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By Mark Lewis,
Site Editor, searchStorage.com, August 09, 2002
Not
surprisingly, Ahmad Zamer, iSCSI subgroup chairman for the SNIA IP
Storage Forum, feels that iSCSI is the future. But what about the
security concerns of iSCSI? Zamer feels iSCSI offers a higher level
of reliability and interoperability than its Fibre Channel
counterpart. But when will iSCSI come down to earth and actually be
a viable option for storage departments to implement? When can we
expect iSCSI to be a mainstream technology? And what does it mean
that major players such as IBM and Cisco are pulling back from iSCSI
a bit? Zamer tackles these questions in this SearchStorage Q&A.
First off, why
should users consider iSCSI technology?
Zamer: The main
advantage of iSCSI is that it enables the convergence of storage and
networking. With iSCSI, Ethernet can transport network (messaging)
data and storage (I/O Block) data over the same wire. The ability to
move messaging and I/O block data together simplifies SAN
configurations and enhances their functionality. For example, users
can create redundant connections using only two Ethernet ports that
can transport messaging and block data. To create a similar
capability with today's technology, a user must connect four ports
(two Fibre Channel and two GbE) to realize the same redundancy. In
addition to that, iSCSI allows ports transporting networking and
storage data to failover to each other. In other words, Ethernet
traffic (messaging and I/O blocks) can failover and be
load-balanced, while storage traffic on FC cannot failover to
Ethernet ports. The improved ability to failover various types of
data traffic and load balancing enhances the availability of storage
to a level that is not conceivable with today's technologies. The
strength of iSCSI stems from the fact that it builds on
well-established technologies: SCSI, TCP/IP and Ethernet. As a
result, the challenges that users will face when adopting iSCSI
technology are expected to be minimal.
When can users
expect to realize the full potential of iSCSI? How many years off
are we from widespread implementation?
Zamer: It's hard
to speculate on future development. One can point to the general
consensus among industry analysts and organizations active in the IP
storage space for answers. It's expected that wide and rapid
adoption of iSCSI and IP storage will take place towards the latter
half of 2003 and in 200
Continued
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