27 August 2010

FCoE and Standards: This Is What Really Matters

In the recent weeks, J. Michael Metz from Cisco entered a ****ing contest with my friend Greg and decided to prove that the FCoE standards are done.

Will the Real FCoE Standards Stand Up ? No, They Can’t.

J Michel Metz attempted a sleight of hand magic trick to astroturf over the lack of progress on the Ethernet standards. Unpleasant.

Cisco UCS Servers – A Little Bit of Cynical Marketing Magic Can Go a Long Way

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You can take the view that Cisco Unified Computing System is a product that is carefully designed so that selling it is as easy as possible. A cynical marketing analysis has produced a product that customers can be convinced to buy. Or is it an innovation in server and data centre design that is desperately needed ?

Internets of Interest:18 Jan 10

Collection of useful, relevant or inane places on the the Internets for 18 Jan 10:

Internets of Interest:16 Jan 10

Collection of useful, relevant or inane places on the the Internets for 16 Jan 10:

Blessay: FCoE Is JUST a Transition Technology

Chris Evans believes that “FCoE” will rule the world. Hah. I believe it’s just a transition technology that drags Storage out of it’s closed, proprietary mindset into the open collaborative world. Data Networks can easily adapt.

FCoE Isn’t a Replacement for Infiniband, It’s a Cheaper Copy That Customers Will Buy

There is some misconception by many in the storage industry that FCoE is some type of replacement for Infiniband. My view is that FCoE is cheaper, dumber but MARKETABLE alternative.

Why Does This Remind Me of Putting FCoE in My Network ?

This photo reminds me of networks that I have worked on. FCoE anyone ?

Storage: Emulex Silicon Will Have iSCSI, TOE, FCoE, RDMA & iWarp in a Single Chip

Buried in this article from the Register is aparagraph detailing Emulex Gen2 chip that does all storage virtualisation in a single chip. The FC boosters will be unhappy, they will have to compete.

Reasons for Using NFS With VMware Virtual Infrastructure

“A lot of companies are using NFS as the preferred protocol to shared storage for VMware Virtual Infrastructure. In my personal experience, The administrative options and convenience of NFS is unmatched, and the virtual machine (VM) performance is surprising.”

The Case Against FCoE and Fibrechannel – A Reasonably Complete View

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A number of storage bloggers have been questioning the relevance of FCoE and why would you bother with it. Given the size of marketing budgets pushing FCoE and the reality distortion this generates, lets look at the case AGAINST FCoE.

Blessay:Cisco UCS Really Is Just Blade Servers With Fancy NICs & A Response to HP Network Ambition

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I found some information today, realised that UCS is really servers with fancy NICs. It also reinforced my belief that Cisco is responding to HP & IBM, not attacking them.

FCoE and the Return of Spanning Tree

One of the most amusing parts about Fibre Channel over Ethernet(FCoE) is that Spanning Tree is making a triumphant comeback. And I am talking a Roman style parade after the gates to the city have been built and the streets lined with gold.

Cisco Is Wishfully Wishing for FCoE Sales ?

Is Omar Sultan from Cisco is wishing that FCoE would actually get some sales ?

Foundry Postpones Vote on Brocade Deal, Stock Plunges – Network World

The path to FCoE is not running smoothly is it?

Are You Ready to Purchase a Brocade Ethernet Switch ? What ?

One of the more amusing byproducts of the FCoE marketing push, is that Brocade has announced that they will producing FCoE switches for their customers. So, are you ready to buy a Brocade Ethernet switch ?

Data Centre Ethernet Standards Fight Brewing ? Brocade Says FCoE in 2010.

I note this quote from a recent article on The Register where Brocade talks about their future strategy.

Data Networks – More Reliable to Than Storage Networks ?

I was participating in a storage design discussion and a Storage person threw up their most common complaint about networking – “we don’t know how to build reliable networks”. Let me take a shot at that.