Storage Clouds:  Limitations, Challenges and Enablers

Interoperability is a primary basis for the predictable behavior of a fibre channel (FC) SAN. FC interoperability implies standards conformance by definition. Interoperability also implies exchanges between a range of products, or similar products from one or more different suppliers, or even between past and future revisions of the same products. Interoperability may be developed as a special measure between two products, while excluding the rest, and still be standards conformant. When a supplier is forced to adapt its system to a system that is not based on standards, it is not interoperability but rather, only compatibility.

Every FC hardware and software supplier publishes an interoperability matrix and per product conformance based on having validated conformance, compatibility, and interoperability. There are many dimensions to interoperability, from the physical layer, optics, and cables; to port type and protocol; to server, storage, and switch fabric operating systems versions; standards and feature implementation compatibility; and to use case topologies based on the connectivity protocol (F-port, N-Port, NP-port, E-port, TE-port, D-port).

In this session we will delve into the many dimensions of FC interoperability, discussing:

•Standards and conformance
•Validation of conformance and interoperability
•FC-NVMe conformance and interoperability
•Interoperability matrices
•Multi-generational interoperability
•Use case examples of interoperability

What new security requirements apply to Persistent Memory (PM)? While many existing security practices such as access control, encryption, multi-tenancy and key management apply to persistent memory, new security threats may result from the differences between PM and storage technologies. The SNIA PM security threat model provides a starting place for exposing system behavior, protocol and implementation security gaps that are specific to PM. This in turn motivates industry groups such as TCG and JEDEC to standardize methods of completing the PM security solution space.

This webinar is part of BrightTALK's Founders Spotlight Series, where each month we feature inspiring founders and entrepreneurs from across industries.

In this episode, Gleb Budman, CEO and Co-Founder of Backblaze, will share his behind-the-scenes insight into what it's really like to found a tech startup.

Backblaze is a cloud storage and backup solutions for developers and IT teams. Backblaze stores over 150 petabytes of data, is profitable and won a spot on Deloitte's Fast 500 for 917% five-year revenue growth.

Gleb is founder of three companies, leader in two startups from pre-launch through acquisition, and a seasoned executive. He is on a mission to make storing data astonishingly easy and low-cost.

The “Great Storage Debates” webcast series continues, this time on FCoE vs. iSCSI vs. iSER. Like past “Great Storage Debates,” the goal of this presentation is not to have a winner emerge, but rather provide vendor-neutral education on the capabilities and use cases of these technologies so that attendees can become more informed and make educated decisions.

One of the features of modern data centers is the ubiquitous use of Ethernet. Although many data centers run multiple separate networks (Ethernet and Fibre Channel (FC)), these parallel infrastructures require separate switches, network adapters, management utilities and staff, which may not be cost effective.

Multiple options for Ethernet-based SANs enable network convergence, including FCoE (Fibre Channel over Ethernet) which allows FC protocols over Ethernet and Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI) for transport of SCSI commands over TCP/IP-Ethernet networks. There are also new Ethernet technologies that reduce the amount of CPU overhead in transferring data from server to client by using Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA), which is leveraged by iSER (iSCSI Extensions for RDMA) to avoid unnecessary data copying.

That leads to several questions about FCoE, iSCSI and iSER:

•If we can run various network storage protocols over Ethernet, what
differentiates them?
•What are the advantages and disadvantages of FCoE, iSCSI and iSER?
•How are they structured?
•What software and hardware do they require?
•How are they implemented, configured and managed?
•Do they perform differently?
•What do you need to do to take advantage of them in the data center?
•What are the best use cases for each?

Join our SNIA experts as they answer all these questions and more on the next Great Storage Debate.