See iVivity Unveils 10-Gig HBA and iVivity Ships 10-Gig Chip.) Still, he doesn't expect H3C to come up with anything that would make it a storage player outside of China. He expects it to stick to cheap storage systems in a geographic region where networked storage is still in its formative stages.

"Generally, the Asian market, except for Japan, is very cost conscious," Taneja says. "China, India, and the other Asian countries consider iSCSI to be a gift of God. There's a huge potential with IP SANs there... Whether they bring that developed product to the U.S. remains to be seen. That would obviously be a non-trivial thing for them to do. How many non-U.S. companies compete effectively here?"

— Dave Raffo, News Editor, Byte and Switch