RE: "I wonder if you or Tony or Amy, Ibexx, etc... have opinions on this stuff?"
Hi Pigboy, he's smart and he carries a particular set of beliefs and has a reputable track record. Gilder loves Ethernet. And, I agree IP will dominate and 10 gigabit Ethernet will make big waves, and certain standards and technologies will be deployed to do some of the kind of things he alludes to. But he's a visionary person, not necessarily an implementer, and in this case, the devil is in the details. So, I disagree with the timing and over simplification. Like a great visionary, he talks as if it (his counter proposal) is all solved and deployed. And I can say it's not. But that's where opportunity is - he glosses over some as if they've already happened (when they're just beginning) and he dismisses others (like FC). But I concur with his big picture analysis - IP will rule - and that's where most of the opportunity is.
But your question was about the different storage mechanisms, can't say I know, I'm not a storage expert, but I'll make a guess (and the rest of my post is only a guess): It appears the tremendous IP growth could play a positive influence in the growth of NAS - I wonder if prospects first ask about NAS storage before SAN regardless of the merits of SAN? If they dig into the details, certain users could use SANs - like TV stations. I have no bias for or against FC, but I tend to view FC as a way to connect storage drives together in a high-speed manner and I sort of get this ATM-niche-kind-of-feeling, but I don't have an opinion yet.
On another point, he dismisses FC because he talks as if FC is going completely against the IP curve. When in fact, as Television Broadcast migrates to IP-broadcast, there will be an increasing need for storage handling, some of which SAN on FC could handle. So, contrary to what he indicates, the IP curve could possibly help indirectly fuel the need for SAN storage on FC. I believe their could be a niche for FC, e.g. TV stations with a whole farm of video disks will use FC to connect these.
Intel is using FC & SANs with their Server Farms, which appears to be an appropriate niche. I can't speak for Intel since I am not affiliated with the company, however, it's my belief Intel advocates nearly anything which consumes chips, which implies (to me) both could be fair game depending upon the needs. Since I'm not an expert on Storage, I really can't provide any insights.
Amy J |
