The podcast about FCoE and iSCSI that I mentioned in my last blog is now posted on Storage Monkeys.

Check it out. Clearly, we were having way too much fun!

Tags: iSCSI, FCoE, Ethernet, convergence

Well we're already into Day 1 of Spring SNW, and the SNIA tutorials educational program is well under way.

I presented to a packed room at 9:20am on the subject of Server and Storage Consolidation with iSCSI Arrays - a great audience for the first session of the day.

Tuesday afternoon's agenda includes pNFS, Parallel Storage for Grid, Virtualization and Database Computing by Pranoop Erasani (NetApp), and Thursday's agenda includes two tutorials by Gary Gumanow (Dell) & Jason Blosil (NetApp) -- iSCSI SANs: Ideal Applications, Large and Small, and iSCSI: A Lossless Ethernet Fabric with DCB. If you're at SNW check them out.

If you are not at SNW, you can access the tutorials at http://www.snia.org/education/tutorials/.

Another opportunity to find out about Ethernet Storage is in the IP Storage Hands-on Lab. This program is in its 7^th year and continues to go from strength to strength.

Finally, I'm scheduled to do a podcast with Skip Jones (of the Fibre Channel Industry Association) on FCoE, iSCSI and Network Convergence. That should be posted on the Infosmack Podcasts section of Storage Monkeys by Wendesday.

Wow - the Ethernet Storage Forum and the FCIA co-operating! What is the world coming to?

Tags: iSCSI, DCB, pNFS, Ethernet Storage

An article in today's ComputerWorld says that Apple's new iPad is driving cloud storage. How appropriate then that the Cloud Storage Initiative is giving one away Tuesday night at the Birds of Feather Session.

To get in the drawing, visit the Tuesday SNW Cloud Pavilion or the CSI "taste" booth at the Monday opening reception., then come by the BOF Tuesday April 15, 8:30pm, St. John’s Rooms 32-33 - MUST BE PRESENT TO WIN!

One of the most interesting use-cases for the pending SNIA CDMI Cloud Storage standard involves Cloud service brokerage.  Cloud Storage services in particular. The Peering capabilities enabled via CDMI will further facilitate the emergence of a new business category in Cloud Computing - The Cloud Broker. Recently advocated by leading analyst firms, this role would mitigate key risks around the federation of various Cloud services.  Even the US Federal CIO has recently spoken out regarding this key characteristic of upcoming Government Cloud services and related NIST Cloud Computing standards. Data integration, integrity, portability and security are among the many issues Cloud Brokers are tackling on behalf of Enterprise Cloud customers. See this diagram for some of the useful Cloud Storage relationships enabled by CDMI for configurations which would address these issues.

Members of the SNIA CDMI technical working group and Cloud Storage Initiative will be at SNW Orlando this week. (1. presenting vendor-neutral tutorials, 2. staffing the Cloud Storage pavilion in the Exhibit Area, 3. assisting the service providers in the Cloud Hands-on-Labs and 4. leading a Birds of a Feather (BoF) session on Cloud Storage)  See 2 posts below for full details. Please drop by and share your thoughts with us on the role of Cloud Brokers - and any other Cloud Storage topic of interest to you!

Welcome to the SNIA Solid State Storage Initiative’s new blog site! Check out the SNIA SSSI at SNW Spring – 2010, April 12-14 in Orlando, Florida.  Look for presentations from SNIA SSSI and SSSI member companies in the Hands-on-Labs, Tutorials (Executive and SSS tracks), and general sessions (Solid State track).  Make sure to come and visit with us over cocktails and d’oeurves at the EMC sponsored Welcome Reception Monday night from 6:00 – 7:30pm. Stay tuned to this blog site for more discussions about solid state storage technology and the forthcoming Solid State Storage Performance Test Specification (SSS PTS).

Lots of people are wondering what CDMI offers, but don't have time to read the actual specification to understand all it's features in depth.
Here is a short (20 min) overview of the CDMI features and architecture that should get you started.

