Networking

Our new M-Series Blades are getting noticed. Maybe it’s because we’re trying very hard to listen. Customers tell us that blading (is that a verb?) a data center isn’t a strategy, but it is a viable technology solution for power, space, cooling management, and performance requirements. More precisely they tell us they want blades that are modular and can be easily re-purposed as their needs change. Competitive blade offerings are designed for specific workloads with a small set of configuration options for memory and processor upgrades, but they don’t address infrastructure changes such as new network interfaces (10 Gig Ethernet) and switch architectures.

Independent analysts like what they see. Gartner said our “positioning of its blade servers also differentiates it from competitors… Dell supports the premise that blades, racks and towers all demonstrate specific market competencies; it believes that, in the coming years, there will be room for all three. This premise is consistent with Gartner's view of the market.” You can also read what InfoWorld, BladeWatch and The Register said.

Change is inevitable. The M-Series adapts to it with modular snap-in flexibility down to the switch interconnects. If you need to add more I/O bandwidth or want to upgrade your switches you can add upgrade modules to the M-Series on the fly. That’s the sort of simplicity our customers demand. They also want simple management of blade components. We’ve responded with the most efficient, greenest, lead-free, and fastest-to-deploy blades on the planet. Listen to a podcast describing it in more detail.

We are trying to do the things that matter most to our customers. It’s our strategy and we are sticking with it.

 To me, its about FCoE, period.  My guess is that Jerome Wendt feels the same way. Here's a quote from his post today:

So to avert this, my guess is that the FC vendors concocted a plan: Use FCoE to connect all enterprise servers, get a few analysts on board to endorse the idea and then convince end-users to take their eyes off the longer term ramifications of using FCoE. By getting enterprise users to bite on FCoE and spend the next few years connecting their remaining 85% of their servers to  existing FC SANs, users are locked into FC for the next 10 years until the next disruptive technology comes along.

Now, I don't necessarily agree with everything Jerome says in his article, but I do think that FCoE is more vendor driven, than market driven.  Yes, there are certainly customers that want FC to live on because they have invested in it.  Its a royal pain to realize your architecture is hitting the wall.  Jerome likes InfiniBand a lot.  I might like it more if there was more of a critical mass to support it.  If I was concerned about FC becoming and-of-life, I probably wouldn't jump to the next dead end.

Dante Malagrino from Cisco says he thinks it is about Data Center Ethernet in this post.   I suppose it is entirely possible that I agree with him but am too bullheaded to realize it.  I have always thought it was about Ethernet and making storage as manageable and efficient as possible over Ethernet.  I just don't buy the "we need something better than iSCSI" argument.  Its not like there are so many wonderful iSCSI implementations out there.  EqualLogic was able to break through a crowded industry mostly because existing vendors were "dogging it" with iSCSI.  Why would they willfully undermine their FC gracy train product lines?  Not until a threat emerged anyway.  FCoE is a great way for them to change the game. 

I've been wrong before and (maybe) I'll be wrong again.  Maybe Matt Baker has it right.  I'll probably stay stubborn until I see the reality of FCoE, then I will either have to eat a pile of crow or I'll continue to hold the line.  That said, I doubt my opinion on the matter will ever change for SMB customers.  FCoE will be overkill for them.

Since coming to Dell from EqualLogic, I've been trying to figure out the lay of the land.  You know, what's the new politically correct thing to say and all that. I want to make the Inside IT blog work and I'd rather not start a bunch of problems with new co-workers. But, I've been a bit soft lately as a result and that's not good.

So, here's what I think about FCoE.  Its about as stupid as a technology could be. Vendors making it just want to generate higher margins with a new technology.  They want you to think its going to be better than the alternatives because they will be able to charge more for it. That's how it is with all new technologies.  The discussions about network performance are hogwash. There will be more expensive surprises and more technical frustrations than native Fibre Channel has had.  How big is your budget for FCoE professional services?  Better start saving for it now.

Furthermore, I don't believe the convergence arguments for FCoE are valid. Do storage administrators really think merging storage and data networks is a good idea? Even for iSCSI networks, I believe the best practice is to keep storage and data networks separate.  They are both mission critical and putting them together only increases the likelihood that problems with one will negatively impact the other. 

If you already have Fibre Channel you have to check it out as a professional responsibility, but my recommendation is to be skeptical until FCoE shows proven bottom line benefits.

We have been working closely with Microsoft for over two years on Windows Server 2008, and you will soon be able to get your hands on it.  Windows Server 2008 is a major milestone. We’ve done a lot of work with it to make sure it runs greener on Dell servers, combining the most flexibility with superior ease of use for our customers.   We think you'll find Windows Server 2008 to be a feature rich product.

Were going to start shipping English language versions of Windows Server 2008 to customers in North America a week from today - Friday April 11. On Monday April 14, they will be available in Europe and Asia/Pacific/Japan. To streamline your installation it can be ordered pre-installed on Dell PowerEdge servers. FWIW, this includes all editions, from the Web Server Edition to the Datacenter Edition.  All orders are tested, validated,  and pre-installed across our PowerEdge server line to meet your requirements. 

We have lots of experience with Windows Server 2008, and we can help you use it to simplify your IT operations. Our validated and repeatable migration services were built upon our Longhorn Early Adopter Program (LEAP).  This link takes you to a page of case studies so you can read how others have worked with us on this program.  Our goal, as always is to make the process of migration as straightforward as possible.

This entry first appeared on my Storage@ Work blog, here.

Questions about the future of both iSCSI and Fibre Channel. are popular with analysts and the press. Eric Schott, Director of Product Management gives his opinions in the interview below, which was filmed by UberPulse.

Many readers will likely be surprised by what he has to say, although to me it just demonstrates the kind of clear, realistic thinking he always has. If you want to catch Eric in person, he will be presenting at SNW next Wednesday. Here is a link to a description of his presentation.