IBM-Hitachi to join forces in data storage

At the end of last week, IBM and Hitachi signed an interoperability agreement for storage systems, Hitachi committing to support the IBM copying and mirroring software solutions, including z/OS Global Mirror, FlashCopy, parallel access drives and the Geographically Dispersed Parallel Sysplex technology.

Practically, the two companies will develop the compatibility between the Hitachi storage systems and the IBM zSeries mainframes. IBM has already licensed the Ficon and Escon specifications to Hitachi, in order to allow the optimization of the TotalStorage DS8000 and Shark solutions.

Charlie Andrews, director of the Total Storage Solutions division within IBM, declared that this partnership has much more to it than previously announced for any IBM partner from the data storage field.

Another positive aspect is the fact that no deadlines were imposed for the release of the new solutions. Considering the large number of functions to be integrated by the two companies, both the possibility of IBM launching a new function, and Hitachi having the time to test it and develop its interoperability support must be assured.

It looks like IBM has even greater plans and intends to launch an entire operation targeting the interoperability with several storage systems, through tests and the exchange of administration codes with other manufacturers.