You can also download the overview presentation for viewing offline.

Take advantage of educational SNIA Tutorials on Cloud, a Pavilion devoted to Cloud Storage Solutions, a “Birds-of-a-Feather” session on Cloud standards, and a Lab where you can go “hands-on” to explore disaster recovery, backup, and archive solutions that run in the cloud. Learn more at snia.org/cloud and at snwusa.com. SNIA CLOUD TUTORIALS & CSI MEMBER SESSIONS WAN Optimization and Cloud Computing Monday, April 12, 1:00pm-1:55pm, Gatlin A2. Learn how WAN optimization is one of the key--and often overlooked--technology component necessary for the adoption of cloud computing. Cloud Data Management Interface (CDMI) – the Cloud Storage Standard Monday, April 12, 1:55pm-2:40pm, Gatlin A2. Get an overview of the SNIA published CDMI cloud storage standard overview of the standard and learn how interoperability between clouds is achieved. Sunshine User Base Accountability With Your Cloud Storage Monday, April 12, 4:05pm-4:50pm. Now more than ever with the onset of cloud storage and the difficulty in making business more accountable for the storage they use, you need tools to calculate and communicate the storage costs to your user base. Cloud Storage: Where Does it Fit into Tomorrow’s IT? Tuesday, April 13, 4:00pm - 4:55pm, Gatlin E3. Explore the various facets of Cloud Storage and learn about the potential of the Cloud evolution. Well-Grounded Approach to the Cloud Tuesday, April 13, 4:55pm-5:$0pm, Gatlin E3. Learn about the five pillars on how storage enables the cloud, and how to successfully deploy a service-oriented infrastructure for your cloud environments – private and public. Cloud Archiving Thursday, April 15, 8:30am - 9:15pm Conway. This tutorial reviews various architectures on how a cloud archive can be built, from private to public and hybrid models, using an organization’s existing information management resources. Cloud Storage Security Introduction Thursday, April 15, 10:20am-11:05am, Gatlin A4. Learn about techniques to mitigate threats rising from the introduction of computing and data services in a virtualized and service provider context. Cloud Storage Securing CDMI Thursday, April 15, 11:15am - 12:00pm, Gatlin A4. This session will overview the security of the new CDMI standard, which includes protective measures employed in the management and access of data and storage. SNIA CLOUD PAVILION Tuesday April 15, 12:15pm-3:00pm & 5:40pm-8:40pm, Wednesday, April 15, 12:00pm-3:00 pm, Gatlin C. Visit the Pavilion to learn how Cloud Storage Initiative members are transforming the way companies implement the cloud: Bycast – Protecting and preserving digital assets over their lifetime Cleversafe - a storage and retrieval system that provides massive scalability, reliability and security CloudOptix- a cloud virtualization software company that develops MeghaWare software products and solutions EMC –a multi-tenant storage environment to build on-premise cloud services or leverage a public cloud to deliver content and information services anywhere in the world Mezeo – providing a software platform for the deployment of cloud storage by service providers NetApp – providing IT as a Service (ITaaS) with proven technologies for secure multi-tenancy, service automation, data mobility, storage efficiency, and integrated data protection. Sun Oracle – deploying and backing up Oracle software in the cloud CLOUD STORAGE HANDS-ON LAB Monday April 12 - Wednesday April 14, 9:00am-5:00pm & 7:30pm-9:30pm, Gatlin D “Learn before you leap” into some of the latest cloud storage technologies from cloud providers Asigra, Consonus, and Terremark at this lab open to all IT end user SNW attendees! CLOUD STORAGE BIRDS-OF-A-FEATHER (BOF) Tuesday April 15, 8:30pm, St. John’s Rooms 32-33 Join CSI members and fellow Cloud aficionados in a lively discussion of “all things cloud storage”.

