Download Clients see only “virtual” target device Storage

SAN 2001 Session 201
The Future of
Storage Area Networks
Milan Merhar
Chief Scientist, Pirus Networks
[email protected]
Future Storage Trends
• Higher transport speeds
– 1 or 2 Gbps now, going to 10 Gbps soon
– Fibre Channel, Ethernet, InfiniBand all may have applications
• More complex topologies and storage models
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More devices attached to the common network
Greater geographic reach
More traffic aggregation (trunks instead of home-runs)
Blurring of distinctions between block and file access models
• More complex security models
– Increased threat profile
– Impossible to depend on Physical security alone
• Storage Management as largest item in IT budgets?
SAN 2001 Conference
Benefits of Intelligent Infrastructure
Group 1
Group 2
Merged Common Services
 Centralized Management
Intrinsic redundancy
Group 3
 Optimized Resource Usage
 Vendor Independence
 Investment Protection
Group 4
SAN 2001 Conference
Unified Storage Access
iSCSI Block Access
File Access
LAN
SAN
FC Block Access
SAN
iSCSI
FCIP
IP MAN/WAN
SAN 2001 Conference
Virtual Storage Services
• Clients see only
“virtual” target device
• Storage sees only
“virtual” initiators
• Both are isolated from
changes to internal
configuration.
Advantages:
• Provides a consistent
client view of storage
SAN
SAN 2001 Conference
Virtual Storage Services
• Clients see only
“virtual” target device
• Storage sees only
“virtual” initiators
• Both are isolated from
changes to internal
configuration.
Advantages:
• Provides a consistent
client view of storage
• Enables N+1 service
redundancy
SAN
SAN 2001 Conference
Virtual Storage Services
• Clients see only
“virtual” target device
• Storage sees only
“virtual” initiators
• Both are isolated from
changes to internal
configuration.
Advantages:
• Provides a consistent
client view of storage
• Enables N+1 service
redundancy
• Rapid provisioning
SAN
SAN 2001 Conference
Virtual Storage Services
• Clients see only
“virtual” target device
• Storage sees only
“virtual” initiators
• Both are isolated from
changes to internal
configuration.
SAN
SAN 2001 Conference
Advantages:
• Provides a consistent
client view of storage
• Enables N+1 service
redundancy
• Rapid provisioning
• Allows temporary
resource allocation
Some Predictions for the next 5 years
• Parity between Fibre Channel and iSCSI
– Switched FC for low latency, FC-AL for direct attachment
– Gigabit Ethernet iSCSI becoming a commodity solution
• 10 Gigabit Ethernet seen as a higher-speed alternative
– Negligible increased latency from short store-and-forward interval
– No special equipment needed at SAN/MAN/WAN edge
• InfiniBand is a viable clustering solution
– But, will drive vendors support it as a native interface?
• SANs remain separate from LANs
– Although both may be Ethernet-based, each evolves to support
a different form of intelligence embedded in the network
• Similar performance from File, Block storage servers
– Object-oriented storage servers available, but not mainstream yet
SAN 2001 Conference