REDMOND, Wash., Sept. 5, 2002 — Microsoft Corp. today announced broad industry support for its interoperable Multipath Input/Output (I/O) technology. Leading enterprise storage vendors have committed to developing products that will utilize Microsoft’s Multipath I/O to deliver highly dependable enterprise storage solutions to their customers. Customers will experience increased levels of system availability and performance through load-balancing and interoperability of third-party storage products. Microsoft’s Multipath I/O will be enabled through third-party storage solutions providers and will be supported by Windows®
2000 Server and the forthcoming Windows .NET Server 2003.
“With the introduction of Microsoft’s Multipath I/O, we are building on the dependability of Windows Server. Today’s announcement is the latest evidence of Microsoft’s commitment to work with the storage industry to make Windows Server the best platform for creating, managing and deploying storage solutions and at the same time improving the experience for our customers,”
said Bob Muglia, senior vice president of the Enterprise Storage Division at Microsoft.
“With this initiative, we’re providing a common framework to improve the interoperability of hardware storage solutions while making it faster and less expensive for our partners to deliver high-quality storage solutions on the Windows Server platform.”
Multipath I/O is the ability to use more than one physical path to access a storage device, providing improved system reliability and availability via fault tolerance and/or load balancing of the I/O traffic. In the case of storage management, where the preservation of data is vital, multipath I/O provides extra support points that can protect against data loss or system failure. The introduction of Microsoft’s Multipath I/O delivers a standard and interoperable path for communication between storage products and Windows Server.
With a platform upon which multiple third-party storage systems can reliably interoperate, customers now have greater choice when building a high-quality, highly available network storage system. Customers will have the flexibility to incorporate products from multiple vendors into a single, interoperable storage infrastructure.
Leading enterprise storage vendors have endorsed Microsoft’s Multipath I/O by announcing their commitment to release products that utilize the technology. Supporting vendors include 3PARdata Inc., Agilent Technologies Inc., Egenera Inc., EMC Corp., Emulex Corp., Fujitsu Ltd., Hewlett-Packard Co., Hitachi Ltd., LSI Logic Storage Systems Inc., Maranti Networks Inc., NEC Corp., Network Appliance Inc., oPoet Inc., PolyServe Inc., QLogic Corp., Rhapsody Networks Inc., Seagate Technology LLC, Stratus Technologies Bermuda Ltd., Unisys Corp., VERITAS Software Corp., Vicom Systems Inc. and XIOtech Corp.
Additional information on Microsoft®
Windows Server storage technologies can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/technologies/storage/default.asp .
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Vendors Praise Expanded Support for Storage in Windows
“We are eager to integrate our 3PAR InServ Storage Server Family with the Microsoft MPIO driver, as we expect this solution to offer the availability, performance and usability that ultimately will reduce costs for our utility storage customers. The benefit of Microsoft’s multipathing solution and our 3PAR InServ integration results in a cost-effective out-of-the-box solution where costly, proprietary solutions have dominated for years. Our customers are the big winners here.”
Gabe Gotthard
Vice President of Marketing
3PARdata Inc.
“The Egenera BladeFrame was designed to provide Windows and Intel price performance with the availability, reliability and manageability of mainframe systems and high-end UNIX servers. MPIO on .NET provides us with the building blocks required to offer enhanced load balancing and failover for the SAN and NAS devices attached to the BladeFrame’s dual, active-active Control Blades. For customers, this means our .NET-based solution will deliver greater throughput, enhanced I/O load balancing and automated failover.”
Peter Manca
Vice President of Software Engineering
Egenera Inc.
“EMC’s involvement in the Multipath I/O program is the latest in a series of engineering activities with Microsoft that helps provide customers with the highest levels of information availability and performance for their enterprise applications for Windows. By working to integrate EMC’s leading CLARiiON and Symmetrix networked storage systems and software with the newest features in Windows .NET Server and Windows 2000 Server, we’re providing customers with new and unique solutions that give them maximum levels of reliability and flexibility for the storage infrastructure supporting their Windows platform.”
Don Swatik
Vice President
Alliances and Information Sciences EMC Corp.
“The Multipath I/O program is designed to ease the deployment of high-performance, Windows-based SANs, and will further enhance datacenter functionality and interoperability. Microsoft has a history of offering competitive, technologically advanced products to a diverse customer base, and Emulex’s dedication to providing the industry’s most reliable and robust HBAs ensures that our joint customers receive world-class solutions for the enterprise.”
Mike Smith
Executive Vice President
Worldwide Marketing
Emulex Corp.
“The Windows platform provides a strong foundation for storage, and in conjunction with Fujitsu’s ETERNUS GR Storage we can offer reliability and high performance as well as superior replication technologies to help organizations protect their information. Microsoft’s Multipath I/O is a superb foundation to provide features and support that enterprise customers require for their storage infrastructure.”
Hitoshi Matsushima
General Manager
Storage Systems Division
File System Group
Fujitsu Ltd.
“High availability and ease of use are key drivers for storage investments today. We look forward to working with Microsoft on the MPIO program to bring Windows-based multipath solutions to our customers who rely on technology from HP and Microsoft for the most reliable storage technology available.”
Mark Sorenson
Vice President of Storage Software
Hewlett-Packard Co.
“Hitachi is pleased to integrate our world-class storage systems with the Microsoft MPIO driver because redundant path control is one of the indispensable features in the enterprise storage subsystem. Based on ‘True North,’ Hitachi’s strategic concept for open system market, we would like to support Microsoft’s MPIO driver for our Windows customers to build a robust storage platform.”
