A COMPANY called Likewise has helped promote Microsoft APIs and control by Microsoft. EMC has just become its parent, just like VMware:
EMC's Isilon business unit has splashed out and bought a fast-growing startup, Likewise, whose software both EMC and other OEMs and enterprises use to NAS-enable Unix- and Linux-based storage devices.
VC-funded Likewise Storage Services (LSS) says it offers a consistent security model for file-based access and cross-platform, unified storage across physical, virtual and cloud environments. It has integrated identity and access management and secure access to data from Windows, Unix and Linux systems. Supported protocols include SMB/CIFS 1.0, 2.0, 2.1, NFS 3.0 and the RESTful API.