Raidtec CEO Noel May On State-of-the-Art RAID.

In an effort to identify the technical and business direction of RAID technology, CTR recently interviewed Noel May, the founder of Raidtec. He has a broad background in the international computer industry including founding and operating his own company, which designed and manufactured computer systems for the OEM industry and establishing distribution networks worldwide. Mr. May holds extensive industry knowledge of the storage sector.

CTR: Is RAID technology now Fibre Channel-focused, or does SCSI continue to dominate?

Noel May: Yes, if it is external host independent RAID, but No if it is PCI server based RAID. Fibre Channel end to end external RAID has now really taken hold in the market. Many customers who are using Server Attached (RAID) Storage are moving to Fibre Channel for new installations with the view being taken, that they can upgrade to a SAN solution by adding SAN management software, such as our FC-Access and SANfinity applications and a Fibre Channel Hub or Switch. So they see installing FC RAID even as server attached as providing a clear path to upgrade whenever they are ready for it. As far as unit numbers are concerned, SCSI based RAID still dominates when PCI RAID is included.

CTR: RAID plays both in UNIX and Windows. Is there a role for Linux in RAID?

NM: Linux is gaining hold in certain markets where RAID fault tolerance is important, for example ISPs doing web hosting, embedded eCommerce servers, large processor clusters, and NAS servers. We don't see much demand outside of these markets right now but Linux is unstoppable and will continue to make progress in many markets. I expect to see considerable traction for RAID in Linux based POS systems in the coming months as many of the POS software suppliers bring their applications to market web based.

CTR: Has Network Attached Storage become the "killer application" for RAID devices? Is there a future for RAID as a system attached solution, other than in the low end?

NM: RAID in NAS is only a component part of the benefits of Network Attached File Servers. The biggest benefit is speed and simplicity of installation and ongoing support. NAS takes away the angst in adding RAID storage to general purpose servers attached to the LAN. The "killer" application for RAID devices has been the "R" in RAID, redundancy, minimizing downtime due to drive failures and in higher end RAID systems providing Active Failover in dual controller RAID configurations.

I believe while the demise of server attached RAID is greatly exaggerated, market trends show that there will be a migration to slimmer 1U type servers. This will mean where companies have more than three or four servers, a SAN will be the storage solution of choice. For small companies and workgroups, server attached RAID will continue to be the first line of defense against hardware downtime and in this category PCI based RAID will continue to dominate.

CTR: What is the role of RAID controllers in SAN implementations?

NM: Fibre Channel RAID controllers are the heart of SANs, we term our RAID controllers when used in a SAN as SAN Storage Controllers (SSCs). We differentiate them this way when we are able to embed SAN management applications into our FC RAID controllers. Those applications embedded provide LUN masking, LUN Sharing, SAN Firewall, inband remote mirroring, local/remote management of multiple SAN arrays, and storage virtualization.

This provides the SAN manager with the key ability to manage the SAN storage in the most efficient and flexible way. So SSC (RAID + embedded SAN software) controllers are the key intelligent elements in SANs.

CTR: What are the next technology hurdles that RAID controllers have to clear?

NM: Scalability, scalability, and scalability. Capacity is growing enormously at most companies each year and Storage Service Providers (SSPs) are gaining ground also. This presents new challenges for RAID controller technology to address this phenomenon. It means developing RAID (or call them SSCs if you prefer) controllers that are hugely scaleable. We are working on new RAID technology that introduces NUMA type capability (N+1) failover and hot port expansion into our product line by year-end. This will mean providing customers with the ability to populate a Storage Processor box with multiple RAID controllers and on the fly in a non disruptive way adding RAID controllers as required, to deliver linearly higher performance and or more ports to add additional storage shelves and initiators (servers). We are planning to introduce a system by yearend based on this technology that will be scalable to 32x2 Gigabit Fibre Channel ports, and with the introduction of InfiniBand early next year this will be scaleabl e to hundreds of ports. SSPs are the testing ground for this type of technology; they require no downtime and almost infinite expansion capabilities. This new technology will enables these issues to be addressed in a simple yet very powerful way.

CTR: Nowadays, to say RAID is to say server. Will RAID technology outlast the economic softness in the server market? How and why?

NM: I disagree, RAID in a server, PCI based RAID is synonymous with servers and therefore is becoming a commodity with the servers, not that there is anything wrong with commodities if you can own a big slice of it, but external SAN enabled RAID, which by value is the majority of the RAID business, is very robust and will continue to be so as long as the added value software/firmware benefits are tied to the SSC controllers. The value proposition of SSCs is compelling and I see no reason why this won't be so for the foreseeable future.

The second part of this interview will appear in the July issue of CTR.