Have you wondered why Microsoft's distributed file system product is
abbreviated and referenced as "Dfs" instead of "DFS"? Well,
a product that owns the trademark designation for "DFS" is already on
the market, and even more interesting, that product also provides distributed
file system technology. The non-Microsoft DFS technology was developed years ago
as part of the Open Software Foundation's (OSF's) distributed computing
environment (DCE) specifications. As you may recall, OSF developed DCE to
address interoperability between different UNIX operating systems, and between
UNIX and non-UNIX operating systems. OSF later merged with X/Open to become The
Open Group.
One of the many aspects of DCE is how file sharing occurs in a network
environment. OSF originally considered Sun Microsystem's specification for the
NFS, but it found NFS lacking in certain areas. OSF then looked at the Andrew
File System (AFS), an NFS alternative developed at Carnegie Mellon University
and commercialized by Transarc Corporation. To make a long story short, OSF
found AFS lacking as well; OSF then worked with Transarc to define a follow-on
specification to AFS called the Distributed File System (DFS).
DFS became part of the DCE specifications, but Transarc retained ownership
of the name and the non-exclusive right to develop and market commercial DFS
products. Transarc was so successful in developing and marketing its lines of
AFS and DFS products that it attracted the attention of IBM, which acquired
Transarc several years ago. Acquisition notwithstanding, Transarc continues to
operate as an independent organization, and as it stands today, Transarc offers
DFS products for both UNIX and NT environments.
So what relationship does Microsoft's Dfs have to DCE/Transarc's DFS? None.
Zero. Zip. Zilch. Microsoft Dfs was not designed with the same goal in mind, and
it does not interoperate with DFS. They are two totally different products that
have very similar names.