This regular series features highlights from the week. It was another big one for me, with my Network Computing writing gig starting up, the announcement of my Storage for Server Virtualization seminar series, and the finalization of Tech Field Day for February.
10 GbE
The Three Requirements To Overcome Inertia
In Philosophiæ Naturalis, Sir Isaac Newton defined inertia. Although he was referring to physical objects, the power of inertia affects companies, markets, and relationships in the same manner. Humans are creatures of habit, and change is challenging. When faced with a choice of continuing along the same road or branching off in a new direction, most will choose familiarity.
What If Light Peak Was Electrical Rather Than Optical?
As I considered the possibilities of the new Apple/Intel interconnect technology known as Light Peak, an odd parallel with 10 Gb Ethernet popped into my head. Much of the confusion around Light Peak revolves around connectors, power conduction, and backward-compatibility. Then, like the Grinch, I thought of something I hadn’t before: Why use optical at all? 10 GBASE-T does just fine over twisted pair, and short interconnect distances would reduce power draw to reasonable levels. What if Light Peak was electrical rather than optical?
The FCoTR Phenomenon Exposes the Weaknesses in Ethernet
The buzz about Fibre Channel over Token Ring has built rapidly over the last week. Industry experts like Greg Ferro, Denton Gentry, and Joe Onisick have weighed in, and the Packet Pushers Podcast featured the news in show 12, “Get on the Ring!” Some have called out FCoTR as a foolish hoax, but the FCoTR phenomenon is not foolish. Indeed, FCoTR gives everyone in the industry the chance to reevaluate the current state of the art and has exposed real weaknesses in the Ethernet-centric future of the data center.
The Lure of Layer 2
Unless you’re “in the know”, terms like “layer 2” can seem mysterious, making it all the more plausible when someone touts the benefits. It seems logical: “Bare-metal” communication must be better, faster, and cheaper than higher-level “everything over IP” approaches, right? But it’s not quite that simple.
