The Contemplating IT Blog

Many storage system vendors use a performance measurement known as I/O's Per Second and the acronym is IOPS. However, many people mistakenly represent it as IOPs. For some reason they make everything else caps except for the "S". The "S" actually stands for seconds and is not a pluralization of IOP - which would stand for I/O's Per - and that makes no sense. Just a pet peeve of mine

Besides being the longest palindrome in storage, iSCSI has had an uphill climb over the years to get where it has. I remember when the naysayers said that iSCSI would lose data and never be viable. I remember when people also thought that iSCSI wouldn't perform well and they were proven wrong. Today there are tens of thousands of iSCSI implementations and every major storage vendor has an iSCSI solution. Dell recently announced its earnings and the shining star was its EqualLogic storage which grew 71% from last year. Not too shabby. HP bought LeftHand last year for about $360 million. I think LeftHand has one of the best SAN solutions out there in terms of ease of management, scalability and functionality.

NetApp was the leading big storage vendor that embraced iSCSI first and I find that their unified storage approach to be very interesting combining NAS and SAN. NFS is arguably the easiest protocol to work with VMware but not every application is going to run on VMware - that is why its important to support multiple protocols - matching use case and applications with what makes sense whether its iSCSI, FC, NFS or CIFS.

EMC, HDS and IBM all have iSCSI storage in their portfolios but I am not sure it is relatively a big deal for any of them at this point. However, recently QLogic announced a 10 GbE iSCSI router that is part of the EMC Select program and is integrated with the CLARiiON. Yes, the CLARiiON does support native iSCSI but for those customers that have only FC connectivity this is a way to implement iSCSI using your existing storage systems. This is a smart move but they should also support the Symmetrix since there are probably thousands of stranded servers in large Enterprise customers that could take advantage of a 10 GbE iSCSI to FC router that are big Symm shops.

I was just at an HDS Financial Forum in NYC and I asked a number of IT professionals how many of them were using iSCSI and not one of them raised their hands. Now keep in mind that they all worked for large companies in the financial sector but I thought at least one of them would have implemented iSCSI. However, each of them was keeping an eye on FCoE. On some level this is understandable since they have made such a large investment in FC. But in the end the storage vendors have still failed to educate large Enterprises how they can leverage iSCSI to their advantage. If they fail to do so in this economy then they never probably never will.

Speaking of education - here is a great blog on using iSCSI with VMware.

On the other side of the spectrum - in the world of single server connectivity - Data Robotics came out with the new DroboPro that supports iSCSI to connect to a single server. It isn't meant to hook up to a network and be shared by multiple servers but as a fast performance interconnect for a single server. I am a big proponent of the Drobo - it reinvents RAID and is a highly virtualized storage system.

iSCSI isn't getting the attention it once did. Perhaps because it is far more mature and the debates of viability are over. However, I do think there is more education required on how it can be used as an alternative and/or complement to FC. In the end iSCSI is just a protocol and as I have said for years that it is more important to consider the storage system itself. However, iSCSI is something that customers have to decide to deploy and that is why the education is important.

The overall score for iSCSI is a B minus in my opinion. It has been successful in spite of all of the debate and misunderstandings but it still has not reached the level of adoption that it could. And now with FCoE slowly beginning its adoption curve and NFS being an excellent protocol for VMware - the journey for iSCSI will continue to have some uphill climbs.

Hey All,

My wife and I are participating in the Avon Walk to Fight Breast Cancer this weekend. It is a two day walk - the first day is 26 miles and the second day is 13.3 miles. I was able to reach my goal of $5,000 - I've raised $5,195 at the writing of this blog entry. However, I am still hoping to raise more donations before I go into the weekend. I would appreciate any contributions (see the link at below).

I have always been a workaholic - spending the lion's share of my time driving business forward. This year my wife, Sue inspired me to break that cycle and dedicate some of my time to helping others in real need. The idea of spending several hours training seemed like a huge time commitment - especially since I started my own business. But it has been more than worth it.

Unfortunately it seemed fitting this year to join the fight against breast cancer. My wife's cousin Stephanie passed away after a 13 year battle with breast cancer. Our good friend Lesa has been fighting breast cancer for the last two years.

