Lersxt,
I have started following the Bay thread recently and I think your posts have been very informative. Thanks.
I was wondering what Bay or the Networking people were thinking about the new wave of Fibre Channel storage products that will hit the waves like a tsunami over the next year?
As I am sure that you know, on one end of the server, you get the Ethernet (FE, GE), ATM, or Token Ring. But on the other end of the server, you have Storage. Until recently, people didn't look at Storage as a networking opportunity, but it seems clear to me that "back-end" networks will become common someday. Fibre Channel is the next step in storage and unlike SCSI, it allows for the explosion of the SAN (storage area network) for a number of reasons from what i gather...
1.It can throw SCSI, FC, and "IP" around the storage environment.
2.It works at great distances over SCSI (10km) so storage can be in another building AND connected to your network.
3. It is much faster than SCSI and Ultra-SCSI
4. It works on copper and fibre
5. It allows 126 drives on a loop (as opposed for 15 for SCSI).
6. It will be on the major storage peoples drives (ie. now SEG is making FC RAIDs, Not anything else).
7. FC seems to compliment Ethernet and ATM. I believe some of the switch companies are working on ATM and Ethernet interconnects (routers??).
Sorry to blab, but I am a little excited about the possibilities of SANs getting into the mainstream early next year with the likes of DEC, SUNW, HP, Compaq and others most likely offering hubs, switches, adapter cards, etc...
There seems to be only a limited about of companies that make good products--
Fabric Switches --Ancor, Brocade, Arcxel
Hubs --Gadzoox, Vixel, Emulex
Many adapter card and controller companies.
Most of these companies are private. I have spoken with people from most of these companies and per a recent convo with the marketing guy at gadzoox, he says that 3Com and Cisco have started to get interested. I asked about Asnd and Bay and he said something like "Not that he is aware of."
Would it be practical for the Networking people like Bay, COMS, Cisco, Asnd to be looking at Fibre Channel or will storage area networking most likely go the way of the HPs, Compaqs, and Suns (ie. they have a better chance in acquiring access to the Fibre Channel game when it takes off.) Would love any opinions?
Thanks
pigboy
|
