When it comes to true, cross-platform, heterogeneous storage management, it sometimes appears users are the only ones interested. This may seem unfair as highly publicized activities like the Aperi initiative have required some considerable effort on behalf of participating vendors, especially IBM, the project's catalyst.
The stated goal of the Aperi group is to develop a common management platform for all types of storage systems and build on SNIA's SMI-S standard. This sounds pretty good, but alas, politics and posturing have put the Aperi buzz on a downward trajectory since its initial announcement least year.
If IBM, the company who invented the reference model for SRM capability with DF/SMS, won't or can't provide leadership, then which supplier will provide the impetus? Microsoft? Perhaps but it's unlikely unless Windows suddenly takes back the world. Will Seagate come from below (before you laugh, remember that Seagate once owned 33% of Veritas through the sale of Seagate's backup suite to Veritas)? Or perhaps from above via the likes of Oracle or SAP. Or maybe leadership will come from the side from VMware or even a Google File System.
If any of these scenarios sound unattractive to vendors then suppliers will simply give up on heterogeneity and go for best-in-class functionality. Users unfortunately will be left holding the bag.
Action Item: The goal of heterogeneous storage resource management is fraught with pitfalls for suppliers. In the near-to-mid term, vendors should combine virtualization strategies (to address heterogeneous capacity management) with delivery of best-of-breed SRM function, focusing on niches such as performance management, change management and reporting.
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