FCoE or iSCSI? that is the question.

I found a great article today to help people decide whether to go with FCoE or iSCSI, or when each technology fits best. Bellow are some snippets, and here's the link to the full article.

The arrival of Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) makes it possible to consolidate on an Ethernet fabric to meet both storage and local area network needs. However, it also means that you now have two SAN options for use on Ethernet networks: FCoE and iSCSI. This raises obvious questions about what the differences are and when you should choose one versus the other.

The FCoE layer replaces the TCP/IP layer used in iSCSI and also requires the Data Center Bridging (DCB) Ethernet improvements. The DCB working group of the IEEE has extended IEEE 802 standards to satisfy the requirements of different traffic classes on a single network without creating “traffic interference,” that is, without having one class of traffic starve another.

Since FCoE was designed without the Internet Protocol (IP) layer, it is not intrinsically routable using IP. However, FCoE routing can be performed using already established protocols such as FCIP.

The iSCSI protocol can be implemented in networks that are subject to packet loss, and iSCSI can run over 1 Gigabit Ethernet (1GbE). FCoE requires 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) and a lossless network with infrastructure components that properly implement pause frame requests and per-priority pause flow control (PFC) based on separate traffic classes that map to different priorities. The idea behind PFC is that during periods of congestion, high-priority traffic is allowed to continue while lower-priority traffic is paused.

Your 10GbE switches will need DCB support for FCoE, including a range of enhancements for classes of service, congestion control, and management. FCoE also requires Jumbo Frames because the FC payload is 2,112 bytes and cannot be broken up; iSCSI does not require Jumbo Frames.

While FCoE may create some confusion in the short term as you take steps to decide if and where it makes sense in your infrastructure, the long-term benefits are clear. By consolidating your networks on a single Ethernet fabric you can dramatically reduce capital and network management costs without sacrificing the ability to choose the protocol that makes the most sense for your application set.

Market Research Results: Unified Computing System

If you are into Virtual Machines, Application Deployment in the Data Center, Data Center Management, Storage Networks, or simply into IT, you may have heard of Cisco's announcement on the Unified Computing System. I just wanted to share some market research data from Goldman in Confluence. CNET did a great job at putting it all together and stating conclusions on the data: http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=17751

Everest 2009 Dispatch: Avalanche on camera

A few weeks ago, news of the first team to summit Everest in 2009 showed up in the media. A team of sherpas that were cleaning the route for other expeditions. IMG sherpa Mingma Tenzing was first on top of Everest for 2009 at 12:25pm. Panuru (IMG), Kami Rita (AAI), Dorje and Nima Tsering (Himex) were a few minutes behind him. They left the Col at 2:15am.

This week, a completely different story: one Sherpa disapeard in an Avalanche on Base Camp. The avalanche was massive, caught on camera, and very impressive pictures were taken.



For the original post: See the First Ascent Blog.

Virtual thumb drive - Syncing and sharing files between computers

This week, using Twitter, I discovered about a service called Dropbox. The company offers a service to synchronize and share files between users and multiple computers. The analogy is a virtual USB thumb drive.

You simply download a thin client that lives on the system tray, it creates a special folder in your hard drive called Dropbox, and everything that you put in that folder is syncrhonized accross all the computers where you installed the client. Also, if you want to share files, you can dedicate another folder within the dropbox folder, to share with specific friends. Oh, and it also has a web interface where you can access your files, in case you are in a public computer that doesn't have the client.
The service gives you 2GB of free space, or you can pay $99/year for 50GB. Files are uploaded into a server in the Internet, and that's how you achieve backup and synchronization.

The initial target market for the service is individuals with multiple computers that want to easily share files. I use it for synchronizing some file between my home PC and work MacBook. Also, it seems to cover some of the SMB market too, where small offices share common files. However, there are no group account, each individual would have to pay for the service to gain access to the 50GB.

The product positioning can probably be improved, and I am sure it will come as the product matures: group accounts offering a discount for the service are a must for the SMB market; ISP and Service Provider alliances are probably another option; I don't see a fit for advertisement other than in the main portal.

