Vicom SAN Connect provides true, "any-to-any" SAN connection, a capability that is often claimed, but seldom a reality when it comes to SANs. SAN Connect is a vendor-agnostic application that enables creation of open SANs by providing bi-directional protocol translation for SCSI, SSA, and FC storage systems without modifying host system software, drivers, or hardware.

SAN Connect is especially useful for extending the life of a legacy system, which may still provide useful service, but needs additional storage capacity. Frequently, these systems are prevented from accessing additional capacity because: • They lack backplane space for an additional controller • They cannot simultaneously support older and newer operating systems at the same time • New storage drivers are available, but are incompatible with versions of older operating systems.

Even if these considerations can be overcome, availability requirements demand multiple data paths, but SAN data path implementations or multi-vendor systems are incompatible.

Vicom's appliance-based SAN Connect solution solves this problem by providing transparent, high-availability, high-performance connection between any host and any storage system. Because a logical connection is made off-host by the appliance, the entire operation is transparent to the host system.

By enabling integration of all systems, SAN Connect eliminates SAN islands in which systems cannot share the SAN resources because of software or hardware incompatibilities. SAN Connect extends the lives of older, non-Fibre Channel systems, while offering the benefits of shared SAN resources. For transition to newer storage technologies, SAN Connect simultaneously extends legacy system life while newer technologies are phased in at user discretion.