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Firms align to boost storage technology

EMC, a company riding the wave of demand for large-scale computer storage systems, announces a 12-company partnership called FibreAlliance.

Stephen Shankland Former Principal Writer
Stephen Shankland worked at CNET from 1998 to 2024 and wrote about processors, digital photography, AI, quantum computing, computer science, materials science, supercomputers, drones, browsers, 3D printing, USB, and new computing technology in general. He has a soft spot in his heart for standards groups and I/O interfaces. His first big scoop was about radioactive cat poop.
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  • Shankland covered the tech industry for more than 25 years and was a science writer for five years before that. He has deep expertise in microprocessors, digital photography, computer hardware and software, internet standards, web technology, and more.
Stephen Shankland
EMC, a company riding the wave of demand for large-scale computer storage systems, announced a 12-company partnership called FibreAlliance to make it easier to manage a new storage technique.

The alliance's goal is to improve management standards for networks based on Fibre Channel, a high-speed connection method using either copper wires or fiber optic cables.

Fibre Channel provides a two-channel connection to disk drives and makes it easier to create high-speed links between storage devices and the servers that access the data. Fibre Channel is well suited for the construction of a storage area network (SAN), a technique that consolidates data storage onto an independent network.

EMC has brought 11 companies into the FibreAlliance partnership, including Hewlett-Packard, Veritas, and Legato Systems, EMC said today.

In addition, there are several companies active in the areas of the Fibre Channel hardware or the "storage area networking," such as Ancor, <="" a="" rel="noopener nofollow" class="c-regularLink" target="_blank">, QLogic, Emulex, and others.

The new group plans to write a detailed specification for fitting all the bits of networks--hubs, routers, switches, and adapters--into network management tools. Fibre Channel doesn't have such a standard today, EMC says, and needs one to help push the new technology into wider use.