Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat » Chris Mellor Archives – Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat http://blog.fosketts.net Understanding the accumulation of data Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:40:43 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= Dell Storage Forum – London, UK http://blog.fosketts.net/2011/12/20/dell-storage-forum-uk/ http://blog.fosketts.net/2011/12/20/dell-storage-forum-uk/#comments Tue, 20 Dec 2011 22:06:29 +0000 Stephen http://blog.fosketts.net/?p=6547

I’m very pleased to have been invited to attend the Dell Storage Forum in London on January 9-12. I’ve been closely following Dell’s progress in the field of enterprise storage, and look forward to learning more at this event. Even better, I have been told that many of my friends in the enterprise storage community will be joining me in London, including Chris Evans, Nigel Poulton, Martin Glassborow, and many others.

This post is really something of a placeholder at this point, and I will be updating it with information as the event approaches.

Ok, a bit more information. I’ve been told the following folks will be there, and I’m really looking forward to seeing them again!

Then there are all the great folks from Dell itself who’ll be there:

Even if you’re not coming to Dell Storage Forum, you can join the crew in London for storagebeers on Tuesday evening at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese in Fleet Street. Greg Knieriemen and Ed Saipetch will be recording the Nekkid Tech podcast, and it looks like a huge number of storage folks will be there.

More information about this event is available at the following links:

If you are interested in my tech travel preparations, I recommend reading the following articles:

Disclaimer: As is the case with many similar events, Dell is paying my travel and living expenses to attend the Storage Forum. But if you think I’m going to write about Dell just because I went to this event you’ve got it exactly backwards. I’m going to attend the Storage Forum because Dell is a critical company in my area of expertise and I will be writing about them regardless. I’ll just be better informed (and better armed) thanks to this event.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2011. | Dell Storage Forum – London, UK
This post was categorized as Personal. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

]]> http://blog.fosketts.net/2011/12/20/dell-storage-forum-uk/feed/ 0 European Trip: SNW Europe, Storage Expo NL, and Storagebeers http://blog.fosketts.net/2011/11/01/european-trip-snw-europe-storage-expo-nl-storagebeers/ http://blog.fosketts.net/2011/11/01/european-trip-snw-europe-storage-expo-nl-storagebeers/#comments Tue, 01 Nov 2011 18:06:44 +0000 Stephen http://blog.fosketts.net/?p=6349

I am looking forward to many happy beers in Frankfurt, Utrecht, and Amsterdam this week!

I never skip a chance to travel to Europe, and I’m really looking forward to my trip to Storage Networking World (SNW) in Frankfurt tomorrow. As always, the great folks over there are organizing a Storagebeers event, and it will be wonderful to see all my European friends once again. First thing Thursday morning I’ll be on a train to Amsterdam and Storage Expo NL.

Storage Networking World Europe: Powering the Cloud?

The theme for SNW Europe 2011 is “Powering the Cloud” and includes the related Datacenter Technologies and Virtualization World conferences. I think I’m going to have to bring my official Cloud Security Blanket if all this talk of virtualization and the cloud overcomes my emotions. Seriously, can we talk about infrastructure like the good old days?

I’ll only be on-site in Frankfurt for a short time, arriving just before noon and staying through the night. I’ve avoided making too many vendor briefing appointments, even though they tracked me down to set them up. I just won’t have much time for that sort of thing.

Storagebeers Frankfurt

I see that a transplanted Storagebeers London event is scheduled in Frankfurt, and I look forward to it. Hopefully we’ll be having dinner as well, since all beer all the time is likely to put me to sleep after a overnight flight!

While on-site in Frankfurt, I’ll spend most of my time with my good friend Ilja Coolen, who will be traveling with me to Utrecht on Thursday morning. Also joining me in Frankfurt is my wife, Shannon. I know she always looks forward to spending hours watching me geek out with my friends!

I also look forward to seeing other friends, including Chris Evans (see his post, too), Chris Mellor, Enrico Signoretti, Calvin Zito, Fred Monsone, Rose Ross, Rick Schlander, Nancy Hurley, and many others.

Storage Expo NL and More Beer

First thing Thursday morning, Ilja, Shannon and I will hop on a high-speed train to Utrecht in the Netherlands. I’ll have a few hours to compose myself before I go on stage with my “VMware as Oedipus” presentation at Storage Expo NL. Once again, it’s a whirlwind tour of the Expo Hall, and I look forward to seeing my Dutch friends once again.