Despite the recession of the past couple of years, the market for Ethernet Storage has shown grown significantly both in terms of equipment shipped and in terms of market share. Last week's release by IDC of their Q42009 Worldwide Storage Systems Hardware Tracker, gave us an opportunity to see the latest numbers. For the purposes of classification, IDC calls networked storage (as opposed to direct-attached storage) "Fabric Attached Storage" - which consists of Fibre Channel SAN, iSCSI SAN and NAS. During 2009, Ethernet Storage revenues (NAS plus iSCSI) grew 51% year-over year to $5.372 billion, following a 5% decline in 2008. This compares with 25% revenue growth for the Fabric Attached Storage market as a whole, following a 17% decline in 2008. The revenue market share of Ethernet Storage climbed to 39% in 2009, up from 32% in 2008 and 28% in 2007. In terms of capacity shipped, the story is even better. During 2009, vendors shipped 2,829 PB of Ethernet Storage - 128% year-over year, following 22% growth in 2008. This compares with 105% capacity growth for the Fabric Attached Storage market as a whole, following 9% growth in 2008. The capacity market share of Ethernet Storage climbed to 47%, up from 42% in 2008 and 37% in 2007. The highest growth category of the whole sector was iSCSI, as has been the case for the past few years. In 2007 iSCSI SAN revenues grew by 62%; in 2008 we saw 26% growth (despite a recession which caused a 22% decline in FC SAN revenues); and in 2009 we saw 68% growth to $1.807 billion. So, what's contributing to the steady growth in tough economic times? My take is that there are probably three factors: • Continuing maturity and acceptance of the technology • Companies' willingness to try something new to reduce costs in tough economic times • The continued rapid growth of unstructured data driving NAS capacity. What's your take?

If you’re in the Bay Area this week, come see the SNIA CSI at the Cloud Connect Event at the Santa Clara Convention Center March 15-18. Kingman Tang, Greg Kleiman, Ray Clarke, and Marty Foltyn of the CSI will be in Booth 504 with the latest information on the Cloud Data Management Interface (CDMI) specification and CSI white papers on public, private, and hybrid clouds. We’ll also be checking out the conference tracks – stay tuned for any interesting findings.

The SNIA has released a final working draft of the Cloud Data Management Interface (CDMI) version 1.0. The folks that have put this specification together in record time include: Company - Individual
Bycast Inc. - David Slik
Cisco Systems - Mike Siefer
Hitachi Data Systems - Eric Hibbard
Iron Mountain - Chris Schwarzer
NetApp Inc. - Alan Yoder
NetApp Inc. - Lakshmi N. Bairavasundaram
Olocity - Scott Baker
Oracle - Mark Carlson
QLogic - Hue Nguyen
Individual - Rich Ramos
Thanks as well for the comments from lots of folks outside of the SNIA. These have all been incorporated into this latest public review draft.
The specification is now in front of the SNIA membership for a vote to become a SNIA Architecture industry standard. It will also become both a National (ANSI) and International (ISO) standard down the road.
I have heard lots of FUD around standardization of cloud interfaces, including the notion that standards take "too long" and that they cannot evolve quickly enough to accommodate the rapid evolution of this new industry. The SNIA Cloud Storage TWG that created this specification was formed last April and has produced a robust 1.0 version of a cloud standard in less than a year - record time for a standards body.
The CDMI standard is extensible by vendors to cover the complete functionality of their cloud and can also be "shrink to fit" for clouds that don't have all the bells and whistles of the full specification. These extensions are expected to be candidates for future version of the specification as multiple vendors implement them.
Storage and Cloud vendors who have putting off implementing CDMI until 1.0 was available, now no longer have an excuse! Customers of public and private clouds can now start asking their vendors to show adoption of the standard in their roadmaps. Tools and common API libraries can now proceed to add support for a standard cloud storage interface.
To get the Draft 1.0 CDMI specification, go here: http://snia.org/cloud