Storage Foundation for Networks will run on intelligent switches Software developer Veritas introduced storage management software today that runs on top of Cisco’s family of intelligent storage switches and directors — a telling indication of growing enterprise interest in network-based storage management offerings.Dubbed Veritas Storage Foundation for Networks, the new software was created by repurposing and combining code from Veritas’ own SANPoint Control and Volume Manager products. It was rewritten this year to run on Cisco’s Linux-based OS, SAN-OS 1.3, located on the Cisco ASM (Application Service Module).Putting storage management functions in the network makes it easier to provide the same sets of services across a number of servers and arrays. Without it, services are either confined to the array they live in or must be installed on each host. Jamie Gruener, a senior analyst with The Yankee Group said customers are interested in network-based functions, but want to make sure they can leverage what they already have with their host-based tools.“Customers are asking, ‘What are the plans here?’ ” Gruener said. “Veritas is positioning the two as very different in terms of requirements.”Veritas is not the only vendor to develop software to run on the Cisco MDS 9000 series of directors and fabric switches. In October, IBM announced it too had moved its host-based IBM TotalStorage SAN Volume Controller software to run on the Cisco platform. McData, MaXXan Systems and Brocade Communications Systems have also introduced storage switches, capable of running software. Just last week, Cisco upgraded the OS in ASM to permit intervirtual SAN routing that lets servers share storage resources even though they are part of a physically different SAN.