LeftHand Networks may have been one of the first companies to dive head-first into the IP SAN pool, but many industry observers predicted that the companys proprietary IP protocol could also be its biggest shortcoming.
The IP storage startup appears to have heeded their warnings: Today LeftHand announced that it finally supports standard iSCSI protocol (see LeftHand Integrates iSCSI, Replicates).
They have been around the longest, and they have the most installations, but it was clear that if they didnt have iSCSI, theyd get killed, says Enterprise Storage Group Inc. analyst Steve Duplessie. "When there are standards, you dont want to get caught on the sideline... They had to get it, and they did."
LeftHand already has more than 200 customers across various industries for its IP SAN solutions, which use its proprietary Advanced Ethernet Block Storage (AEBS) protocol. The company said today that it expects to start shipping its Network Storage Module (NSM) with support for standard iSCSI in January 2004.
Customers will be able to choose between AEBS and iSCSI at no extra charge, according to Tom Major, LeftHands VP of marketing. LeftHand's current customers can upgrade their NSMs through a software code load, he says.
