May 14, 2012

Who Will Support SMB 3.0, and Which Features Will They Support?

SMB 3 Supporting Companies

I’m really thrilled about the improvements Microsoft is making to the core SMB protocol in Windows Server 2012. But it won’t really matter if nobody but Microsoft supports the new protocol. So I like to call out to all the enterprise storage vendors: Let me hear your support for SMB3.0!

SMB 3 is Going to be Huge, in both Scope and Impact

Big new features in SMB 3.0

Microsoft is about to release the third major revision to their ubiquitous network storage protocol, SMB. Windows Server 2012 and Hyper-V 3 will really highlight this technology, and I predict it will transform the way people think about networked storage for Windows systems. But SMB 3 is big in another way, too: there are tons of new features, and not all will be implemented by everyone.

IBM Edge2012 – Orlando

IBM really knows how to put on an event, so come on out to Orlando next month!

IBM has really stepped up their game this year, and they will highlight all this at their upcoming storage technology conference, Edge2012. I’m really looking forward to seeing what IBM Edge is all about, and I’ll be attending and speaking at the event in June.

Interop Las Vegas 2012

I'm headed back to Las Vegas for Interop once again

I am thrilled to return to speak at Interop next week, though not so much about returning to Las Vegas for the third time already this year. This time around, I’ll be on two Interop panel discussions in Mike Fratto’s storage track. If you will be at Interop and would like to meet up, let [...]

NAB Show 2012: My Initial Thoughts

Snapshots become "images" with a fast lens like this

NAB Show remains one of my favorites, and one of the only trade shows I’d unreservedly recommend attending on one’s own dime. From Thunderbolt to post-HD video to solid state storage, NAB has it all.

Fusion-io Hits the Mass Market with the Affordable ioFX Card

Fusion-io's new ioFX card brings ioMemory to the masses

The ioFX was the highlight of NAB Show 2012 to me. Bringing massive performance to the masses, the ioFX continues Fusion-io’s tactic of shaking up the industry. And since it uses the same ioMemory architecture and drivers as the flagship ioDrive line, I expect Fusion-io will have difficulty keeping up with demand.

Storage Field Day 1 – Silicon Valley

Tech Field Day is one of the coolest things I've ever been involved in. And who'd have thought I never did a storage-focused event before now?

Storage Field Day has an amazing lineup of presenters, with a special focus on disruptive market entrants. We will start off on Thursday with Kaminario, Nimbus Data, Drobo, Coraid and Quest Software. Friday we visit Dell, Brocade, Tintri, and Pure Storage!

Solid State Storage Symposium – San Jose, CA

We're talking Solid State Storage at our upcoming Symposium in San Jose!

It seems like everything in storage is in flux right now, with virtualization, commoditization, convergence, and solid state disrupting everything. That’s why we at Gestalt IT have decided to host a Symposium on the topic of Solid State Storage: We’ll be bringing in experts from a number of top companies to talk tech, and are inviting anyone interested to attend in person or watch online!

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From LAN Manager and SMB to CIFS: The Evolution of Prehistoric PC Network Protocols

SMB and CIFS was born out of the wild pre-history of PC networking

Computers aren’t much good on their own. This simple fact was evident even at the dawn of the microcomputing age, and has never been more true today in the “post-PC” world. If the standard microcomputer is the “Wintel” box (Microsoft’s Windows, Intel’s CPUs, and all that implies) then the standard network services protocol is SMB. So let’s take a nice deep dive into SMB, past, present, and future!