Thursday night is another Storagebeers event. It looks like Ilja has scheduled this for the Café-Restaurant Olivier in Utrecht, which is a short walk from the Expo Trade Fair Halls. If you’d like to join us Thursday night, hop over to Facebook or LinkedIn and register.

After Thursday, I’ll take a couple of days off to visit Amsterdam. I’ve never been there before, and Shannon I really look forward to exploring a new city. See you in Europe!

I'm getting charged up and ready for Europe!

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2011. | European Trip: SNW Europe, Storage Expo NL, and Storagebeers
This post was categorized as Enterprise storage, Personal, Virtual Storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

]]> http://blog.fosketts.net/2011/11/01/european-trip-snw-europe-storage-expo-nl-storagebeers/feed/ 0 Back From the Pile: Interesting Links, January 7, 2011 http://blog.fosketts.net/2011/01/07/pile-interesting-links-january-7-2011/ http://blog.fosketts.net/2011/01/07/pile-interesting-links-january-7-2011/#comments Fri, 07 Jan 2011 18:59:32 +0000 Stephen http://blog.fosketts.net/?p=4722 It’s been a slow week (the holidays) and a crazy one. I’ve started pouring out the thin provisioning series, with 10 posts so far, as well as launching a new video “talk show” about enterprise IT. And I’ve got a new post over at SearchStorage, too. Whew!

Subscribe to my Google Reader feed or follow me on Twitter to see these in real-time.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2011. | Back From the Pile: Interesting Links, January 7, 2011
This post was categorized as Computer History, Enterprise storage, Everything, Personal, Terabyte home, Virtual Storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

]]> http://blog.fosketts.net/2011/01/07/pile-interesting-links-january-7-2011/feed/ 0 Ask Yourself: Is This Response Adding To The Conversation? http://blog.fosketts.net/2010/05/12/response-adding-conversation/ http://blog.fosketts.net/2010/05/12/response-adding-conversation/#comments Wed, 12 May 2010 14:03:32 +0000 Stephen http://blog.fosketts.net/?p=3103 Warning: This is an uncharacteristically grumpy blog post.

I write about technology and gadgets. One truism that’s especially true of this world is “Nil novi sub sole” – there’s nothing new under the sun. Most new electronics, from flashing trinkets to data center whales, incorporate existing technologies, often in non-novel ways. Another useful metaphor is “standing on the shoulders of giants.” But this post isn’t about metaphors or even technology. It’s about people who have to shoot their mouths off.

“Macs are just expensive PCs,” some say, or “the iPad is a giant iPod Touch.” No kidding. Really? You mean Saint Jobs and Company used common components and didn’t invent every part of their new kit? That’s a total shock to me! Next you’ll tell me that the iPod Touch was just a de-phoned iPhone or that the iPhone incorporated multi-touch technology developed somewhere other than Cupertino. Or that Apple copied Xerox when they made the Mac.

Seriously, folks. I know this. I do. Everything (and I mean everything) is based on something that existed before it. There are no totally out-of-left-field ideas. Nothing new under the sun. But this doesn’t mean there is no innovation. The iPad is important not because of what it’s made of but because of what that combination of ingredients allows you to do. It’s innovative despite its components. Same for the iPhone. Same for Windows Phone 7 and Android. These things are cool, no matter what they are built of.

Yesterday I posted about a new SDRAM-based solid-state drive from STEC. I called it a scoop because, even though it wasn’t announced yet, Chris Mellor spotted it on the floor at EMC World, asked me about it, and I dug up the details. STEC has only ever made flash-based SSDs and is now making a SDRAM-based one. That’s news. I don’t care that 15 other companies thought of using DRAM for storage dating back 20 years (ahem, EMC!) They aren’t STEC and they didn’t reveal this new product on Monday.

So why, then, did I get all sorts of “we/they did that first” comments? Did they really add to the conversation? Was it sour grapes that I was talking about STEC instead of some other company? Or, even worse, was it merely advertising-as-comment, desperately pointing out one’s own products while pretending to engage in social media? This is the equivalent of a Target spokesman hanging around at Wal Mart stores and whispering to the “other shoppers” that they sell razor blades even cheaper. It’s dishonest, disingenuous, and dishonorable. Let’s just call it anti-social media.

