IBM's Using Brocade File Virtualization

Today, Brocade "announced" that IBM is OEMing its StorageX file virtualization software, which Brocade developed from its $60 million acquisition of NuView in March 2006 and last upgraded in May 2007.

Thing is, it's been nearly a month since IBM announced this product as the IBM System Storage N series Virtual File Manager (VFM). At that time, IBM didn't mention Brocade, and Brocade chose to keep mum, too.

According to a Brocade spokeswoman, Brocade held back when IBM made its announcement because Brocade didn't want its message to be lost amid IBM's eight announcements and Brocade's strategic unveiling of DCF, all of which hit circa October 23, 2007. Now that things have cooled down, the marketeers think the OEM news is more likely to make an impact.

Whatever. The timing doesn't really matter as much as that IBM is trying to cover itself for both file and block virtualization.

According to analyst Greg Schulz of the StorageIO Group, it's a trend. EMC has Rainfinity for file virtualization and Invista for block-level virtualization. IBM has VFM, among other things, for file virtualization, and SAN Volume Controller for block-level virtualization.It's a vision IBM confirms. According to Chris Saul, marketing manager for IBM's SAN Volume Controller, "IBM offers the industry's most complete range of virtualization offerings," via server virtualization through IBM System i, System p, and System z LPARs and VMware ESX Server; file virtualization through IBM General Parallel File System and VFM; SAN virtualization through switches; storage system virtualization through IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller (disk) and IBM System Storage TS7500 and TS7700 series (tape); and physical and virtual infrastructure management through IBM Systems Director and IBM TotalStorage Productivity Center.

So goes the hype. But Schulz stresses that customers don't care about the message of file-plus-block virtualization as much as they care about managing stored data, whether it's in file or block format. "The real value for customers is in managing and understanding what they have and how to move it, if that's more economical," Schulz says. Hence, IBM's emphasis on both an Enterprise edition of VFM and a "lite" Migration version that can be used to port data without some of the extra features, such as replication, that the Enterprise edition supports.

There's another grain of news in today's revelation, and that is that IBM is OEMing VFM directly from Brocade, not through NetApp, as we originally supposed. The confusion came about because IBM and NetApp are both OEMing the same product under the same name in two editions, with similar pricing.

We expect more announcements in this vein from other suppliers. But whatever fine points, alliances, and OEM deals go down, the basic message remains the one Schulz emphasizes: Customers need to see what they've got and be able to put it where it's going to be cheapest and easiest to manage.

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