iSCSI Nonsense

I've just read Mark Lewis's latest blog entry. Unfortunately he doesn't seem to permit comments so I'll just have to take issue here.

For those who haven't read it, he talks about the recent talking up of iSCSI.

So, I have done that, so have others. He misses a huge point. IT is driven by technologists. The world is driven by technologists. Let me cite an example. Who knows about the standards relating to television broadcasts? - to be fair, who cares. Well, the people who care are those who want higher and better resolutions, the early adopters, the technologists. They say and so we all want 1080p (well done if you know what that means) because the technologists tell us that it is the best.

So, we all want to consider iSCSI because it will bring benefit to our businesses - the technologists tell us so. Absolutely no-one with an ounce of sense would say that iSCSI is going to kick FC's ass. On the contrary, what's being said is that iSCSI complements FC to a degree that customer choice will be the deciding factor.

iSCSI is maturing as a technology to complement existing offerings. It is a lower level technology play. SOA sits far above the protocol layer and is another discussion entirely. Whatever happens, something has to move the SOA data - I'd bet that either iSCSI or FC is going to be doing that for a long time going forward.