Unboxing the Synology DS414 Slim NAS device, and sharing initial impressions.
Bandwidth, Latency and Throughput, the Star Trek Way
Okay, I know there are a lot of different explanations about how to describe these common components of networks (see, for instance, here, here, here, here, and here), but every once in a while I get a question about whether or not 40G will make things go “faster” in networks (often relating to FCoE and storage in general). Why write another …
Quick Take: Why Not the User-Defined Data Center?
I’ve been struggling with names (or rather, the act of naming) recently. As I get more and more involved into the aspect of Data Centers and Programmability, trying to become more familiar in a world that remains considerably alien to me, I begin to struggle with some of the rather buzzword-laden (but ultimately vague) nomenclature: Software-Defined Networks Software-Defined Storage Software-Defined …
OpenStack and Storage, a Response
I respond to an excellent article by Stephen Foskett, who was responding to one of my one OpenStack articles.
Brocade and Evaluator Group’s Really, Really Bad FCoE Study
It’s been almost four years to the month that I took on Gartner’s horrible anti-FCoE diatribe, and since then I’ve joined Cisco, written a few more blogs, and even gone toe-to-toe with the technology’s largest critic – Brocade. For the most part, the tete-a-tete has been cordial, if a little snarky (just the way I like it!), and generally falls …
SNIA SDC Observations, Part II: The Not-So-Good
In my first post, I was talking about how the SNIA Storage Developer’s Conference really met and exceeded expectations in a lot of ways. There were many shining moments, but unfortunately there were quite a few disappointing ones as well.
SNIA Storage Developer’s Conference Observations, Part I
This past week I went to the SNIA Storage Developer’s Conference in Santa Clara. It was the first time that I came to a conference as an attendee in a very, very long time. Overall, the experience was positive and interesting, but there were some moments of disappointment as well, as some of the major limitations of storage perceptions came …
Cagematch: Synology vs. Drobo
This post is a long time coming and is extremely overdue. The only reason why I am finally getting off my rump and writing something is because today I was forwarded an open letter, “mea culpa” article written by Tom Buiocchi, CEO of Drobo on Scott Kelby’s site. Now, I only got the link to Mr. Buiocchi’s response, and I …
FCoE Fact Frustration? Me too.
Last week, I had a very interesting email conversation with Chris Mellor, storage writer for The Register. As a trade press reporter, Chris has been trying to distill some of the technologies of FCoE for his readers and one of his articles prompted me to write to him and offer some corrections and clarification. At first I thought that Chris’ …
FCoE Standards: Taking a Step Back
While it may seem like I’ve been taking a hiatus from blogging for a while, the truth is that I’ve been working on a number of writing projects related to FCoE. As I mentioned on a recent Infosmack podcast there have been a lot of developments coming out this month and, understandably, there are a lot of people who are …
Infosmack Goodness
Just a short post today to promote the Infosmack podcast that I was fortunate enough to be invited to participate. I’ve been a fan of the podcast for a while and when Greg Knierieman asked me to join I was honored and excited. Along with Greg and Marc Farley from 3Par, I was invited along with Doug Hazelman from Veeam. …
FCoE: The Birth of the SLAM Admin
We have LAN admins. We have Server admins. We have Storage admins. Each with its own culture and methods of doing things. Perhaps the biggest issue surrounding convergence is the need to converge people’s skillsets. I propose that teams that are going to be working together start seeing themselves as a joint SLAM (Storage and Local Area Management) admin, part …
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 …
FCoE vs. iSCSI: The Cagefight! – Performance
Pondering the performance differences between FCoE and iSCSI.
Gartner on FCoE. Whoa There, Sparky
I take on Gartner’s criticism of FCoE head-on.