Storagetek keeps options open

Storagetek put on a brave face last week following its failed alliance with 3Com in the San market and insisted that it expected to see the supplier return to the sector in future.

In April, 3Com pulled out of the San business, weeks after announcing a partnership with Storagetek, where the two players would combine their San software, hardware and professional services (PC Dealer, 7 April).

The withdrawal came after comments made by Eric Benhamou, chief executive of 3Com, that Sans would be one of the key growth drivers for the underperforming networking firm.

But analysts claimed 3Com has realised that San technology - which enables users to store, move and share data as if it were a single system - was technically too different to the Lan architecture on which its products are based.

Commenting on the failed alliance with 3Com, Don Kleinschnitz, vice president of marketing and alliances at Storagetek, who set up the partnership, said at Networld+Interop show: 'It was very unfortunate because I think 3Com would have been a great player, but I believe it will be back once its business situation is improved. I don't think any networking company is going to be safe avoiding San in the long run. The fundamentals of networking are the same whether you're using fibre channel or TCP/IP.'

He added that Storagetek was now looking for another partner and hoped to find a data networks firm that would test for interoperability between third-party storage products and Storagetek's. 3Com was also supposed to license its host bus adapters to Storagetek, but the firm has struck a deal with JNI.