Rival vendors EMC and IBM are trading barbs over the subject of storage virtualisation.

The two firms exchanged comments on Monday after EMC unveiled its new storage virtualisation offering.

The network-based Invista system is EMC's offering for storage-area network virtualisation. It allows administrators to split storage hardware into virtualised systems, rather than be constrained by the hardware limits for each physical unit.

The new version of Invista was touted by EMC as a key component for enterprises that need to manage quickly growing databases or large amounts of shifting data on a network.

IBM, however, saw the news as further proof of what it says is an EMC lineup that is more hype than substance.

"There are companies that simply talk about storage virtualisation like EMC, and then there are companies like IBM that do storage virtualisation," an IBM spokesperson told vnunet.com.

The spokesperson said that while Big Blue has been advancing its virtualisation offerings, EMC has lagged behind. As a result, Invista is simply too little, too late.

"While EMC has been evolving, and evolving, and evolving their storage virtualisation story, IBM has designed, delivered, and continued to enhance our highly reliable, scalable, and robust storage virtualisation solution for years, with thousands of customer installs across the globe," claimed the spokesperson.

When presented with the quotes from IBM, an EMC spokesperson suggested a different scenario.

Not only is EMC not lagging behind Big Blue, the spokesperson claimed, but it is in fact IBM that has been playing follow-the-leader.

The spokesperson noted that several of IBM's acquisitions, including its most recent purchase of Arsenal Digital Solutions, either follow similar acquisitions by EMC or rely on technology from the company.

"IBM has been following EMC's information infrastructure strategy for quite some time," the EMC spokesperson told vnunet.com.

"It seems like IBM is looking at EMC as the prime example of how to do information infrastructure correctly."