The Fibre Channel Technology Conference: A Brief Commentary (for now)
Richard Lary of Compaq gave an illuminating Keynote Address, "Storage Area Networks: The Shining Vision, The Gritty Reality." We are familiar with the Shining Vision vestments and several posters have already exposed the Gritty Reality underpants of SANs. But in Richard Lary's curt summation of the current state of SANs "Not only is the Emperor wearing no clothes, he doesn't have a Tailor."
Nobody there needed convincing of the tremendous promise of Fibre Channel SANs. The attendees consisted mainly of Channel Vendors, Value Added Resellers, Systems Integrators, and a few fanatics like me. At the Tuesday evening round-table discussion, the question that was directed to the audience "How many here are Customers?" yielded one lone hand. That unfortunate individual was set upon and swamped at the end of the meeting and pocketed enough business cards to make a Lucent commercial.
The point? In a nutshell, Fibre Channel Companies have done a good job of promoting themselves to each other and to Capitalists, but the Fibre Channel Industry as a whole needs to do much more to educate and inform IT Departments and Customers. Among the varied panelists and presenters, the consensus was that everybody is going to need SANs in the new world of e-business, but not everyone knows why or how SANs are going to enable their e-futures. Most of us know why and how, but we don't count, unless we're planning to run CDNs from our garages. The coming SAN infrastructure deployment at COMDEX should go a long way to demonstrate the applicability of SANs to a wider audience.
Right now, the lack of Standards, Interoperability, and Manageability across heterogeneous networks, are the Gritty Reality. If Common Standards do not emerge, if Device Interoperability is not achieved, and if Manageability is not honed to provide network security and dynamic configurations, there will be no Great Fibre Channel Market. The good news is they are feverishly working on it because their lives (and ours) depend upon resolving those key issues. Recent Alliances and Qualifications are all-important steps in this direction.
In the immediate future, Fibre Channel SAN adoption will likely be driven at the highend in IT departments with High Availability requirements. ISPs, ASPs, CDNs, are among the acronyms that will see the immediate benefits of SAN integration, along with Storage Outsourcing. These implementations will be focused primarily on Scalability and Management. High end switches and robust Management Suites are their critical components. In the long run, Storage Consolidation will be the impetus for pervasive SANs across the spectrum. In the longer run, Fibre Channel, as a high speed multiprotocol transport, will wax the WAN, kick up the CAN, and fly as a SWAN.
For now, the Emperor may be wearing no clothes, but at least his bolts of Fabric are in evidence. They say the Tailor is on the way and should arrive before His Eminence catches cold.
Douglas
(Some more bits and pieces from notes may appear on respective threads when I consolidate them. I do not plan on disseminating vendor specific information or observations [with the exception of Ancor as that is my primary FC interest]. Rather than attempting to address topics or vendors A-Z, I will endeavor to answer any specific questions directed my way, if I can. Please, no PMs or Emails, just post for everyone to see. P.S. - I bet there isn't anything in this that everybody doesn't already know. Sometimes I wonder why I go to these things. COMDEX anyone?) |
