The Ethernet and storage worlds continue their collision course, as the IP Storage working group of the Internet Engineering Task Force prepares to submit iSCSI as a proposed standard.
The iSCSI specification transports native SCSI over the IP stack, and has been cited as a technology that could facilitate the creation of storage-area networks using Ethernet.
I wrote about some of the obstacles to storage LANs last April:
www.nwfusion.com/newsletters/lans/2001/00655057.html
But despite those drawbacks, it seems some kind of merging of the two technologies is inevitable.
Devices that blur the line between storage area networks and Ethernet networks are already emerging. My colleague Deni Connor recently wrote about a start-up called Surgient Networks that is about to unveil a switch that connects to Fibre Channel SANs on one side and Ethernet on the other - all while doing content delivery:
www.nwfusion.com/news/2001/0903surgient.html
It will be interesting to see how this plays out, and what new applications vendors come up with to take advantage of the emerging standards.
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In addition to writing this newsletter, Jeff Caruso edits Network World's e-mail newsletters from his office on New York's Long Island. If you would like to make suggestions about newsletter format or content, or even just express your opinion on today's topic, you can reach Jeff at jcaruso@nww.com.
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