It has been sad for me to discover as I embarked on this "mission" that so many of you have been hit by similar trials and experiences. We all have our own personal struggles and challenges in our day-to-day lives. Our humanity is the common ground that ties us all together.

I like the idea of walking as a way to fight this disease. We were built to walk. It is core to our humanity. There is a graceful simplicity to the very notion of it. So I will walk a long, long way - with my wife and friends and thousands of others - to fight this disease.

It is greatly appreciated if you could donate - any amount is better than zero. It could be five, ten, twenty dollars - whatever works for you.

I apologize for using my business blog to reach out to you - many of whom I do not know - but this cause is worth it.

And fair warning to you all - I will write a follow up blog about the walk next week.

Here is the link:

Tony's Donation Page for the Walk To Fight Breast Cancer

Thank you - Tony Asaro

My old boss Steve Duplessie wrote a blog called "Transparency and Me" basically setting the record straight on some negative feedback he received from an industry blogger that goes by the name of StorageMonkeys. I like Steve and StorageMonkeys and have been watching their thumb wrestling on their blogs and in Twitter. At first I didn't feel that Steve should have even written the blog - he really didn't need to but then after some thought I changed my mind. I have a similar problem - I am being personally attacked by three EMC bloggers and I want to set the record straight and provide my perspective on the situation.

(Update - I do not compare the situation between StorageMonkeys and Steve D to how the EMC bloggers attacked me. My only point is that Steve felt compelled to explain himself and what he does.)

I started my own company back in October of 2008 in one of the worst economic climates in our history. I had thought long and hard about what I wanted to do and then jumped in with both feet. I didn't want to go back to being an analyst although there was a big pull for me to do so. I was very successful at it but there were two things stopping me - I didn't want to compete with my former employer and friends at ESG - and it ultimately was not what I wanted to do with the hours in my day. I also didn't want to go work for a vendor - although there were offers there too. I realized that I NEEDED to do my own thing.

One of the first things I decided was that one part of my business would be consulting. Part of the services I would provide would include blogging. I am a pretty good writer and blogger and felt that I could help the mission of my clients by performing this service. The three clients I blog for include Data Domain, Digital Reef and Hitachi Data Systems. I picked these three clients because I like the companies, the products and the people. I could have picked more - because there are other vendors that fit within this criteria but I just didn't have the cycles. I did a bunch of research on being a professional blogger - and the general consensus was that this was fine and that there are now many professional bloggers. The key was to be up front about it - which I have been.

The anti-social media gang at EMC - three individual bloggers - Chuck Hollis and Barry Burke and the other guy that calls himself Storagezilla - have all attacked me personally. They have done this in a number of obvious and non-obvious ways - the most crude among these are accusations of me "pimping my services" and of being an "industry streetwalker". Yes - they actually said these things.

It would have been fine if they challenged my opinions and ideas and statements but they were not content to stick with that. Instead they have attacked me personally. Anyone that knows me knows that I don't stand for that kind of crap. And I warn all three that if they ever see me in person I am going to challenge them to say these things to my face and then we will let the chips fall where they may. Well - except for Barry - I don't want AARP coming after me in defense of one of their members.

On some level you might interpret their vitriol as a way to quash my voice - to discredit me as a credible contributor to the "opinion" and "analysis" of the storage world. I know they feel threatened that my voice added in support of their competitors can hurt them - so instead of actually debating me they prefer to try and discredit me. These are known tactics that are well worn and predictable.

Let me make it easy to understand so even these three morons at EMC can comprehend: I am a consultant and I work for my clients in order to drive forward their missions. I provide them insight, ideas, feedback, information and an outbound voice. I decided not to write reports but felt that I would blog for them - using a more modern and accessible method to communicate my views and opinions. Yes, these are my views and opinions and no one edits them.

EMC hires consultants and industry analysts to do the same for them - so EMC's hypocrisy isn't subtle in any way, shape or form. But it goes even further than this...