For a good article about Drop Box on Techcrunch:
Dropbox: Now Effortlessly Syncing Files For 1 Million Members

Twitter Money Machine Pyramid

This is funny. Someone left a comment in my blog post about the Twitter Followers experiment from last year.
At first, I thought this was some kind of phising site, but still decided to go and check out the site - http://www.twittertrafficmachine.com
That's when I started laughing. On the front page, there is an "Informertial" about this wonderful system to get Twitter followers. It's very funny; with 30 days money back guaranteed and everything. This is nothing else but a pyramid scheme. The only thing missing is Billy Mays.

Looking at Latin America for advise in the Downturn

On Monday, the WSJ published a special article in collaboration with MIT Sloan Management Review regarding how can we learn from Emerging Markets in this downturn economy. Professors Martin Roth and Richard Ettenson explain how America and other western powers can learn from Latin America and Asian countries because of how used to downturns and volatility they are.

I can speak first person of Latin America: corruption is always around the corner; market volatility is the norm. In these countries, companies have learned that they can’t just hunker down when bad times strike. Reaching a halt is the worst thing that companies can do. Managers in Venezuela, Brazil, and other Latin American countries look at turbulent times as a chance to implement bold, creative ideas, and outflank rivals boosting their business. For example, it is the time for new pricing tactics, scraping old or traditional marketing plans, or launching new products.

Professors Roth and Ettenson lay out 4 lessons to learn, that I have summarized here:

1. When the economy is down, get customers to trade up: In tough times, consumers typically try to trade down by purchasing the cheapest alternative. Instead of getting the premium product, they look for the inexpensive version. This can be achieved by carefully adjusting prices of high value products. By absorbing lower general profit margins out of premium products, savvy customers recognize that they are getting “a good deal” by trading up. Consumer and Vendor negotiate losses.

2. Increase product and Service Visibility: Even though marketing is a place where companies tend to cut first, it is one of the most important. Marketing budgets should be dynamically shifted towards places with greater visibility. For example, in Latin America there is a greater focus for Point-of-Purchase advertisement than for massive TV campaigns. For B2B companies, this is the time to focus on services and customer satisfaction because everybody knows that it is less expensive to retain a customer than to gain a new one.

3. Rethink what customers value: the downturn could be so severe that your customer may simply not afford to buy a company’s product anymore. That is when business model flexibility is important. For example, if customers value the services more than the product itself; then the company must focus on productizing services.

4. Look at new metrics: because the recession could be affecting multiple factors, managers should look deep in many directions. They should not focus only on macroeconomics and the Dow. In Latin America, companies look at politics, inflation numbers, unemployment rates, education issues, and many other parameters.

For a copy of the full article, go directly to the WSJ website.

Cisco’s History in the Data Center’ - The Platform

I usually try to be vendor agnostic in this blog... you may laugh at that comment, if you are a frequent reader and you know me personally, though. The original goal/mission of Confluence is to write about ICT industry trends, entrepreneurship, and how technology intersects with the business world.

That said, here's (another) exception: this is a very interesting blog post on Cisco's official blog site on the history of the company in the data center. See!, it is related and aligned with Confluence's goal, with a touch of the vendor... worth the time though.

The Unified Computing Story, or ‘Cisco’s History in the Data Center’ - The Platform

Cisco Energywise Flash Demo

I thought of embeding a quick Flash demo of Cisco EnergyWise to manage power of all networked devices. Take a look at the GUI and all its potential.

Flash Demo Link

For more info, you can go to http://cisco.com/go/green

What is Unified Computing?

I promised a post on Cisco's announcement earlier this week about Unified Computing. Here's a link to a great flash/video explanation: Flash Explanation

A Unified Computing System is a data center server platform that unites compute, network, storage access, and virtualization into a cohesive system. As a result of unifying all that it reduces TCO and increases business agility. The system integrates a low-latency, lossless 10GE unified network fabric with enterprise-class, x86-architecture servers for any application. The system is an integrated, scalable, multichassis platform in which all resources participate in a unified management domain.

Managed as a single system whether it has 1 server or 320 servers with thousands of virtual machines, this approach decouples scale from complexity. It is all managed as one big system. Unified Computing System accelerates the delivery of new services simply, reliably, and securely through end-to-end provisioning and migration support for both virtualized and non-virtualized systems. For example, you could move hundreds of servers and complex applications in a matter of a few hours.

For more info, just Google Unified Computing, or go to the source at Cisco's site.

Confluence to Typepad or WordPress

I hiatus because of my consideration of migrating Confluence to Typepad or WordPress. I'm still doing some more research; will resume posts soon.