The Ghost At The Feast.SAN over TCP/IP TCP/IP in full Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol Standard Internet communications protocols that allow digital computers to communicate over long distances. ? Just when Michael Peterson's excellent I/O Forum risked turning into a digital agape for InfiniBand, Andy Bechtolsheim of Cisco introduced a blast from the past that took away more than a few appetites. He asked innocuously, "If the Internet, not the network, is now the computer, shouldn't the Internet Protocol rule the roast?" The reaction of the attendees was predictable. The network folk sniggered, the storage folks snarled. IBM's Renato Recio at his most voluble led the counterinsurgency forces, tossing objections like snowballs in Vermont. Mr. Bechtolsheim was unmoved. TCP fast-forwards into hardware, Ethernet goes to 10, then l00Gbit/sec. Firepower blasts away all obstacles. As for InfiniBand, it's in the datacenter; IP is everywhere else. As for Fibre Channel, don't ask. However, as a neophyte I felt I had to. So I asked our resident strategic thinker, Fred Moore: "The move is to make storage externalization The ability to easily connect to and transfer information between business partners. Increasingly, information systems are designed to make their data available to outside partners and customers. This type of collaboration is expected to be a vital part of IT in the 21st century. See EDI. move to a second phase, after SAN. In this scenario, SANs move from a dedicated and specialized network to becoming a storage subnet. Better stated, it becomes another application of the larger, global network. Essentially, this spells out FC over IP, SCSI SCSI in full Small Computer System Interface Once common standard for connecting peripheral devices (disks, modems, printers, etc.) to small and medium-sized computers. SCSI has given way to faster standards, such as Firewire and USB. over IP, and even IP on hardware subsystems. I expect that all physical storage devices would stay on FC. GigEthernet is coming faster now and 10GigE is expected sometime in 2002. IP eventually becomes the protocol for all physical device interfaces. Newly developed NICs or HBAs will support all significant." The IETF's will be done. InfiniBand The InfiniBand Trade Association The InfiniBand Trade Association (IBTA) is the standards organization that defines and maintains the InfiniBand specification. It is an industry consortium. The IBTA was established in 1999, and its most prominent members include Cisco, IBM, Intel, Mellanox, QLogic, Sun and (www.infinibandta.org) is developing a new common I/O specification to deliver a channel-based, switched fabric technology that will ensure a transition from legacy bus I/O, like PCI (1) (Payment Card Industry) See PCI DSS. (2) (Peripheral Component Interconnect) The most widely used I/O bus (peripheral bus). and PCI-X (PCI eXtended) An enhanced PCI bus technology originally developed by IBM, HP and Compaq that is backward compatible with existing PCI cards. PCI and 32-bit PCI-X slots are physically the same, and PCI cards can plug into PCI-X slots. (Fig 1) or, as Justin Rattner of Intel put it, "Server Architecture Meets Fabric 110." He condensed it even further as, "USB USB in full Universal Serial Bus Type of serial bus that allows peripheral devices (disks, modems, printers, digitizers, data gloves, etc.) to be easily connected to a computer. for Servers", providing storage, network, and cluster connectivity (Figs 2a, b, and c). InfiniBand's architectural goals include very high RAS (1) See network access server. (2) (Remote Access Service) A Windows NT/2000 Server feature that allows remote users access to the network from their Windows laptops or desktops via modem. See RRAS and network access server. , increased cross-sectional bandwidth, scalability to thousands of endpoints, unified interconnect for IPC, network I/O and storage 110, improved latency and fewer interrupts, a message-based software model, and competitive costs for every tier of the server market. InfiniBand is the real thing-wherever it ends up (Fig 3). Awards I/O Forum began with Michael Peterson's thoughtful keynote on "Disaggregation dis·ag·gre·ga·tion n. 1. A breaking up into component parts. 2. An inability to coordinate various sensations and a failure to observe their mutual relations. , the Future of Computing," which probably had a lot of attendees surreptitiously consulting their Webster's and ended with an awards luncheon, highlighted by Best Product for 1999--Compaq's ESA 12000, Best Technology for 2000--Veritas' V3 Appliance, and Lifetime Achievement--Richie Lary, Compaq. A fine time was had by all. To this observer, I/O Forum represented the latest round in the converging of storage and networking mindsets. A coming together not without ego dislocation. It's about money, of course; namely, who makes out best when storage becomes one with networking. The future is always opaque, but in the present one can see what the odds are by consulting the financial pages. Cisco's market valuation is greater than all the storage companies combined. God--and the market--are often on the side of the biggest battalions. |
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