Comments on: The Server Vendors v Cisco: Is This A New Technology War? http://www.thevirtualcircle.com/2008/02/the-server-vendors-v-cisco-is-this-a-new-technology-war/ WordPress site Wed, 16 Nov 2011 20:21:06 +0000 hourly 1 By: Brocade: The Heart and Lungs of the Network | HaveMacWillBlog (aka Robin Bloor’s Blog) http://www.thevirtualcircle.com/2008/02/the-server-vendors-v-cisco-is-this-a-new-technology-war/comment-page-1/#comment-169 Brocade: The Heart and Lungs of the Network | HaveMacWillBlog (aka Robin Bloor’s Blog) Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:21:27 +0000 http://havemacwillblog.com/2008/02/21/the-server-vendors-v-cisco-is-this-a-new-technology-war/#comment-169 [...] by Robin Bloor in Briefings A briefing with Brocade was organized soon after I wrote the posting; The Server Vendors v Cisco: Is This A New Technology War? Brocade was a little aggrieved that I chose to use Cisco’s Nexus 7000 switch in illustration [...] [...] by Robin Bloor in Briefings A briefing with Brocade was organized soon after I wrote the posting; The Server Vendors v Cisco: Is This A New Technology War? Brocade was a little aggrieved that I chose to use Cisco’s Nexus 7000 switch in illustration [...]

]]> By: jonathan http://www.thevirtualcircle.com/2008/02/the-server-vendors-v-cisco-is-this-a-new-technology-war/comment-page-1/#comment-166 jonathan Tue, 11 Mar 2008 03:27:06 +0000 http://havemacwillblog.com/2008/02/21/the-server-vendors-v-cisco-is-this-a-new-technology-war/#comment-166 Did Cisco pay for this posting? Did Cisco pay for this posting?

]]> By: Robin Bloor http://www.thevirtualcircle.com/2008/02/the-server-vendors-v-cisco-is-this-a-new-technology-war/comment-page-1/#comment-168 Robin Bloor Fri, 22 Feb 2008 01:12:14 +0000 http://havemacwillblog.com/2008/02/21/the-server-vendors-v-cisco-is-this-a-new-technology-war/#comment-168 Many thanks for this response. I've made the correction to the text. The actual outcome of this type of technology is difficult to predict because it's so disruptive to the status quo - but how disruptive depends upon how the data centers choose to use it. So clearly my suggestion is just one of several possibilities, but I'm still inclined to think that the NOS will have the tendency to commoditise everything below it. There will still be a need for well designed components at different levels of granularity, but it will be difficult for the vendors of these to differentiate. What I'm absolutely convinced of is that "the points of commoditization" will move. I like your theorem very much and I'll probably start quoting it as Gourlay's Theorem. If others imitate me, you'll be condemned to eponymity. Many thanks for this response. I’ve made the correction to the text.
The actual outcome of this type of technology is difficult to predict because it’s so disruptive to the status quo – but how disruptive depends upon how the data centers choose to use it. So clearly my suggestion is just one of several possibilities, but I’m still inclined to think that the NOS will have the tendency to commoditise everything below it. There will still be a need for well designed components at different levels of granularity, but it will be difficult for the vendors of these to differentiate. What I’m absolutely convinced of is that “the points of commoditization” will move.
I like your theorem very much and I’ll probably start quoting it as Gourlay’s Theorem. If others imitate me, you’ll be condemned to eponymity.

]]> By: Douglas Gourlay http://www.thevirtualcircle.com/2008/02/the-server-vendors-v-cisco-is-this-a-new-technology-war/comment-page-1/#comment-167 Douglas Gourlay Thu, 21 Feb 2008 22:55:18 +0000 http://havemacwillblog.com/2008/02/21/the-server-vendors-v-cisco-is-this-a-new-technology-war/#comment-167 Very nice write up. One correction, and it was my error- I goofed a decimal on a spreadsheet, the video livrary is 384 seconds, not 38.4 :) Notwithstanding this is an interesting read. I don't fully subscribe that servers will be subservient to networks, but would wholeheartedly argue that the Nexus family ushers in a new era of data center switching and elevates the network to a position of equality with servers and storage. I think this is an important point - you need servers, storage, and networks in order to process workload, store the results, and communicate it to another user, server, or application. A deficient infrastructure in any of them reduces the efficacy of all of them. I always had this theory though- which is inline with your thought process: Whenever a network transport is faster than a server bus speed the peripheral connecting to that bus will go from a parallel connection to a serial one to a shared/packetized one. Printers, Hard Drives, CPU-CPU Interconnect, and potentially even memory will follow this theorem. Thus over time all of the elements necessary to process an IT workload will be not only interconnected by a common fabric, but more importantly connected with a layer of abstraction (hypervisors anyone?) that will make any resource available to any workload at any time. dg Very nice write up. One correction, and it was my error- I goofed a decimal on a spreadsheet, the video livrary is 384 seconds, not 38.4 :)

Notwithstanding this is an interesting read. I don’t fully subscribe that servers will be subservient to networks, but would wholeheartedly argue that the Nexus family ushers in a new era of data center switching and elevates the network to a position of equality with servers and storage.

I think this is an important point – you need servers, storage, and networks in order to process workload, store the results, and communicate it to another user, server, or application. A deficient infrastructure in any of them reduces the efficacy of all of them.

I always had this theory though- which is inline with your thought process: Whenever a network transport is faster than a server bus speed the peripheral connecting to that bus will go from a parallel connection to a serial one to a shared/packetized one.

Printers, Hard Drives, CPU-CPU Interconnect, and potentially even memory will follow this theorem. Thus over time all of the elements necessary to process an IT workload will be not only interconnected by a common fabric, but more importantly connected with a layer of abstraction (hypervisors anyone?) that will make any resource available to any workload at any time.

dg

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