Proposed server backup specification is gaining ground

Backers of a proposed protocol that lets different servers and backup software interoperate last week began shipping a software developers' kit (SDK) to help speed the protocol's adoption.

Network Appliance, Inc. and Peripheral Devices Corp. (PDC) are codevelopers of the Network Data Management Protocol (NDMP), first announced last October. NDMP will eliminate the need for vendors to port their data management software to different combinations of file servers and storage devices.

Vendors that want to market NDMP-compliant products can license libraries included in the SDK.

The protocol is still being reviewed by the Internet Engineering Task Force, and approval is not expected until later this year. However, last December, PDC and Network Appliance enabled their product lines for NDMP, and the availability of the protocol's SDK will put more NDMP-compliant products on the market.

Analysts said all the NDMP activity is not premature and can only help in the long run.

"It's difficult to wait around until all of the t's are crossed and i's are dotted," said Robert Abraham, vice president of Freeman Associates, Inc., a market research firm in Santa Barbara, Calif. You can't get started unless you make the first step, and that is what they are doing, moving their standard forward."

Network Appliance and PDC officials said if changes are made to the protocol during the approval process, vendors and customers will receive a software upgrade.

The NDMP SDK and a copy of the spec can be downloaded from the NDMP Web site (www.ndmp.org). The site also features a discussion group and a complete list of vendors backing the initiative.