Will 6Gb SAS kill Fibre Channel?

Storage I/O trends

With the advent of 6Gb SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) which doubles the speed from earlier 3Gb along with other enhancements including longer cable distances up to 10m, does this mean that Fibre Channel will be threatened? Well, I’m sure some conspiracy theorist or iSCSI die hards might jump up and down and say yes, finally, even though some of the FCoE cheering section has already arranged a funeral or wake for FC even while Converged enhanced Ethernet based Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and its complete ecosystem completely evolves.

Needless to say, SAS will be in your future, it may not be as a host server to storage system interconnect, however look for SAS high performance drives to appear sometime in the not so distant future. While over time, Fibre Channel based high performance disk drives can be expected to give way to SAS based disks, similar to how Parralel SCSI or even IBM SSA drives gave way to FC disks, SAS as a server to storage system interconnect will at leat for the forseeable future be more for smaller configurations, direct connect storage for blade centers, two server clusters, extremely cost sensitive environments that do not need or can afford a more expensive iSCSI, NAS let alone an FC or FCoE based solution.

So while larger storage systems over time can be expected to support high performance 3.5″ and 2.5″ SAS disks to replace FC disks, those systems will be accessed via FCoE, FC, iSCSI or NAS while mid-range and entry-level systems as they do today will see a mix of SAS, iSCSI, FC, NAS and in the future, some FCoE as well not to mention some InfiniBand based NAS or SRP for block access.

From an I/O virtualization (IOV) standpoint, keep an eye on whats taking place with the PCI SIG and Single Root IOV and multi-root IOV from a server I/O and I/O virtualization standpoint.

Ok, nuff said.

Cheers gs

Greg Schulz – Author Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press), The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC Press) and Resilient Storage Networks (Elsevier)
twitter @storageio

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Spring 2008 Storage Descisions Wrap-Up

Once again the Techtarget (TT) folks put on a great event at the spring 2008 edition of Storage Decisions (SD) event in Chicago, tip of the hat to the whole TT crew. SD is known as an IT consumer/user event as opposed to industry events like SNW that are known as a vendor to vendor networking event. TT has added a new form over the past year that occurs the day/night before SD focused on the channel and var audiences with a dinner networking seminar called StorageStrategies. While SD continues to be focused on the IT consumer aka user, the TT channel program is a means for vendors to get in front of perspective channel partners to tell their story and value proposition of why they should be partnered. It?s a fun and growing event that I have been involved with for over a year now talking with the channel folks about issues and opportunities to address the various needs IT organizations. If you are a vendor looking to expand your channel presence, or, a channel partner var looking for new solutions, technologies and partners, these series are a great way of networking.

The main focus however last week was the SD event which had a great turnout of around 550 IT and storage professionals (not counting vendors, exhibitors, vars, media and analysts). To put the attendance in perspective compared to other events. I guess you could virtualizes the attendance of IT folks at about 65,431 however the reality number quoted by TT and observed (during the sessions, lunch and so forth) was in the mid 500?s (not including vendors, exhibitors, vars, media, analysts, hotel personal, stumping politicians, high school marching bands, tour groups and the homeless). Talking with vendors and exhibitors, the census was that they were either getting a boat load of good leads, or, getting actual appointments and meetings for near term opportunities that might help their sales reps win or buy a new boat, car, home, or cup of coffee.

Having been both a customer and a vendor before becoming an analyst years ago, it?s fun to walk the exhibit area listening and watching the different approaches and pitches by the booth personal. Some are focused on just getting leads, some on showing you?re their demo, some on how well they memorized their buzzword laden sales pitch, some can even give you their elevator value prop pitch in less than 30 seconds to get you to stay for another five minutes prompting a rescheduling to give them another 20 minutes of time. I?m still waiting for some vendor to bring in the carnival midway skills game where participants use a water gun or other item to know that particular vendors competitors logo on a target down, or, to knock down various IT issues.

In between all my meetings, presentations, recording some new video techtalks (Data footprint reduction, hot topics for the channel, clustered storage and NAS for SMBs) and other activity at the recent Storage Decisions event in Chicago this past week, I was able to meet up with some friends and former co-workers for a relaxing dinner at Buddy Guy?s Legends across the street from the event hotel. Performing on stage was Vino Louden who plays the guitar with the sole and feeling of Stevie Ray Vaughn and creative flare of Jimmy Page backed by his three man band. If you have never been to Legends you still have time to go there as the joint is staying open until their new facility is ready.

As soon as TechTarget posts the links to the session presentations including my talks on ?Clustered Storage and NAS? that included Web 2.0 and bulk storage as well as my talk about ?Green and Energy Efficient Storage? I will post them on this blog.

Cheers
GS

Hot Storage Topics Converge on Chicago Next Week

Storage I/O trends

Next week in Chicago (May 12th) at Storage Strategies, the event for channel professional held the evening before StorageDecisions I will be talking about Hot Storage Topics for 2008 including addressing data protection for virtual environments, power cooling floor space environmental (PCFE) aka green items and the “Green Gap”, data footprint reduction for both on-line active and changing data using real-time data compression, archiving for in-active or dormant data and de-dupe for backup data. Also on the list of hot topics will be clustered NAS and clustered storage for Web 2.0 along with other timely and relevant items.

At the StorageDecisions event, I will be talking about ?Green and Environmental Friendly Storage? Tuesday morning May 13th in the presentation ?Practical Ways to Achieve Energy Efficiency – Power, Cooling, Floor-Space and Environmental (PCFE) Issues and Trends? looking at different issues including the ?Green Gap? or disconnect between messaging and common IT data center issues along with various options to boost efficiency for both active and in-active data and storage resources.

Also while at StorageDecisions next week, on Wednesday the 14th I will be talking about clustered storage including clustered NAS in the session ?Clustered Storage – ?From SMB, to Scientific, to File Serving, to Commercial, Social Networking and Web 2.0?. Given some recent vendor technology announcements and statements of direction, Web 2.0 and unstructured data are gaining popularity as are the confusing options or different types of clustered storage solutions including ?Cluster Wanna Bee?s?. If you are in Chicago next week, stop in and check out the event and if you can attend any of my sessions, stop by and say hello.

Cheers
GS