IBM looks to level field with EMC

Ten years ago, EMC Corp. blew past IBM Corp. to become the leading supplier of data storage for mainframe computers. To grasp the sheer humiliation of it, remember that IBM is the leading maker of mainframes and has a robust data-storage business, as well. Yet IBM still lost the storage market to an upstart firm in Hopkinton.

Big Blue is determined to get back on top, and these days its key weapon is virtualization, a powerful technology that can transform hundreds of data storage units into a single vast pool of information. In the process, virtualization eliminates the need to standardize on any company's storage products, enabling a loyal EMC customer to switch to IBM.

''We believe virtualization will do for storage what Linux did for the servers," said Andy Monshaw, general manager of IBM's storage business. The free Linux operating system offered a high-quality alternative to costly Unix software from Sun Microsystems Inc. In the same way, IBM figures that virtualization will even the playing field by enabling customers to choose storage from any company at all, confident it will all work together.

EMC officials aren't quaking in their boots. The company holds 22 percent of the external data storage market, compared to IBM's 13.1 percent, according to the research firm IDC Corp. But that doesn't mean EMC is blind to virtualization. The company is rushing to market with a storage virtualization system of its own. And last year, in a move that surprised the computer industry, EMC paid $635 million to buy VMware, a California company that makes virtualization software for server computers. The deal put EMC in the business of managing computers in corporate data centers. But it was also a key part of the company's virtualization strategy.

Virtualization matters because much of the cash spent on corporate computers and storage systems is wasted. Most servers rarely run at full capacity, and large data arrays contain lots of unused space.

EMC's VMware product installs a layer of software on a server that lets it run multiple operating systems simultaneously. A single machine can run Windows, Unix and Linux all at once, or it can act like five, 10, 20, or more separate Windows computers. Instead of buying five servers and running a particular task on each one, VMware lets a company put all five jobs on a single box, which now runs at full capacity. That's four computers the company no longer needs to buy.

Virtualization has been available for years on big mainframe computers like those made by IBM. But VMware has been the leader in bringing this capability to smaller servers. Indeed, EMC's archrival IBM is one of VMware's biggest customers, providing the software to users of IBM's Unix and Windows servers.

Allan Campbell, assistant vice president at MassMutual Financial Group in Springfield, has 80 Windows servers he uses for software testing and development, but these 80 servers run on just five computers, thanks to VMware. ''It's worked very well for us," said Campbell, saving the company $400,000 in hardware and administrative costs.

VMware users want one machine to behave like many machines. An Acton start-up, Virtual Iron Software Inc., does just the opposite. Virtual Iron is a Linux-based system that uses virtualization to let a company combine dozens of separate servers and treat them as a single giant computer. This pool of computing power can then be assigned to different tasks with a simple drag-and-drop interface. If an e-commerce company suddenly gets a large burst of new orders, the system manager can assign a few more servers to the task in seconds. When orders trail off, the extra computing power can be used for something else.

But in the war between IBM and EMC, storage virtualization is the battlefield. Once again, the idea is to treat all of a company's data storage arrays as one big pool of data. IBM does it with its TotalStorage SAN Volume Controller, a product that's compatible with storage devices from EMC and other IBM competitors like Hitachi Data Systems.

''Customers today are tied to proprietary things about certain vendors' hardware that keep them locked into that particular vendor," said Ron Riffe, storage software strategist at IBM. ''Our purpose with virtualization is to unlock those technical locks." Riffe said that by combining the SAN Volume Controller with IBM's latest high-capacity storage arrays, ''we're going to be able to take share from EMC."

Riffe also noted that IBM has beaten EMC to market with a storage virtualization product. But according to David Goulden, EMC's executive vice president of customer operations, that doesn't matter. ''Storage virtualization is in the kicking-the-tires stage," Goulden said. He predicted that most major companies won't get serious about deployment until next year. By then EMC's response to IBM, a product called Storage Router, will be ready to rumble. Goulden said that Storage Router, due out this summer, will offer a technically superior form of virtualization that will let companies manage their data faster and more efficiently than IBM's SAN Volume Controller.

Once Storage Router is ready, EMC plans to develop products that will integrate storage and server virtualization. A customer would be able to create hundreds of virtual computers connected to hundreds of virtual storage devices, without having to install new hardware. Adding new capacity to the data center would require little more than plugging it in and turning it on.

It's not an altogether happy prospect for EMC. Today, its customers are locked in, because it's difficult and expensive to switch storage vendors. But in a virtualized world, EMC customers can buy storage from anybody, with no worries about incompatibility. To stay on top, EMC's stuff must simply be better than IBM's or anybody else's.

But you can't lock up your customers forever; some clever engineer is bound to let them out eventually. Besides, the virtualization threat cuts both ways. EMC has a long history of snatching IBM's customers. With Storage Router, they may pick off a few more.

Hiawatha Bray can be reached at bray@globe.com.