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Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat

Understanding the accumulation of data

Can’t Get There From HereNovember 30

I’m currently making my travel plans for my final storage virtualization seminar. Or, to be precise, trying to make my plans. You see, apparently one cannot (reasonably) get from Cleveland to Toronto, even though they’re only 193 miles apart.

Want a direct flight? That’ll be $1,080 round trip on an Air Canada Dash-8. But it only takes 1:15 to get there! For comparison, I could fly to London (UK) from Cleveland for $650 round trip.
Ok, let’s connect then! That’ll run at least $650 on American (or over a grand on United) and take 4 hours, connecting through Chicago. Or you can connect through Washington DC on multiple airlines.
Hmmm… Amtrak? It’s cheap at $120 round trip, but the journey there takes 13 hours, and it’ll take a whopping 19 hours to get home! London (UK) is only 12 hours away (with a connection!)
Ok, Amtrak goes straight to Buffalo in 3 hours. Then it’s another hour and a half to Toronto by car. And there’s only one train per day. And it arrives at 3:30 in the freaking morning.
How about driving? That’s a 300 mile, 5-hour journey. Just long enough to be too painful.
Might as well walk. Google says it’ll take just 4 days!

Any suggestions?

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Physical Security for the Road WarriorNovember 30

You can never be totally secure, but basic precautions can help

You can never be totally secure, but basic precautions like this simple cable lock for laptops can help

This is part of an ongoing series of longer articles I am posting on Sundays.

In this digital age, it is easy to overlook the critical element of physical security. Put simply, it is often far more efficient to steal or gain access to a physical object like a laptop or flash drive than to break into a computer system. And despite the sanitary and controlled environments many mobile employees often travel in, risks to personal safety are real. Therefore, it is sensible to consider the physical security needs of the road warrior.(...)
Read the rest of Physical Security for the Road Warrior (487 words)

Storage Folks Are Talking 10-Gig and FCoENovember 21

I continue to be amazed by the level of interest I’m seeing in Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and 10 Gb Converged Ethernet among storage people. As I noted after my Charlotte virtualization seminar, end users at the largest enterprises seem to think that FCoE is their future, not just one of several options.

But when will 10 Gb and FCoE arrive? Dave Raffo and I discussed the topic after Storage Decisions, and he just wrote an article on the topic, 10GigE still seeking killer app. Here are some points that came up in our discussion:

Shipping and supported 10 Gb HBAs and CNAs are the key requirement, and it looks like the schedules of Microsoft, VMware, Sun, and Linus Torvalds will determine when the floodgates open
iSCSI people are talking 10 Gb, too, and they might end up adopting it first with software initiators
Interest in FCoE is focused at the largest enterprise shops, and I’m seeing a distinct line between “iSCSI shops” and “(future) FCoE shops” with very little overlap (as I previously noted, iSCSI and FCoE aren’t mortal enemies, and FCoE will rule in the largest environments)
No one i

Top Ten Innovative Enterprise Storage Hardware ProductsNovember 15

Looking around at the enterprise storage landscape, it is plain that certain archetypes rule: Monolithic enterprise arrays, dual-controller modular arrays, standard-sized hard disk units, NAS servers, tape libraries. Are these really the optimal designs for storage in our modern open systems world?

On the contrary, I suggest that the enterprise storage world we know was shaped by singular innovative products of the past. Without these, the IT world might look very different.

So let’s take a walk through history, identifying the ten most innovative and important enterprise storage hardware products. But let me note first that this list could be 100 items long, and we all have our favorites. Lots of the storage blogging world contributed their ideas, too!(...)
Read the rest of Top Ten Innovative Enterprise Storage Hardware Products (1,731 words)

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2008. | Top Ten Innovative Enterprise Storage Hardware Products
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Making Plans for Storage Decision San FranciscoNovember 14

Next week is the final Storage Decisions conference of 2008, Storage Decisions San Francisco! I’ll be in the Bay area from Sunday night through Wednesday, and invite you to say hello if you’re in the area as well!

If you’re attending the conference, here’s my schedule:

Monday, 9:45 AM - 10:45 AM: DATA RETENTION & RETRIEVAL track: Deep Dive Into Email Archiving Products
Monday, 4:30 PM - 7:00 PM: Exhibit Hall Reception
Monday, 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM: Ask the Experts in the Exhibit Hall
Monday, 7:30 PM - Late: Dinner (You’re invited! See below!)
Tuesday, 1:00 PM - 2:45 PM: Lunch in the Exhibit Hall
Tuesday, 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM: STORAGE & CAPACITY MANAGEMENT track: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Virtualization - In One Hour!

Join Me For Dinner on Monday!

A bunch of storage folks have said they’re interested in getting together for a dinner on Monday night. Let’s do it!

What: Dinner and conversation
When: 7:30 PM on Monday the 17th until we get tired
Where: Start at the San Francisco Hilton, then off for Sushi, Mexican, or Italian (help me decide!)
Who: Anyone who wants to come along!
How: Contact me through