Storage Management Strategies for the CIO
Access "Making the case for FCIP and FCoE"
This article is part of the Vol. 6 No. 9 November 2007 issue of RAID turns 20: Do you still need it?
Addressing corporate needs for metropolitan and local Fibre Channel (FC) connectivity over one common Ethernet network can mean lower energy usage and costs, and that's why many enterprise managers are looking at FC over IP (FCIP) and FC over Ethernet (FCoE) for their storage-to-network connectivity. These complementary Ethernet protocols let companies start down the road of consolidating on one network platform as opposed to maintaining separate FC and Ethernet networks. But FCIP and FCoE require users to upgrade or replace some equipment, as well as address internal management issues. The standardized FCIP protocol works by transmitting FC frames over TCP/IP, which can route FCIP FC frames locally or remotely over existing Ethernet switches and routers. The emerging FCoE standard also uses existing Ethernet switches and routers, but runs without TCP/IP at the Ethernet layer so it's not routable. That means it requires administrators to create point-to-point configurations, or zones, in Ethernet switches using the MAC addresses found on servers and storage ... Access >>>
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What's Inside
Features
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- High-end storage for small shops by Rich Friedman
- Snapshot: Ediscovery confidence dips from last year
- New book and toolkit preps companies for legal ediscovery by Rich Friedman
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Do RAID levels still matter?
by Bradley W. Hughey
Most new storage arrays automatically distribute data onto a number of spindles, which eliminates the manual task of selecting RAID levels. You can still manually select your RAID levels, but you'll need to balance availability, risks and costs.
- Report: Midmarket storage pros favor single-vendor strategy by Ellen O'Brien
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Solid-state storage finds its niche
by Alan Radding
Storage managers facing critical storage performance problems and needing maximum IOPS have found a feasible option in solid-state disk. Solid-state storage is fast, cool and it barely sips power, but it's still far more expensive than traditional media.
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- Weighing the risks of 1TB drives
- Making the case for FCIP and FCoE by Jerome M. Wendt and Joshua Konkle
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New demands, higher salaries for storage pros
by Ellen O'Brien
Our fifth annual Storage Salary Survey finds that time in the storage trenches is paying off with bigger salaries. However, stress levels and workloads are also rising, as respondents have to manage more storage with less money and increased scrutiny from upper management.
- Scalability may be a dedupe dilemma
- Survey Says: Still coping with capacity
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Where encryption fits best
by Jerome M. Wendt and Joshua Konkle
Everybody knows they should encrypt tapes that go offsite, but many are still on the fence about where encryption should occur in their storage environments. There are a number of options, ranging from using your backup app's encryption capabilities to installing a purpose-built encryption appliance. We weigh the pros and cons of the available alternatives so that you can decide which approach best suits your shop.
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Columns
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Editorial: Web services for storage? It's already happening
Web services for storage? It's already happening
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Hot Spots: Web 2.0 storage: Challenges and choices
by Bob Laliberte
Web 2.0 tools and strategies hold many potential benefits for businesses that deploy them, but their requirements for rapidly scalable storage and access, as well as persistent data, pose significant challenges for the IT staffs that need to build and manage the infrastructure.
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Best Practices: Tackling data migration
Data center projects often involve migrating data, which is frequently a painful process that can lead to unplanned downtime and outages. It's time to adopt consistent, repeatable migration practices. Selecting the right approach is highly dependent on infrastructure limitations, data and platform types, time constraints and staff capabilities.
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Storage Bin 2.0: Virtually changing everything
Server virtualization drives storage growth and dramatically drives the proliferation of storage networking. This is enabling the re-invention of how we manage, protect, store and access information.
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Editorial: Web services for storage? It's already happening
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