All three of the array-scaling approaches I discussed last week preserve traditional client protocols for connectivity, an admirable goal to be sure. But the inflexibility of these protocols holds the storage industry back, often requiring extreme efforts to achieve simple goals like continuous availability. Attempts to evolve protocols to be more flexible have met with a great … [Read more...] about Scaling Storage At The Client
AoE
Back From the Pile: Interesting Links, February 11, 2011
I've spent this week in San Jose, CA at Tech Field Day 5, and that's the bulk of my news. We heard from great companies: Symantec, Drobo, Druva, Xangati, NetEx, InfoBlox, and HP. Whew! Tech Field Day 5 links Official stuff: Tech Field Day 5: The Links Tech Field Day 5: The Videos Rob Novak shared his Thoughts from Tech Field Day 5 A great post by Greg … [Read more...] about Back From the Pile: Interesting Links, February 11, 2011
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. This piece assumes you know something about the OSI model. Ivan … [Read more...] about The Lure of Layer 2
Reality Check: The FCoE Forecast
This is part of an ongoing series of longer articles I will be posting every Sunday as part of an experiment in offering more in-depth content. There has been a lot of discussion in the storage industry about Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), making it the toast of Storage Networking World, but this technology remains relatively unknown to end users. Like so many storage … [Read more...] about Reality Check: The FCoE Forecast
Will FCoE Rule the Future?
Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) has been a hot topic of discussion in the enterprise storage world lately, but many end users are just now hearing about it. Although some folks seem to think it's here with a vengance, others doubt that it will ever make the splash it promises, with 8 Gb FC, iSCSI, and even AoE (ATA over Ethernet) showing more promise. There has been some … [Read more...] about Will FCoE Rule the Future?