We realized that EMC, like Cisco, was confusing the distinction between Fibre Channel fabrics as a dual-interconnect topology and iSCSI as a single-interconnect topology, combining an in-band data path and out-of-band control and management path into a single wire. Instead, it took this to mean the difference between a corporate LAN and a storage network, arguing that an iSCSI SAN would likely be set up as a closed network, separate from the corporate LAN. While true, that wasn't the question.
EMC argues that the past four years have seen a significant investment in "mature, robust" FC fabrics that companies will not replace without a compelling reason. And it took issue with our portrayal of SCSI as a channel I/O protocol, stating that it was not a protocol but rather "an architecture and command set" implemented in different ways by different serializations of SCSI. Although this characterization may be correct--we could argue from a technical perspective EMC's use of the term network to describe Fibre Channel fabrics--it didn't address the question we'd asked.
As for standards and persistent interoperability issues, EMC offered that competition from iSCSI would likely force the Fibre Channel guys to get their interoperability act together. The company did seem genuinely excited about the notion of using iSCSI-enabled NAS as a gateway to back-end FC SANs, but it rejected our question about other scaling solutions, like Spectra Logic's new RXT platform, a disk/tape library hybrid. It dismissed the value of the latter on performance grounds and because it would lock consumers into a particular vendor's product. We couldn't help but see the irony here.
EMC Corp., (508) 435-1000. www.emc.com
Hewlett-Packard
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