Microsoft snaps up String Bean technology

Microsoft said Friday that it has purchased technology from String Bean Software, a privately-held company based in Montgomery Village, Md., as part of its effort to boost Windows' support for the iSCSI storage standard. Microsoft plans to include String Bean's WinTarget technology as an add-on the R2 release of Windows Storage Server, which will start showing up on Network-attached storage (NAS) systems this spring.

The iSCSI protocol lets people create storage networks based on conventional Ethernet networking equipment rather than the storage-specific Fibre Channel products. Microsoft has previously added iSCSI drivers into Windows