When storage was still a back-burner issue for most information technology managers, options were scarce for standards-based storage gear. You had the prevailing product type from Vendor A, B or C. No one who was crazy enough to try such a thing expected the products to work together.

Storage standards have become more plentiful and meaningful, making products more compatible and enabling different approaches to solving common data storage and management problems.

However, be warned: Even when dealing with standards-compliant gear, managers should stick with products that have been certified for interoperability with the other tools they want to use.

Federal Computer Week asked leading storage industry analysts about some of the standards that will be most important as the industry moves ahead. In the second part of this two-part article, we look at standards for storage networking, data protection and device management.

iSCSI

Internet SCSI (iSCSI) is rapidly gaining acceptance as an alternative to Fibre Channel for building storage-area networks (SANs). The iSCSI protocol sends standard SCSI storage commands over general-purpose TCP/IP data networks.

"We believe iSCSI is certainly ready for prime time," said Dianne McAdam, a senior analyst and partner at the Data Mobility Group. "It has even gained acceptance at the largest storage vendors, which now offer iSCSI products."

ISCSI was originally targeted at small and midsize organizations or large organizations' remote offices. Those setups need the any-server-to-any-storage benefits of networked storage, yet they lack the IT skills and resources required to deploy Fibre Channel SANs.

Using iSCSI, organizations can network their storage to create a SAN using their existing Ethernet IP networks. They don't have to learn a new networking protocol in Fibre Channel or invest in Fibre Channel components, which can be costly. All they need are inexpensive iSCSI Network Interface Cards for the servers and a new iSCSI storage array. Or they can do an iSCSI upgrade of their systems.

"We're seeing a lot of iSCSI installation in government," said Greg Schulz, senior analyst at the Evaluator Group. "It is cost-effective, and you no longer need special components."