Distributed Storage Networking Architectures: Fibre Channel, iSCSI, Ethernet, InfiniBand, Hyper Transport, Rapid IO & 3GIO Collide in the Data Center

Never in the history of computing has there been such a convergence of technology waves within the distributed systems marketplace. Specifically, the rapid evolution of SANs, NAS, and high speed I/O technologies have created a struggle for control of the interconnect within the data center, creating a perfect storm of converging technologies. This presentation will discuss: • How did we end up with such a convoluted set of competing standards all trying to address similar, and in some cases identical, problems? • What are the key technical attributes of each of these technologies? • How do each of these technologies compare with each other? o Throughput o Latency o QOS o Scalability o High Availability o OS Model • What are the implications for distributed software applications that utilize these technologies? • Host Bus Adapters are playing an increasingly important role in IO. What are the HBA implications of each technology? • What are the outstanding technological problems that need to be addressed going forward? • Who will win and why? Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Network Computing and Applications (NCA’01) 0-7695-1432-4/02 $17.00 © 2002 IEEE