IBM, Cisco Form Open Storage Group

Eight storage device makers announced on Tuesday plans to form a group known as Aperi that will look to develop a platform for managing storage devices. The group includes IBM, Sun, Cisco, Fujitsu, McData, Computer Associates International, Brocade Communication Systems, Network Appliance, and Engenio Information Technologies.

Aperi will attempt to settle on an open source standard for storage, and will use preexisting work done in the arena, such as that from the Storage Networking Industry Association's Storage Management Initiative Specification. IBM will also make a donation of technology to the group; other members may do so at a later time, but no announcement had been made as of yet.