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

To: Pigboy who wrote (1076)	2/16/1999 5:48:00 PM
From: Douglas Nordgren	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 4808

Pigboy, appreciate your appreciation and the opportunity to pontificate further. Sorry for the delay in replying, SI's "squid" wasn't letting me post for awhile. Vixel and Brocade do Virtual Zoning. Only Ancor has Hard Zoning, Virtual Zoning and Broadcast Zoning capabilities. Virtual Zoning in an NT environment is moot as the NT device discovery process circumvents this capability and all security is thus handled by the NTFS. Virtual Zoning can be implemented in all the flavors of UNIX. Hard Zoning is implemented regardless of OS, a versatility mitigated only by the fact that no overlapping zones are allowed. "Routing enforcement" at the port level means "you can't go where you're not allowed" by rules set in hardware. You remember that TV ad where the hacker gains access to Payroll and publishes the VP's compensation on the corporate web - wouldn't be possible with Hard Zoning (unless he acquired a cleared login ID in which case nothing would stop him). The Private Loop market is primarily in small to medium sized businesses and departmental storage. When you get several Private Loops scattered around and need data access between loops, you will need Public Loop. So, Private Loop is good for "private storage" and Public Loop is good for "global storage." You can see where Public Loop has a place in the enterprise, Private Loop in the department. You can also have a SAN with a mix of Public and Private Loops. Cannot hazard any guesses about Private/Public Loop markets, but would assume the Public Loop market will grow with a proliferation of Private Loops. A Fabric Switch simply, put is an F_Port, and Ancor is not the only "true fabric" switch by that definition. I don't know what asic_1 could have meant when he said that, unless he meant that each of Ancor's switch ports are truly F_Port/FL_Port and E_Port/G_Port capable. But so are the new Vixel 8100s. As for Brocade and 3Com & Dell, I don't know what is going on. SAN security APIs by the likes of Legato etc. will probably incorporate either Virtual Zoning or Hard Zoning or both as the underlying mechanism for Policy Management, integrated with the security tools of respective OSes. Enterprises entail great complexity, and zoning is not a "slam dunk" security solution. This is where a little zoning expertise can go a long way, and you'll find that in the larger IT organizations. In the enterprise, hard zoning and public loop features can only make security and access a little bit easier to configure and manage. I hope that answers some of your questions. Would be interested in hearing your own theories on Public Loops and Zoning. I think these features are important in a switch, but not necessarily critical to sales unless you need them. Douglas P.S. - Will add "Rushmore" to the "to rent" list. Thanks.