Arguments over standards in the storage market are set to widen with the formation of the Open Storage Networking Initiative (OSNI).

For months, the industry has been debating which storage standard should be used - network-attached storage (Nas) or storage area networks (Sans).

Now, according to an OSNI spokesman, the group is proposing a third standard.

OSNI, whose members include Network Appliance, Cisco, Foundry and Veritas, has fanned the flames by saying it will develop an architecture to build storage networks using Gigabit Ethernet and Nas instead of fibre channel switches and other San technologies.

"Using IP technology will allow interoperability over different platforms, such as NT and Unix, and the creation of an open storage network," said Stuart Gilks, Network Appliance's technical services manager for Northern Europe. "A protocol to allow cross-platform look-up on Sans has not been established."

However, Tony Ruane, director of storage integrator Redstor, said that heterogeneous connections allowing the sharing of data in mixed-platform Sans are already possible, and that San technology is better suited to datacentre applications.

"Nas and San are two separate markets. If you had a requirement for more disk space, then Nas is great as a dumping ground. But if you want high-availability and high performance, especially in databases, Sans are the better choice," said Ruane.

However, industry analysts see the arguments as unnecessary. "This is an unusual position for the OSNI to take. The main storage vendor, EMC, is combining the two technologies to give end users the choice of which they want to use," said Anoop Ubhey, research analyst at Frost and Sullivan.