Veritas to support Cisco storage switches

Storage-system maker Veritas announced Tuesday that it will support Cisco's new family of storage switches with its software aimed at creating large backup networks. Cisco announced that it would buy Andiamo Systems, a storage-network hardware maker, and released its first switch aimed at the storage-network market, the MDS 9000. As part of Veritas' partnering program, Cisco devices will be fully integrated with the storage maker's software.

Storage networks allow every computer in a company to be backed up to a networked set of storage drives. The result is a more efficient use of disk space, as backup devices attached to computers typically only use 40 percent of their capacity, according to Veritas.