Likewise Works With Microsoft Server Message Block Protocol for Windows Server 8

Likewise Software, a software provider for identity, security and storage, announced a licensing agreement with Microsoft to empower Likewise Storage Services, to enable next-generation NAS devices with Microsoft Server Message Block (SMB) protocol support for Windows Server 8.
 
In computer networking, SMB operates as an application-layer network protocol mainly used to provide shared access to files and miscellaneous communications between nodes on a network. It also provides an authenticated inter-process communication mechanism.
 
"Likewise is seeing strong demand from our large storage OEM customers to provide early SMB 2.2 support. For OEMs, we reduce engineering investment and time-to-market while providing a richer experience to their customers," said Barry Crist, CEO, Likewise. "Our software helps organizations run application and user workloads on a NAS device and better manage the explosive growth of unstructured data by providing consistent access control for files across physical, virtual, and cloud environments. SMB 2.2 will be a big driver in shifting Microsoft virtual and cloud workloads to NAS devices running Likewise Storage Services."
 
"Microsoft is encouraged to see that OEMs are interested in supporting SMB 2.2 in their storage products, and we are working with Likewise to help build an SMB 2.2 ecosystem," said Thomas Pfenning, general manager, File Server Foundation, Microsoft. "With Windows Server 8, those who are responsible for application and infrastructure will want to fully exploit SMB 2.2 for physical, virtual, and cloud workloads. Safely, reliably, and efficiently managing storage, while providing high performance and scale, is becoming increasingly important. SMB 2.2 will provide the protocol foundation for delivering these capabilities in Windows Server 8."
 
"For many IT organizations, block storage has been the only option for provisioning Microsoft application workloads. Block storage is complex and costly to administer," said Ken Cheney, vice president of marketing and business development, Likewise. "With Windows Server 8, workloads running on Hyper-V, as well Microsoft applications such as IIS and SQL Server, will be able to take advantage of the SMB 2.2 protocol, which aims to provide significant performance, reliability, and scalability improvements unattainable with prior versions of SMB. The new SMB 2.2 has the potential to reduce the complexity and costs associated with block storage by enabling both application and user workloads to access file-based storage using NAS devices."
 
The Likewise platform, Likewise Storage Services, is available for licensing under commercial terms by OEM vendors interested in NAS-enabling their Linux- or Unix-based storage devices. It offers a security model for file-based access and cross-platform, integrated storage across physical, virtual and cloud environments. The software provides integrated identity and access management, as well as both access to and control of a company’s intellectual assets, from Windows, Unix, and Linux systems.
 
Protocols supported by Likewise Storage Services include SMB/CIFS 1.0, 2.0, 2.1, and NFS 3.0. Consistent security policy, data management, audit, and reporting are available across these protocols for security and data governance. Pending protocol support for Likewise Storage Services includes SMB 2.2, NFS 4.x / pNFS, HTTP/s, WebDAV, and a REST API. Likewise Storage Services supports multiple directory service providers including Active Directory, LDAP, and NIS. The modular, API-driven architecture of Likewise Storage Services delivers performance for a variety of workloads and allows for integration with most proprietary vendor file systems.