Author: Rainer Wolafka

The authors are employed at IBM”s storage competence center in Mainz, Germany. They work at the interface between technology and customers. Their duties cover a wide field of responsibilities. They develop and test new software for storage networks. They present the latest hardware and software products in the field of storage networks to customers and explain their underlying concepts. Last but not least they deploy and support respective hardware and software in customer environments. Ulf Troppens (centre) studied Computer Science at the University of Karlsruhe. Since 1989 he has been primarily involved in the development and administration of Unix systems, storage systems, data and storage networks and distributed applications. Rainer Erkens (left) studied Mathematics at the University of Mainz. His experience in the management of computers and distributed applications goes back to 1992. Since 2005 he is a technical support manager in IBM”s European Storage Competence Center. Wolfgang M¨ uller-Friedt (right) studied Computer Science at the FH Darmstadt. He is a software architect focussing on the software development of management applications for storage networks which support open standards such as SMI-S and IEEE 1244. Nils Haustein (left front) studied Electrical Engineering at the TU Chemnitz. For several years he is with IBM”s advanced technical sales support in Europe where he is focussing on digital archiving. Rainer Wolafka (right front) studied Electrical Engineering at the FH Frankfurt and Software Engineering at the Santa Clara University. Since 1997 he is working in the field of storage networks and the software development of management applications for storage networks.