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iSCSI hits its stride

“Today, iSCSI is a viable network storage technology that large enterprises can use to bring their smaller sites onto SANs,” says Shahzada Sufyan, Product Manager, HP StorageWorks Division. “It’s a complementary technology, not a displacement technology. Customers can use iSCSI to connect more users to storage area networks, and get more from their investment in fibre channel technology.”

The direct attached storage (DAS) typically used in smaller sites can’t be shared, and as the volume of data grows it becomes ever harder to manage and protect. DAS is adequate up to a point, but beyond a certain size and geographical reach it becomes difficult to manage and back up. SANs centralize storage, making it easier to manage, enabling it to be scaled more efficiently and reducing cost. Capacity utilization is also improved, and more data protection options become available. One big plus is that iSCSI delivers those SAN benefits but uses existing network infrastructure, unlike fibre channel, which requires a specialized infrastructure.

“Now these users have a network storage solution that fits into smaller environments in the enterprise,” says Brad Parks, HP Product Marketing Manager, All-in-One Storage Products. “Using TCP/IP allows them to take that familiar, low-cost architecture and start having some SAN benefits in smaller departments, remote offices and other sites where it never made sense to deploy fibre channel before.”

There’s another advantage to using iSCSI as the underlying technology, says Sufyan. “Most users are familiar with the Ethernet technology that you use to create an iSCSI storage area network. You use a common Ethernet card, networking Gigabit Ethernet switches and cabling—it’s something users know and are comfortable with.” The use of common infrastructure reduces complexity and also gives iSCSI a considerable cost advantage.

The enterprise breakthrough

“iSCSI has been around for several years, but it has recently been gaining a lot of steam and is now clearly a mainstream technology,” says Parks. “As larger companies look to tier their storage to both fibre channel and iSCSI or extend SAN benefits to smaller environments they are looking to optimize that infrastructure. Hardware-based iSCSI initiators accelerate the connection between host servers and storage and are contributing to broader iSCSI adoption.”

In other words, the barrier to enterprise performance has been broken. And with major technology vendors offering products, the visibility and market momentum of iSCSI are on the rise.

HP served on the committee that wrote the foundational iSCSI specification, and has a broad, integrated portfolio that enables it to offer an end-to-end iSCSI solution. The portfolio dovetails with iSCSI’s strengths: iSCSI can be used as a SAN technology, but can also be employed to extend the value of existing fibre-channel SANs, whether to connect different SAN islands, to connect SANs over long distances, or to provide access for servers on Ethernet to storage behind fibre channel. These are all areas where HP has a strong presence.

“We have products not just in storage but also on the server side,” says Sufyan. “We have multifunction network adapters supporting iSCSI on ProLiant blades, racks and towers, an accelerator pack for the multifunction network interface card, iSCSI-enabled backup and restore products, and infrastructure products such as iSCSI gateways.” HP offers a range of iSCSI storage arrays from the All-in-One Storage System, to the recently introduced Modular Smart Array [MSA] 2000i system, up through the Enterprise Virtual Array (EVA) 4400 (see related articles on pages 26 and 24, respectively).

“We’ve got a lot of new products in this market now,” says Sufyan. “It enables us to offer more choices and capabilities to customers.”

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