iSCSI struggling to live up to its promise

When it arrived, iSCSI (Internet SCSI) sounded not only exciting but irresistibly logical. Everything else has been hopping onto an ever-faster Ethernet/IP bus, so storage traffic seems to be a logical new passenger. Using IP to move block-level storage traffic via Gigabit Ethernet apparently gives CTOs everything they want, including increased competitiveness via new technology; continued leveraging of existing infrastructure; and a low, possibly nonexistent, learning curve for IT staff.

Despite these advantages, the 2003 InfoWorld Storage Survey revealed that only 13 percent of readers have managed any kind of iSCSI adoption. The answer to the mystery of iSCSI’s slow adoption lies both within the technology as well as the minds of potential adopters and their new environment.

“CIOs simply can’t afford to make potentially expensive mistakes in the current [corporate] climate,” says Jeff Allen, CIO of Glenwood Management, a property management firm managing a $5 billion Manhattan portfolio. Committing corporate dollars today is dangerous territory for most chief technologists. Continues Allen, “I’m not looking as much for a big technology touchdown as I am for a safe bet that still moves my company forward. iSCSI simply isn’t that safe a bet.” Looking closely at iSCSI reveals some truth to this assessment but also shows some imminent relief.

Where’s the standard?

If anything makes IT managers fidget, it’s getting involved with proprietary technology. And although iSCSI as a concept seems built on three established standards — SCSI, IP, and Gigabit Ethernet — the reality of melding these three technologies at present requires some proprietary pushing. That’s because an IETF-ratified iSCSI standard still hasn’t seen the light of day after more than a year since the technology’s introduction.

While this hasn’t dampened the enthusiasm of new and second-tier storage players, including Alacritech, Cenata Networks, and EqualLogic, it has seriously slowed product releases from the storage industry big boys, especially EMC, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM. Big Blue is even cited by some as one of iSCSI’s initial failures because it introduced its iSCSI-capable storage array TotalStorage IP Storage 200i, but then became the victim of industrywide rumors that the product had been canceled. IBM denies this rumor, and the product is still available on its Web site (see http://www.storage.ibm.com/snetwork/iSCSI/index.html), but reports say that customers’ ability to purchase a TotalStorage 200i remains hampered.

The good news is that the IETF’s IP Storage Working Group has promised an approved iSCSI specification by the end of March 2003. Lack of this specification has limited iSCSI products mainly to iSCSI software drivers and adapters. These products allow iSCSI implementation by sending iSCSI traffic to compatible target arrays (of which there are few) or, more likely, via compatible IP storage routers from vendors such as Cisco and Stonefly Networks. IP storage routers generally act as bridges between iSCSI, Gigabit Ethernet, and Fibre Channel.