FCoE vs. iSCSI: The Cagefight! – Flexibility

This is the second in a series of posts designed to address some of the questions I’ve posed with respect to FCoE vs. iSCSI, in an attempt to take a detached view towards the pros and cons of each technology as it relates to measuring up in the data center. In this post, we will examine the question of whether iSCSI can provide the same type of traffic flexibility that FCoE can, for the same level of service.

Google vs. Directive 10-289

Oh, how we love to hate big companies. Microsoft, Apple, McDonald’s… all have felt the wrath of governments and environmental groups alike have been absolutely slammed in recent years about decisions of who and what they let play in their sandboxes and the nature of their influence in global cultures. No company, though, even with the inclusion of Microsoft vs. the Clinton DOJ, has been the target of such an all-out war against a single company than Google.

FCoE vs. iSCSI: The Cagefight! – Performance

In a previous post, I posed a series of questions with respect to understanding the nature of FCoE and iSCSI marketplaces. In this post I’m going to address one of those questions:

Is iSCSI fast enough at 10GbE, 40GbE, and 100GbE – even with overhead concerns, to rival the performance and efficiency of FCoE?

[2012.08.09 Update: This has finally been tested and I've written an update about the performance of the two protocols on my Cisco Blog]

Gartner on FCoE. Whoa There, Sparky

I’m too cheap to shell out the $195 (that’s $20/page!) for the latest Gartner report on FCoE, but there have been enough reports on the report that it’s not difficult to see the gist is consistent with Gartner’s long-running hate-affair with the nascent technology. I’m the first to admit that FCoE isn’t a panacea for the data center’s myriad array of issues, but Gartner seems to be far too willing to play the convenient role of grumpy old man and needs to be placed into some perspective.

Announcement: Google Buzz Market Report

I’m proud to announce that Mind Commerce has just published my market analysis of Google Buzz. “This report is one of the must-read reports for people who want to understand and evaluate the importance of Google Buzz within the Social Media/Networking space. These include – but are not limited to – social media planners, marketing decision-makers, and strategic advertising professionals.”

Non-Linear Communication (a.k.a. Being Neil Postman’s Bitch)

Everyone has some brush with fame. In my life I’ve been fortunate (or cursed, depending on how you look at it) to have several moments where I have been exposed to either great, popular, or paradigm-shifting people. When I was a freshly-minted Ph.D in the 1990s, I was a rising star in the field of Media Ecology and found myself attracting the attention of none-other than Neil Postman, who was most amused to call me “the poster child of new technology.”

Companies should not rely on Facebook as a long-term strategy

If your company (or you, yourself) has invested a great deal of time and money on a “Facebook strategy,” you are probably not going to like what I have to say. You may find yourself getting defensive, angry, and probably mutter naughty words under your breath aimed in my general direction (or even place them in the comments section). Fine; so be it, but just remember when you fail to get what you expect from devoting your time, energy, money and effort into Facebook as a B2C strategy, well, you were warned.

Early Lessons about Google Buzz

Google’s Buzz has only been released into the wild for three days, but already there are numerous issues surrounding privacy that may wind up severely damaging Google’s reputation. Google’s decision to automatically interconnect everyone and their brother (quite literally) has triggered the Law of Unintended Consequences, prompting concerns about everything from abused spouses wanting to be anonymous to authoritarian governments cracking down on dissenters. Whether Google has jumped the shark on this one in terms of public trust remains to be seen, but we can still learn some lessons immediately.

FCoE Killer Sweet Spot: Health Care?

Recently I was talking to some health care people about what it is that I do, and tried to put it into context that they would understand. The more I started to weave the fabric (pun intended) of what FCoE is and what it could mean in health care terms. The more I spoke the more their heads nodded and agreed. It got me thinking: could hospitals and healthcare really be the sweet spot for FCoE adoption?

Re-Examining FCoE and iSCSI Pros and Cons

It should be obvious that I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about FCoE over the past 2 years, despite only blogging about it for a couple of months (hey, I’ve been busy!). But someone brought up something recently that makes me second-guess the role that FCoCEE will play in the marketplace in comparison to, say, iSCSI. In particular, with vendors now offering 1 Million IOPS in their NICs, is there enough of an advantage performance-wise?

Modified FCoE Adoption Curve

So, David Vellante created an excellent FCoE adoption curve posted on Wikibon today. When the conversation about “how quickly” or “how much” is applied to FCoE, whether it be hype, fact, or perception, I believe that David’s curve is an excellent broad based timeline that can be seen as a great metaphor. However, I think there is a major shift in the curve’s shape that should be included. Sadly, that shape is a slight downturn before we hit the full upswing.

The Key to Marketing – Yes, M-A-M™!

Okay, so you’ve gotten a better handle on understanding social media, but that’s just one piece of the puzzle – in fact, it’s the last piece. When you are marketing something, be it a new gadget, a service, a solution, or yourself, you must look at the bigger picture. That bigger picture is taking the process in sequence and following through. There are no shortcuts for this, though, so if you’re ready to get started, say “Yes, M-A-M™!”

Can Apple Compete in the Enterprise?

Once upon a time Apple had an incredible opportunity to play in the data center space. When the XServe RAID came out not only was it beautiful to look at (something you don’t normally think about when it comes to storage) but as a low-cost, Tier-2 or -3 array it made a very popular splash. At one point (in terms of TB shipped), Apple was the 4th largest storage vendor in the world.

Now, however, it’s a different story. The industry has changed drastically, the players have shifted and converged, and Apple is restricted in playing in the data center sphere where it once had promise (no pun intended). While it’s sort-of-in, sort-of-out at the moment, it doesn’t have to be that way. Apple could once again play a significant role in the Enterprise space… by breaking itself apart.

Cable Reduction Makes FCoE a Good Thing™

EMC storage guru Dave Graham did a quick video of the cable clutter in his lab. Great visual as to why cable consolidation and convergence is needed.

Why FCoE Is a Good Thing…
— This is a tongue in cheek video that I took in one of my labs showing why, for no other reason but fabric reduction, that CEE/DCE/FCoE is a valuable thing for ANY IT infrastructure. A couple of things you’ll notice here are:
a.) it’s loud. Sorry about that…this lab is in a thermal chamber and it [...]

Nethra’s Answer to FCoE – FastPipe?

Okay, so I confess. I hadn’t heard of Nethra either; it’s a semiconductor company focused on delivering imaging and video solutions for broadcast, medical, and surveillance markets. So why did they announce a release of networking and storage products competing directly with FCoE?