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Technology Stocks : Son of SAN - Storage Networking Technologies -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neil S who wrote (592)	5/14/1998 1:09:00 PM
From: Alan Aronoff	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 4808

I found the following PR interesting Bay Networks and Telia Deliver Residential Internet Access at 100 Mbps, and Sets Gigabit Ethernet Distance Record newsalert.com <<The innovative project includes a 22-kilometer Gigabit Ethernet fiber optic link between Bay Networks Accelar routing switches, which sets a Gigabit Ethernet distance record in addition to being the first Local Area Network established in a residential building to provide 100Mbit Internet connections.>> I thought GE had much more severe distance limitations. How does this work? And why the discrepency between a Gigabit link and 100Mbit connections... does it refer to contention due to the residential units sharing the bandwidth? Still pretty darn zippy. Wasn't Kobe/NTT/Ancor toying around with a FC based MAN at one time?

To: Neil S who wrote (592)	5/14/1998 2:14:00 PM
From: Neil S	Respond to of 4808

ITEM: IT Managers Get Sneak Preview Of Multiplatform SAN (05/13/98; 1:32 p.m. ET) By Chuck Moozakis, InternetWeek <Picture>Although much work remains on enabling storage area networks (SANs) to handle heterogeneous data, some early indications of what IT managers can expect are already cropping up. Both Computer Network Technology (CNT) and Brocade Communications Systems are rolling out products supporting disparate platforms through a common storage interface. CNT is relying on an UltraSCSI-to-Fibre Channel migration path with its recently introduced UltraNet Open Systems Director, while Brocade is using an all-Fibre throughway via its Zoning-enabled Silkworm Fibre switch. SANs are gaining increased attention by IT managers as an alternative to server-attached storage. By decoupling storage from the server, SANs can alleviate processor bottlenecks and offload storage information from primary data networks. By incorporating Fibre within a SAN, managers can also tap Fibre's gigabit-per-second throughput, thus providing additional horsepower to storage deployments. Fibre deployment is still very much in the formative stage. Although Fibre-fueled SANs will likely become the architecture of choice in the future, there still remains a significant number of small computer system interface (SCSI) installations, a market CNT is trying to tap into with Director. "There is a lot of SCSI in the market today, and users want to take advantage of this investment," said Dataquest storage analyst Tom Lahive. "CNT is playing in the middle of the road with a product that includes SCSI, as well as Fibre support." CNT designed Director for IT managers who want to place backup and restore activities on SANs, but still want to retain their investment in SCSI devices, said Brian Larsen, CNT's senior product manager. "Companies want to migrate from SCSI to Fibre Channel, but they don't want to do it all at once." Director handles multiplatform data through a combination of high-speed switching and its UltraNet SAN Software application, which handles load balancing and device prioritization. The device also integrates with ATM and point-to-point Fibre topologies, Larsen said. Switched-fabric Fibre support will come early next year, thus providing a path for IT managers who want to use more robust SANs in their enterprises. The device can be dropped into any existing network; management is provided either through a CNT-designed graphical user interface or Simple Network Management Protocol. A Web-enabled management console will be released later this year. Director is priced at approximately $5,400 per port, with up to 44 UltraSCSI ports configured on a single chassis. Fibre connectivity will cost $15,000 per port. Brocade, meanwhile, is touting its Zoning-equipped SilkWorm Fibre Channel switch. Zoning, announced in March, is a "fabric service" designed to ease the administration of switched-fabric Fibre Channel topologies. Zoning lets fabric-connected devices be apportioned into logical subsets, thus streamlining management and allowing disparate devices to use dedicated storage resources on a SAN. At this month's NetWorld+Interop, Brocade showcased a Zoning-enabled SAN that blends Windows NT, Sun Solaris, and Silicon Graphics workstations in a single configuration. The workstations were connected to a redundant array of independent disks, just a bunch of disks, and a tape library connected to the SAN through Crossroads Systems' SCSI bridge/router. Zoning is available to original equipment manufacturers at a price of $20,000. <Picture: TW>