The EMC bloggers will tell you that they write their blogs in their "spare" time and aren't paid to do it. Which is of course a load of crap. If EMC wasn't giving them a paycheck would they spend hours and hours a week writing all their positive bullshit about EMC? There is zero balance in their content and it is clearly a part of the EMC marketing and PR machine.

All three spend hours and hours not only on their blogs but writing comments on other blogs, Twitter and message boards. Even if we still worked within a 40 hour work week - they would already be lying about using just their "spare" time. However, in this day and age - there is no work clock - you are always on the clock. To say that they are not getting paid to blog is disingenuous and hypocritical. They are either lying or are too stupid to know that they are getting paid by EMC to blog for EMC. Let me make it clear to you three - all you are is corporate hacks that will say anything to promote your company because they give you a paycheck.

If you look at the "dialog" that Chuck and Barry have with other industry players - you see how petty and ridiculous both these men are. This is their legacy - and it is full of ugliness and pettiness. What are the marketing people at EMC thinking? What is Joe Tucci thinking? This is the kinder, less arrogant EMC? These guys epitomize the "old" EMC. Arrogant. Greedy. Self-serving. Is this the kind of culture that Tucci wants the world to know that EMC has? Meet the "new" culture - same as the "old" culture.

The powers that be at EMC should spank these three. Picking a fight with me is a "no win" situation for EMC. They can't hurt me - their attacks just make me more attractive to every single one of their competitors. Don't get me wrong - I didn't have an issue with EMC - until these three attacked me more than once personally. Their treatment fuels my fire and I am a fiery guy. And I hold EMC accountable for everything these three have said to personally discredit me and harm my business.

There is no dishonor in being a consultant. In fact I am writing a book on how to be a successful consultant. In these economic times there are probably a bunch of unemployed professionals out there that could use a little advice on how to be a successful consultant.

And I must humbly profess that I am proud of this little company I started. In these bad times I started with nothing and in just a few months my business is doing very well.

I am doing a bunch of exciting things - I recently created a new service called Voice of the Customer that is doing very well. I have hired some outsourced engineers to do some software development for one of the product ideas that I have. I am working with a friend and colleague of mine on another software application I want to develop - we are in the early stages of designing it right now. I am on the advisory board of three emerging vendors. I hope to publish my book on consulting this year. I am working on an exciting business development project. And there are a couple of very stealthy things I am doing that I think are very compelling. And I am happy with the work I am doing for my clients as a consultant and blogger.

Additionally, I am using my spare time to train and raise money for the Avon Walk To Fight Breast Cancer. It is a 39.3 mile walk - 26 miles the first day and 13.3 miles the second day. If you are interested in donating please go to this link - My Avon Walk Page.

I remain undeterred and actually am now more driven than ever to fight back against these industry bullies.

In a recent article from Chris Mellor - "Circling Storage in vSphere" - he discusses new functionality provided by VMware that is similar to thin provisioning features provided by storage system vendors. He muses - "How far down the storage array controller application stack will it go? To the point that all you need is a virtual storage array controller in ESX looking after just a bunch of disks (JBOD) in an enclosure?"

VMware will inevitably provide more and more functionality typically found in storage systems. At the same time they will continue to improve and optimize how they work with existing storage systems. It is unlikely in the short term that VMware will render storage systems obsolete. VMware has a long way to go before they are a real threat to the storage players as a direct competitor. However, as they add new storage-oriented functionality they may soften some competitive differences between storage systems. For example, VMware's new thin provisionish feature conceptually could give a storage system vendor without thin provisioning an answer to a customer that wants this feature. Now before the thin provision guys argue that their technology is better - or that it is different - I admit that I haven't really looked into this new VMware technology and have no idea how good it is. The point is that you can expect VMware to continue to add more and more of storage features. And these capabilities will continue to mature over time.

Additionally, VMware must and will continue to make 3rd-party storage systems work better with their software because it is in their best interest to do so. Therefore, VMware will walk the thin line of competing and cooperating with the storage vendors pretty much forever. Both parties have no choice in this matter.

However, storage is complex and sophisticated technology and there are all levels and types of storage. I believe there are some smart people that know storage at VMware but it is not a part of their core DNA. If they do have grand plans to conquer the storage world - as Chris speculates - they have a long, long way to go.