Several new technologies which may replace Fibre Channel as the
main way of providing connectivity to storage area network (SANs)
will begin to make their mark in 2003, according to Brad Stamas,
chairman of the Storage Networking Industry Association
(SNIA).
The SNIA, which consists of more than 250 members worldwide, covers
technical standards development, education, interoperability and
market development in storage networks and is now looking into SAN
over IP (Internet Protocol), Stamas said at the Data Storage Expo
in Tokyo last week.
There are three main proposed TCP/IP-based storage technologies for
SAN, which are still in development for standardisation and support
by the SNIA:
iSCSI (Internet Small Computer System Interface) A protocol
for establishing and managing connections between IP-based storage
devices, hosts and clients. It allows servers and switches to
communicate using traditional SCSI commands over an IP network, and
can therefore be set up with minimal additional hardware and
existing IP network knowledge.
Several vendors are supporting this technology and it is therefore
likely to appear sooner than the others, Stamas said.
FCIP (Fibre Channel IP) Similar to iSCSI, FCIP can control
remote storage devices by sending Fibre Channel commands over an IP
network. It is a tunneling protocol for connecting geographically
separated Fibre Channel SANs.
iFCP (Internet Fibre Channel Protocol) For interconnecting
Fibre Channel storage devices or Fibre Channel SANs using an IP
infrastructure in place of Fibre Channel switching and routing
elements.
However, although the SNIA expects IP storage network products will
start to come out at the end of this year, there remains a variety
of technical problems that need to be solved in these technologies,
Stamas said.
IP storage networking means lower cost, greater ease of use and the
ability of overcome distance limitations. But stability and
security remain important issues yet to be resolved, Hiroshi
Yoshida, chairman of SNIA Japan, said.
At the expo one user asked Stamas and Yoshida whether SANs really
need to move on to the next-generation technologies now.
"Using IP network as a disaster measure while still keeping Fibre
Channel infrastructures would be one of the possible ways to
penetrate IP storage networks sooner," Yoshida said.
As investment in IP infrastructure has already taken place in some
sites, the era of IP storage networks will come, Stamas said. The
SNIA values both Fibre Channel and IP, and people should make a
decision on which network to use based on their business need, he
said.