Filling a small hole in its product offering, enterprise data storage giant EMC Corp. will share APIs with NSI Software.
The deal, announced on Tuesday, gives Hoboken, N.J.-based NSI—or Network Specialists Inc.—the ability to port its popular DoubleTake replication software to EMCs midrange Clariion series of direct-attached storage hardware. With its own product, SRDF, EMC already has such capability for its high-end Symmetrix line.
“It is a complementary capability. Its over IP, it goes for greater distance, and its asynchronous,” said Don Swatik, vice president of alliances and information sciences at EMC, in Hopkinton, Mass.
In total, vendors numbering “in the teens” have signed with EMC to share Clariion APIs, Swatik said. But although EMC is always seeking new partners, “theres nothing defined as an area that we have to go fill per se,” he said.
However, EMC is still actively talking about API sharing with its rivals on the high-end front; currently only Compaq Computer Corp. is a partner.
“We are in various stages of discussions with virtually all of the companies youd consider to be direct rivals,” Swatik said, referring to Hitachi Ltd., IBM, Sun Microsystems Inc. and others. “We have a very significant sense of urgency.”