Byte and Switch: What needs to happen for iSCSI to really grow?
Wall: A few things are actually falling into place. But there are some areas that need to be developed with respect to iSCSI targets. You have a lot of things going on on the host side, but on the target side we need to get those devices developed sooner. So SCD, our division, is providing the silicon today to companies like LSI Logic Corp. [NYSE: LSI] and Adaptec Inc. [Nasdaq: ADPT] so that they can get target-side devices to the market more quickly, and we're working closely with them. Intel is working closely with Network Appliance Inc. [Nasdaq: NTAP] on getting some advanced iSCSI target technology into the marketplace. We expect to see more of these products over the next 12 months. [See NetApp's IP SAN Wins a Fan, Adaptec Details IP SAN Betas, LSI Lines Up iSCSI Mates, and NetApp Blitzes on iSCSI.] We also see several vendors developing RAID arrays using Serial ATA with iSCSI. We think that's an inexpensive approach to external storage. And in some cases that will be deemed "good enough," even though it may not be as feature-rich as a Fibre Channel environment.
Byte and Switch: What do you mean by "good enough"?
Wall: "Good enough" is an expression we've been using here more recently. A small office, home office, or departmental system may not need a predominance of high-end features and high availability that someone in a Fortune 1000 enterprise would require for a storage subsystem. And so, if you can just get a bunch of inexpensive drives and perhaps lower-bandwidth networking environments, but it's good enough for your little company of 20 people, then we think systems like that will sell in volume. ... So we think inexpensive systems based on Intel technology will be good enough for now and will get more sophisticated over time.
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