Ethernet Storage Guy

Today’s message is about goodbyes and hellos.

For the last few years I have had the pleasure of working with a great sales team at NetApp with customers from around the world. I joined NetApp after a few virtualization projects in the mid 2000s which I designed data centers that incorporated the use of NetApp storage and Cisco networking with VMware being the core virtualization technology. Prior to that I worked at Cisco during several events which I have often referred to as convergence events. That is essentially the phenomena in our industry where two technologies combine with the promise of a new and ultimately better solution, once the solution and its foundational technologies have matured.

Previous Convergence Events

• Mainframe communications transport with DLSW
• Voice over Frame Relay (VoFR) and ultimately Voice over IP (VoIP)
• IP Telephony (IPT) and Now Unified Communications

We are in the midst of another convergence but this time it is with many technologies, all at once. Think about the many different convergence events we have going on in our industry.

• Server Virtualization – The convergence of workloads on x86 hardware.
• Unified Fabric – The convergence of IP and Fibre Channel on one wire to the server and ultimately to storage
• Storage Virtualization – The ability to abstract the relationship of volume/lun/datastore from a direct hardened identity within a disk subsystem, allowing for various means of non-disruptive and sometimes dynamic relocation and resizing.
• Network Virtualization – The use of some network partitioning technologies (VLANs) and/or Extending Ethernet LANs beyond traditional data center boundaries (Cisco OTV)
• Compute Virtualization – From I/O Virtualization, Combined Fabric, Network and Management to abstracting the physical identity of a server into a profile. This abstraction enables the assignment of server identity not something that a manufacture decides when they build the product but something an administrator creates at the time of design and applies as infrastructure needs dictate its use. (See: Cisco UCS Service Profiles)

Each convergence event produces its own ecosystem of partners, manufactures and integrators. Innovation typically accelerates because of the ecosystem activity being so fertile and if relevant to the marketplace, customer demand is high. What is different this time is innovation is happening in numerous technology areas and each of those areas are finding it necessary to partner with a broader mission and set of goals. These technologies are coming to the data center in a coordinated and often complimentary model.

These technologies and the use of them together has produced an entirely new category of technology conversation “Cloud”. It’s funny the word cloud on one hand frustrates many industry veterans and excites others. Cloud is more cerebral than it is tangible and I believe our journey to make cloud tangible for the worlds enterprises is the opportunity of the next decade.

I was recently a panel speaker at a CIO Summit in Philadelphia, PA. During this event the topic my panel was asked to discuss was cloud. Everyone at the conference was struggling for a definition of cloud. One manufacture presentation referred to cloud as a product offering for one of his product lines. I didn’t agree with that thought and in my session said that I believed cloud was the pluralization of virtualization, in the context of the data center, its infrastructure and the services it provides.

Cloud is coordinated, deeply integrated virtualization, in infrastructure and/or services from an external provider, deployed to an enterprise. It is in effect the attempt to drive efficiencies out of IT services in the context of the enterprise from a holistic perspective versus one technology element enabling those services. No one thing is cloud, but cloud is a thing.

When Cisco announced it’s investment in VMware several years ago then introduced the Nexus family and more recently introduced Cisco UCS, I knew that Cisco understood the many areas of convergence which were happening. I knew that they understood the cycle of innovation sweeping the data center landscape and they were innovating technologies outside of their traditional markets to capture the transition which was/is occurring.

I am happy to announce that I get to go be apart of that transformation. My final day at NetApp is today and while I leave behind high praise and gratitude for the company and people I worked with, I am excited to venture into a new opportunity.

Part of the new role will be working in the VCE Coalition and helping customers adopt these many layers of virtualization concepts and technologies in holistic infrastructure solutions. I received a message from a Cisco employee whom I have worked with for many years and he simply said.

“Welcome Home”

I have never been that far away but it does feel like I am going home.

Thanks to NetApp for all the great times. Everyone stay in touch and keep up the great work. Looks like I will also be at the Charlotte VMUG, which is shaping up to be an excellent event.

Trey…