Fabric-based Replication In the News

A recent Storage Magazine story addresses network or Fabric-based storage management including Replication. The article, "The pros and cons of network-based data replication" by Jacob Gsoedl specifies, "Network-based replication combines the benefits of array-based and host-based replication. By offloading replication from servers and arrays, it can work across a large number of server platforms and storage arrays, making it ideal for highly heterogeneous environments."

The writer clearly gets the core benefit of fabric apps for enabling the management of mixed storage environments. It cites a number of replication and virtualization products including EMC RecoverPoint, IBM SVC and HP SVSP.

To learn more of the specific features and benefits of a leading fabric-based replication offering, go to www.RecoverpointonBrocade.com.

The Golden Age of Fabric Apps

I found myself describing Fabric Applications as being in their "Golden Years" the other day. For being completely off-the-cuff, it's not a bad description. They are very mature and in that sense, people understand what they are and the value they bring. For instance, Network-based storage virtualization is still written about as an efficient approach to deliver the benefits of virtualization across a cross-vendor or heterogeneous storage environment.

Having said that, we're seeing more developments in array-based storage such as FCoE. And we can continue to expect more virtualization and replication capabilities consolidating onto the array, esp. with new modular designs like V-Max. Network-based offerings from IBM SVC and HP SVSP seem to defy this trend but those roadmaps should converge towards the DS8000 and EVP respectively at some point, as HDS offered the market solid validation of array-based heterogenous virtualization with the USP-V.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not sounding the death knell of network-based storage services. I'm guessing just the opposite: more intelligence being built into converged networks leveraging advanced standards such as FCoE, CEE and TRILL. And also continuing to provide common data management services and offload that allow applications using the fabric to be that much more efficient.

So for now, in addition to fabric apps, I'll be spending more time in the cloud space. Please follow the conversation on my new CloudItch blog (www.clouditch.com).