Some weren’t like this. Some said “that’s cool” and engaged in conversation about it. Yes, they might work for a company that makes something similar, but they were smart enough not to deny that other companies products deserve attention, too. We all get our turn to shine.

So I would like to challenge everyone who reads my blog. Are you adding to the conversation? Are you discussing the merits of a product or technology? Or are you trying to disrupt that conversation and turn attention to your own offerings? I’d like to thank the former and warn the latter: People are smart, and they’ll spot a phony.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2010. | Ask Yourself: Is This Response Adding To The Conversation?
This post was categorized as Personal. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

]]> http://blog.fosketts.net/2010/05/12/response-adding-conversation/feed/ 1 Back From the Pile: Interesting Content From the Week of May 2, 2009 http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/05/04/pile-interesting-content-week-2-2009/ http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/05/04/pile-interesting-content-week-2-2009/#comments Mon, 04 May 2009 14:21:44 +0000 Stephen http://blog.fosketts.net/?p=1826 There were some interesting events and blog posts last week. This new weekly feature highlights those!

Enterprise IT

Apple

Life

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2009. | Back From the Pile: Interesting Content From the Week of May 2, 2009
This post was categorized as Everything. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

]]> http://blog.fosketts.net/2009/05/04/pile-interesting-content-week-2-2009/feed/ 0 3PAR Reserves A Seat At The Solid State Disk Drive Table http://blog.fosketts.net/2008/10/28/3par-inserve-ssd-drive/ http://blog.fosketts.net/2008/10/28/3par-inserve-ssd-drive/#comments Tue, 28 Oct 2008 13:28:21 +0000 Stephen http://blog.fosketts.net/?p=993 Last week, I outlined where the various enterprise storage vendors stood on the key question of whether flash memory is a cache or a disk. In that article, I noted that 3PAR is notably absent in the enterprise flash world. In fact Mark Farley, 3PAR blogger extraordinaire, recently made it sound like 3PAR would sit on the fence for a good while longer, even comparing flash with optical technology (ouch!)

Well 3PAR is on the fence no longer. Marketing VP, Craig Nunes, has informed Chris Mellor of The Register that 3PAR will use flash as “tier-0″ storage in their InServe arrays. It is not clear how the company will integrate flash with their current strategy of wide-striping data across as many spindles as possible, but their post-RAID virtualized architecture ought to be able to make excellent use of the performance that flash drives bring, provided they have automated block-based tiering. And answering my question from the other day, 3PAR is definitely in the “flash is a disk” camp.

This is not an official announcement, and no dates or suppliers are given beyond the promise that the InServe is ready to handle FC SSD drives today. I look forward to Marc’s take on this!

Update: Marc’s response was sort of a non-response. He admits that SSDs are on the radar but insists that they’re not on the release roadmap, denies that there is “some sort of like weird greco wrestling match” between him and Craig Nunes (boy, that’s a relief!), and promotes 3PAR’s Dynamic Optimization technology, which I wasn’t aware of. I’d like to hear more, Marc!

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2008. | 3PAR Reserves A Seat At The Solid State Disk Drive Table
This post was categorized as Enterprise storage, Virtual Storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

]]> http://blog.fosketts.net/2008/10/28/3par-inserve-ssd-drive/feed/ 1 Is the FCoE Starting Pistol Aimed at iSCSI? http://blog.fosketts.net/2008/10/16/fcoe-versus-iscsi/ http://blog.fosketts.net/2008/10/16/fcoe-versus-iscsi/#comments Thu, 16 Oct 2008 17:51:14 +0000 Stephen http://blog.fosketts.net/?p=900 The pistol shot heard this week was the starting gun for FCoE, not the execution of iSCSI

The pistol shot heard this week was the starting gun for FCoE, not the execution of iSCSI

To hear this week’s storage industry news reports, one might think that Wagner’s fat lady came to Storage Networking World (SNW), singing her song as the iSCSI world collapses. Storagebod wonders what iSCSI’s death will look like. Chris Mellor at The Register says “Game Over” as NetApp, QLogic, Emulex and VMware join EMC and Cisco in singing the praises of Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE). Mellor suggests that the protocol will devalue Dell’s EqualLogic investment, as if HP’s acquisition of LeftHand wasn’t enough, even as fellow Register-ite, Bryan Betts disagrees.

