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01.15.07
An ISCSI Debate....
 By Steve Duplessie
I loved Chuck Hollis' (EMC) blog, and equally enjoyed both Dave Hitz and Tony Asaro's responses. With EMC, Netapp, and another ESG'er pontificating on an issue, it must be good.
All of the aforementioned folks are smarter than I, but let me give you some different things to consider.
First, I'm an iSCSI proponent. I remember meeting an intern who worked for Andy Bechtolsheim (who's name I can't recall, but I do remember he looked 12 and had more brain capacity in his pocket protector than I've ever possessed) who was charged with figuring out how to push block data over IP. I think it took me 13 seconds to recognize the implications. It took me a bottle of wine to come back to reality - which is: 1. even if you could use IP networks for block traffic, it will be a long time before people use it to replace core data center technologies, such as fibre channel and 2. eventually it will not only replace fibre channel, but whatever other new specialized connectivity protocol/transport the world comes up with. I shall explain.
I remember within a very short time of the iSCSI initiative announcements people immediately got on one side or the other - there was not middle ground. I was in Silicon Valley when Nishan announced their IP storage router (in an awesome display of bravado, arrogance, and downright stupidity) by telling all that the days of fibre channel were over. They said this in the height of go go valley boom, when there were more than a dozen fibre channel players all getting piles of dough and driving Lamborghini's. My timing was brilliant, albeit pure luck. My cell phone rang with abandon, and everyone from the Wall St. Journal to the Financial Times was asking what I thought about Brocade going out of business. I remember Ashok Kumar from Piper Jaffray getting on CNBC or some equivalent and discussing the end of the fibre channel market. I believe it was early 2000.
Billions of dollars of value were traded in short order. I got a call from Brocade and was asked to come in. I had never met Greg Reyes, but knew most of his team, and certainly knew of him. They wanted my take - and I gave it to them - death is not near, but it is inevitable. I haven't changed my tune. Greg told me point blank "you can't put block data over IP". I suggested he not say that. I suggested he instead say "Brocade builds block storage networking equipment designed to enable sharing of high-performance, mission critical storage assets across multiple servers. In order to guarantee both performance and more importantly - reliability - we do that today using fibre channel. We don't care about fibre channel per se, nor any other specific protocol or transport - we care about providing the most reliable block networking services available to the thousands of customers we have around the world. If IP, or any other technology advancement comes along - as things always do - Brocade will adopt them and offer them to our customer base." In short, I suggested he tell the world this was no big deal, and if it mattered eventually, they would offer it.
He didn't. He said "you can't do block data over IP, you simply can't". He was wrong. The message was wrong, and this single statement did more to polarize the factions than anything else in this debate. (Brocade, of course, has subsequently adopted this position, rightfully so, as have most all fibre channel players. Once you remove the emotion and realize no one is throwing out the baby with the bathwater, cooler heads prevail.)
So Chuck's observations are hard to argue with - and Tony's right in stating that it's really a matter of perspective. Since I prefer my perspective, and feel I'm the most qualified to share it simply because I was there on day one (with no regard for competence, mind you), here's what is going to happen and why.
Continue reading this article.
About the Author:
Steve Duplessie is the author of the "Steve's IT Rants" blog, and the founder and Sr. Analyst of the Enterprise Strategy Group.
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