Ikuo Kimura
Administrative Officer, COO, Solution Systems General Manager Storage Area
Network Systems Solution Division
Hitachi Ltd.
“LSI Logic is pleased to integrate our world-class storage systems with the Microsoft MPIO driver because it establishes a common failover mechanism for storage devices. We have long been committed to industry standards and will continue to support those standards that bring benefits to our customers.”
Flavio Santoni
Vice President of Sales and Marketing
LSI Logic Storage Systems Inc.
“Maranti Networks is embracing Microsoft’s MPIO program as it facilitates high-quality storage solutions that feature availability and increased performance, and in addition address compatibility issues via interoperability. This solution allows Maranti Networks to further enable our customers to offer advanced, business-critical storage services using Maranti’s Application-Aware storage networking solutions.”
Harish Nayak
Vice President of Marketing
Maranti Networks Inc.
“NEC welcomes the release of Microsoft’s MPIO, which provides a high-availability mechanism for Windows-based storage systems. As a strategic alliance partner for enterprise systems with Microsoft, we have joined in the MPIO evaluation from the early stage of its development and plan to provide path management software for NEC’s high-performance storage system, iStorage, with Windows .NET Server. NEC will continue to offer optimized storage solutions to our enterprise customers through close collaboration with Microsoft.”
Yoshikazu Maruyama
Executive General Manager
Computers Software Operations Unit
NEC Corp.
“Network Appliance supports Microsoft’s new Multipath I/O technology as a standard for the development of value-added products for Windows storage. As a leader in enterprise storage networking, Network Appliance works with technology leaders to offer customers the most progressive solutions available, and we understand firsthand the unique challenges today’s businesses face. Microsoft’s MPIO driver package will enable vendors to offer customers highly available and reliable storage systems for Windows environments.”
Mark Santora
Senior Vice President of Marketing
Network Appliance Inc.
“Today’s customers demand a higher level of fault tolerance in their IT systems. Microsoft’s Multipath I/O support is a core component that enables us to provide greater availability and performance on oPoet servers running the Windows operating system.”
Tim Stonis
CTO and Founder
oPoet Inc.
“PolyServe is pleased to work with Microsoft in introducing its MPIO driver package. The Windows platform provides a great storage solution for customers. PolyServe Matrix Server on Windows helps enterprise IT professionals drastically reduce datacenter costs related to server acquisition and management.”
Mike Stankey
CEO
PolyServe Inc.
“Microsoft’s increased role in simplifying the usability of storage networks is a clear indicator of how mature Fibre Channel SANs have become. As storage area networks continue their proliferation from the enterprise into small and medium-sized businesses, users will expect the improved availability and interoperability that MPIO promises to deliver.”
Frank Berry
Vice President of Marketing
QLogic Corp.
“As a leading provider of next-generation storage networking platforms, Rhapsody Networks is pleased to support Microsoft’s Multipath I/O initiative, which furthers our joint intent to simplify the deployment of intelligent, enterprise storage area networks. Together with our Application Directors family, the MPIO drivers will pave the way for lower deployment costs, increased productivity and more-bullet-proof protection against data loss and/or system failure.”
Mike Klayko
President and CEO
Rhapsody Networks Inc.
“Using Multipath I/O provides a means for multiple vendors to support a truly open storage network, and as the world’s leading hard disk drive supplier, Seagate embraces Microsoft’s effort. The resulting options for greater standardization in Multipath I/O create a compelling open storage attachment strategy for Microsoft.”
Brian Dexheimer
Executive Vice President
Sales, Marketing and Customer Service
Seagate Technology LLC
“Microsoft’s Multipath I/O is a perfect complement to Stratus’ ftServer fault-tolerant server family. It underscores Microsoft’s shared commitment with us to provide the highest levels of reliability possible throughout the IT infrastructure. We are behind it fully.”
Allan Jennings
Senior Vice President of Engineering
Stratus Technologies Bermuda Ltd.
“Unisys is pleased to integrate our world-class storage systems with the Microsoft MPIO driver because it establishes a common availability mechanism for storage devices. The combination of Microsoft Multipath I/O with the Unisys ES7000 enterprise server provides a very competitive interoperable storage platform that delivers great value for our Windows customers.”
Bill Maclean
Vice President of Product Management
Unisys Corp.
“As a longtime partner of Microsoft and the leading supplier of storage management solutions for the open systems market, VERITAS Software is pleased that Microsoft is adding Multipath I/O functionality to Windows, bringing customers enhanced system reliability. We are working with Microsoft to help ensure that VERITAS storage management solutions — including VERITAS Volume Manager, the leading storage virtualization solution — are fully interoperable with Microsoft’s Multipath I/O.”
Mark Bregman
Executive Vice President
Product Operations
VERITAS Software Corp.
“Vicom Systems enthusiastically adopts Microsoft’s Multipath I/O (MPIO), as the program increases availability, performance and interoperability in a diverse storage solutions environment. As major proponents of interoperability, we look forward to working with Microsoft and other supporters of MPIO.”
Horatio Lo
Vice President
Advanced Marketing and Technology
Vicom Systems Inc.
“XIOtech is excited to be working with Microsoft’s new MPIO initiative. Microsoft’s MPIO enables interoperability by working entirely within open-systems standards for storage connectivity and SANs, the same discipline XIOtech uses to deliver interoperability in our own storage foundation architecture. In the case of MPIO, it yields a multipath solution that provides customers with enhanced reliability, availability, functionality, performance and interoperability in Microsoft MPIO-enabled heterogeneous storage environments.”
Dan McCormick
Vice President of Marketing
XIOtech Corp.