But The Register didn’t invent the “FCoE kills iSCSI” meme – it’s just natural to imagine that these two protocols would be in a fight to the death. And if it’s a duel, then this year’s SNW conference would seem to be the first volley, as EMC introduced a FCoE Connectrix switch (based on Cisco), NetApp announced the first native FCoE array, and everyone qualified Emulex and QLogic adapters. However, despite these announcements, it’s way too early to bury iSCSI!

FCoE and iSCSI are similar in concept:

  • Both rely on Ethernet physical connectivity
  • Both transmit SCSI packets
  • Both are aimed at date center users

But there are major differences as well:

  • iSCSI is routable in an IP network
  • iSCSI can use IP services like IPsec
  • Software initiators can give iSCSI connectivity to any server, regardless of hardware
  • FCoE will require converged network adapters (CNAs), while iSCSI can run on any Ethernet adapter
  • FCoE will start at 10 Gb, while iSCSI can operate at just about any speed

Looking at this list, one might realize that FCoE is really a competitor for faster-than-4 Gb Fibre Channel. It’s not just a data center product, it’s an enterprise (read high-end and expensive) product, and that’s exactly where it will flourish. I have no doubt that Cisco and Brocade will successfully transition their Fibre Channel product lines to FCoE, and that QLogic and Emulex will sell a gazillion CNAs. But what about the rest of the market?

VMware’s adoption has shown that there is a taste for shared, networked storage outside the rarified budgets of the enterprise world. So far, no storage protocol has won the midrange and virtual server market, with Fibre Channel, iSCSI, and NFS duking it out along side internal SAS and SATA and the odd InfiniBand and external SAS solution. Although CNAs and FCoE ought to work fine in the virtual data center, not everyone will have a taste for them. There will always be plenty of folks who just want inexpensive external networked storage arrays, and iSCSI is the best thing they’re likely to see any time soon!

And iSCSI isn’t done evolving. Folks like Mellor, Chuck Hollis, and Storagebod are lauding FCoE at 10 gigabit speeds, but seem to forget that iSCSI can run at that speed, too. It can also run on the same CNAs and enterprise switches. And although wide(r)-area SANs aren’t common, I’m beginning to see some interest in leveraging the routability and other advanced features of IP in the storage world. iSCSI still has some cards to play! And the non-enterprise space isn’t nearly as awful as some make it sound – it is and will remain a bigger, more diverse market than the high end, and there are some serious buyers that will never get into FCoE.

Right now, the SAN world is expanding like it hasn’t done for years. iSCSI deployments are accelerating, growing the whole market. Sure, FCoE will probably completely replace old-school Fibre Channel over the next five years. But it will have to share the market with the now well-established iSCSI. It looks to me like Dell and HP made smart investments.

Update: More coverage on the topic:

See my posts on Gestalt IT for similar enterprise IT infrastructure commentary

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2008. | Is the FCoE Starting Pistol Aimed at iSCSI?
This post was categorized as Enterprise storage, Virtual Storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

]]> http://blog.fosketts.net/2008/10/16/fcoe-versus-iscsi/feed/ 23 The Register Gulps Down Blocks and Files http://blog.fosketts.net/2008/09/01/the-register-gulps-down-blocks-and-files/ http://blog.fosketts.net/2008/09/01/the-register-gulps-down-blocks-and-files/#comments Mon, 01 Sep 2008 15:05:37 +0000 Stephen http://blog.fosketts.net/2008/09/01/the-register-gulps-down-blocks-and-files/ News today is that powerhouse IT publisher, The Register, has snapped up storage industry reporting up and comer, Blocks and Files. Included in the deal is amusing editor/writer Chris Mellor and the back catalog of editorials. Left to rot are the sponsored (?) advertorials and regurgitated press releases. B&F will become a new storage-focused Register section. I imagine Chris’ trademark snarky wit will be quite welcome under the vulture mascot.

(how’d I do, Chris?)

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2008. | The Register Gulps Down Blocks and Files
This post was categorized as Enterprise storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

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