The iSCSI v. FC debate benefited users in three ways. First, it teased out real insight into capabilities of each technology to support real applications, and ultimately complement each other. Second, it was marginally entertaining (and good for advertising revenues). Thirdly, in lower-end, block-based application environments, it finally takes storage technology decisions out of the hands of server product folk – both on the supply and buy side – whom traditionally have utilized direct-attach storage (DAS) designs that optimize server product competitiveness at the expense of storage manageability. The clear and immediate effect of rapidly maturing iSCSI technology is to wipe out any modest DAS price/performance advantage with dramatically improved low-end storage flexibility.
Of course, the SAS argument throws a curve at this whole discussion and will elongate the life of DAS. Nonetheless, iSCSI supports a coherent shared storage strategy and will often be a better choice for DAS consumers.
Action Item: Across the board, DAS-based server designs should be avoided in favor of NAS and iSCSI SAN (lower end) or FC SAN (higher end) designs.
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