HP's response was refreshing. The company took the same position as many other vendors regarding the complementary nature of FC and iSCSI, but also provided some common-sense perspectives. For example, HP pointed out that speeds and feeds differences are less important than often suggested. FC fabric bandwidth is rarely utilized fully, and throughput limitations of iSCSI over Gigabit Ethernet can be surmounted by using multiple parallel connections. In addition, it observed that the dual-connection (in-band/out-of-band) issue is specious.
The company did take exception with our characterization of iSCSI product interoperability, saying that it had yet to be demonstrated that iSCSI switches would be any more compatible than FC switches. This was in stark contrast to most other responses, which accepted out-of-the-box compatibility as a given. Other standout points include the observation that the value of purpose-built platforms and point solutions is outweighed by the value of SANs and that, in the long run, IP-based networking will be used to move data from storage devices to users. What's up for discussion are the pauses and detours along the way.
Hewlett-Packard Co., (800) 752-0900. www.hp.com
IBM
In many respects, IBM has led the iSCSI charge. It was first to market with an iSCSI array--and first to withdraw that product, arguably because it was ahead of the iSCSI standard by nearly two years. Julian Satrain, with IBM in Haifa, Israel, is a powerful presence on the IETF's IP Storage Working Group. That said, the vendor makes much the same case as others regarding the complementary fit for iSCSI in a predominantly FC world within the Fortune 500. In fact, its response contains little that one could interpret as enthusiasm for any particular protocol, barring one twist to the mainstream mantra: iSCSI may also play in the realm of clustered computing, especially massively parallel clusters that are the subject of much experimentation at the High Performance Computing Center of the University of New Mexico. IBM contributes significant money to HPCC and sees iSCSI as a low-cost means to separate storage installed in the inexpensive white-box Linux servers from which HPCC routinely constructs supercomputing clusters.
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