Starboard Storage Blog

You heard it right. Nothing may be ruining the efficiency of your storage array. So what is the problem?

I am of course referring to the fact that many applications write zeros that might consume space on your array. This is not a new problem. Thinly provisioned storage arrays have been struggling with this for years and a variety of solutions have emerged. What is interesting is the evolution of the ability to solve the problem.

Before we talk more specifics lets paint an analogy. If there is a disease running rampant amongst the human population there are essentially four ways to deal with it.

Nearly 18 years ago now I moved from the UK to live in the USA in Houston, Texas. One of the first things you learn when moving to Texas is that “RAID® Kills Bugs”! I find it ironic that in the next few years we might be saying “Bugs Killed RAID”. In fairness it will not just be bugs, larger disks are playing a part too, but it is clear that there is a change sweeping through the industry.

Let me explain.

For the last 25 years RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) has been the predominant model for protecting data across a collection of disk drives. Back in 1989 I was product manager for the Compaq SystemPro at Compaq in the UK when we introduced what was debatably the first purpose built industry standard server. It also had one of the first RAID Controllers. It was innovative and it spawned a new class of server.

I just read a lengthy article by Lucas Mearian in Computerworld online entitled “Protocol wars: Can Fibre Channel survive Ethernet's assault?” Of course the debate has been going on for years now so it is not new, but the article prompted me to want to provide my perspective on converged networks.

Let me start by saying that I am of the opinion stated in the article that long term Ethernet wins. However as the article correctly states Fibre Channel is still a growing market (albeit more slowly), and according to Gartner is in $50 Billion of equipment around the world.

IT managers are I am sure interested in the debate but are of course consumed by shorter term concerns than what connectivity they will use in 10 years time. Today’s reality is the total market is represented by a mix of Fibre Channel and Ethernet (principally iSCSI & NAS).