Steve Foskett's blog is currently my favourite storage blog for a number of reasons; I like the clean design, it's nicely laid out and easy to read. He also has a nice fluency to his writing style which I kind of envy but more importantly his content is excellent and thought provoking.
He is considering the impact of virtualisation, true virtualisation on IT and it's future. He talks about value, not cost-savings but bringing value to the businesses we support. Changing the way IT works and delivers, he acknowledges that this is a while away but it has implications for storage management and infrastructure management in general.
Who manages what in the new virtualised world? I wonder if we are going to at last see some of the boundaries between infrastructure teams come down? I hope so but I can see a number of conflicts as we progress. Some of them are looming large now!
- Converged Fabric – I already see the network teams eyeing the Cisco SAN infrastructure; well it's got Cisco on the front!
- Virtualised Intel Servers – the Unix and Windows teams are already beginning to butt heads; who defines standards? Who manages performance?
- Database Appliances – Things like Netezza; the DBAs and the Application teams are also beginning to rub each other up the wrong way!
And in the current climate, there's alot of scared people who want to keep their turf and perhaps take a bit more of someone else's. It's going to be fraught but if corporate IT departments are not careful, the businesses that they serve are going to look in and see a whole playground full of squabbles. I'm really not sure what the solution will be but I hope the storage bods can be a big part of this and I think we can.
Most storage bods come from another discipline to start with; no-one starts in storage (well no-one who should be allowed out by themselves). We are used to dealing with everyone and everything, we understand the complexity or at least have an appreciation of the complexity of the infrastructures which are now in place. The network teams and ourselves are the people who have the experience of running shared infrastructures; the disciplines which the new virtualised infrastructures which are being built are already instilled in our teams.
But we do tend towards the 'Fortress Storage' mentality and it is this we need to break down; it is time for us to become a bit more cuddly, less inclined to obsfucate and be more open. However I do believe that as long as we as a discipline can embrace the change, we've got a lot to offer.
Thanks for the kind words! I do sometimes wonder if the techies and insiders among us ever think about how the regular storage bods (nice!) go about their daily jobs. Consider how few use storage management software, are cross-trained in virtualization and networking, or even are exposed to alternative storage gear from vendors that aren’t in their shops.
Regular storage folks face serious challenges just keeping the lights on, and the coming virtualization-enabled storage-pocalypse is not going to be an easy transition to make. Save yourselves! The sky is falling!
Well, I encourage all my storage bods to get hold of all the simulators, virtual machines etc that they can. I’m a great believer in you only get out what you put in. As professionals, we have a duty to keep ourselves engaged and abreast of what our industry. My wife is a Chartered Surveyor, she can only keep that status by ensuring she keeps up her CPD (continuing professional development) and her employer doesn’t meet all of that. As professionals, it doesn’t all land on our plate but I suspect if you are reading this, you are already doing your bit to keep yourselves involved.
Agreed, good blog. Sometimes I sit wondering why he throws in the iPhone/Mac spiels. I am just here for the storage related blogs.
Superstar: Just so’s you know, you can subscribe only to the enterprise storage stuff using this alternate feed URL:
feed://feeds.fosketts.net/StephenFoskettPackRat_EnterpriseStorage
Also, Martin, I may be your fave, but I’m sad that I’m not in your “What I Read” list! 😀
Happy now? BTW I like your off-storage ramblings!!