The benefits and drawbacks of iSCSI SANs have been outlined pretty extensively over the past couple of years, but what do you think are the most important developments in iSCSI SANs this year?
I think all things aside, iSCSI has delivered what was previously expected of it. Unfortunately for iSCSI, the bar was set very high many years ago, and what’s happening now is that those expectations are being delivered and we’re seeing much more broad adoption. But in general, I’m seeing a couple of key things: iSCSI solutions scaling up, and iSCSI solutions scaling down. Normally when you think of iSCSI you think of a large EqualLogic or a large LeftHand-based iSCSI cluster, but the reality is you’re also seeing products from IBM Corp, Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co. and Dell that are much smaller and modular, but also low cost, so even smaller environments can get into iSCSI without a lot of cost or complexity. What are the advantages of using iSCSI vs. NAS for VMware or other virtualization products? That’s a contentious topic. There are those that feel that the only thing for virtualization, whether it’s VMware, Microsoft Hyper-V or Citrix Systems Inc. – is that it has to be block, and
