Podering the use of LC-FC and ATA disk drives

Posted on by
Reply

So I have been reading other storage industry pundits’ opinions on the uses for LC-FC (Low Cost Fibre Channel Disk) and ATA (Advanced Technology Attachment) disk drives.? The? use of ATA disks in mid-tier storage devices and virtual tape libraries as a primary disk-to-disk backup (D2D) and/or archiving target has become quite pervasive.? While the drives lack some fibre channel (FC) features like tagged command queuing and the mean-time-between-failure (MTBF) is not as high as a fibre channel drives they work well in applications like backup-to-disk (B2D) due to their ability to achieve tolerable sequential read and write speeds.? The industry as a whole has now begun to leverage LC-FC disks in enterprise class storage subsystems, while fundamentally this is a great idea, the marketing and packaging of these solutions needs a bit of work.? Most enterprise class subsystems leverage platform software for functions like snapshots and replication, many vendors price these platform software applications by capacity.? Why would anyone install 500GB LC-FC drives in an enterprise class subsystem and push their platform software licensing through the roof.? It would more cost effectively purchase a mid-tier storage device with 15K rpm fibre channel drives to use as a tier 2 or 3 storage platform, this solution would also most likely be higher performing.? This is a fundamental problem, if a storage device can truly accommodate multi-tier storage requirements why should the addition of tier 2 or tier 3 storage capacity where functionality like synchronous or asynchronous replication are typically not required raise the cost of my platform software licensing?? Until this is resolved it will be difficult to realize the vision of a single multi-tier platform.

-RJB

Week 2 complete…

Posted on by
Reply

Well, we just wrapped up week 2 of "The Evolution of Disaster Recovery" seminar series, this week we visited Washington DC, NY and Boston.? The week was topped of by the what I would call the best seminar thus far in Boston with good attendee interaction and some of the best questions we have seen to date, west coast there is still time to nudge out Boston for best seminar.? I think we are putting together some great questions from all the seminars and I am really excited to publish the podcast sometime in September.? Next week we wrap-up on the west coast with a stop in LA, Orange County and San Diego, I am looking forward to a capacity crowd. The highlight of the show thus far for me was a comment we received on one of the comment cards which read "It was really nice to attend a seminar where the presenters knew the material so well".? Hopefully you have been happy with the content and walked away with some valuable insight.? We are reading every single comment card? and next quarter we will be looking to improve the material and format based on them.? Thanks again for attending!

-RJB

The Code (Linux)

Posted on by
Reply

Just arrived at my hotel in Boston an I am preparing to deliver “The Evolution of? Disaster Recovery” seminar in our sixth city tomorrow morning.? I put my new video iPod (that Cisco so graciously awarded me after passing a certification exam) to good use on the way up from Newark.? I watched the “The Code (Linux)” a Swedish Linux documentary.? As a long time Linux hacker and a technology history buff I was already familiar with most of the content that was presented in the film but there were a couple of concepts that got me excited, so excited I needed to blog on them.? The first was a statement by Linus Torvalds, for those of you who don’t know who Linus is, he is generally recognized creator of the Linux kernel.? Linus has arguably directed one of the most complex collaborative software development initiatives in the history of computing.? We can learn a lot from him and the Linux development effort on how to motivate and extract the most from people.? Linus discusses how the management of Linux kernel development project morphed from a hierarchical management structure to a what he describes today as a “web of trust” where developers are empowered to act.? Eric Raymond the author of “The Cathedral and the Bazaar” and all around open source czar also has some phenomenal words of wisdom.? Eric talks about what motivates open source engineers outside of monetary gain.

  • Artistic pride, the satisfaction derived from good craftsman like work
  • An idealistic feeling that you are part of something larger than yourself
  • A general desire to help and deliver good solutions
  • Increasing ones reputation and statue within the community

I found these points to be interesting because I have always embraced the philosophy of empowerment and mentoring over dictating policy and managing to that policy.? In my opinion the difference between a good organization and an insanely great organization is the ability to apply concepts such as the ones discussed above, so everyone participates in a culture where free thinking, innovation, empowerment, reputation, recognition, and responsibility are allowed to flourish.? The concept of totalitarian rule is ignorant and stifles innovation.? Empowerment is the key to innovation and ultimately greatness!

-RJB

Speeding up WinXP boot time and lightening memory footprint

Posted on by
6

Step 1.

Clear the prefetch cache located at C:\Windows\Prefetch

Step 2.

[Start] [Run] [Regedit]
Registry Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters
Modify/Create the Value Data Type(s) and Value Name(s) as detailed below.
Data Type: DWORD Value // Value Name: EnablePrefetcher
Setting for Value Data: [0 = Disabled / 1 = Application Launch Prefetch / 2 = Boot Prefetch / 3 = Prefetch All]
Exit Registry and Reboot

My prefetch registry entry was set to 3.? I cleaned the c:\windows\prefetch directory out and set the registry entry to 0 to disable and I am much happier with my system performance.

Another tool that I find very useful is Mike Lin’s Startup Control Panel, which allows simple management of autostart applications.?

Happy optimizing!

-RJB

Cisco is at it again…

Posted on by
Reply

Not sure how many of you have seen the press on Cisco taking a 80% stake in stealth startup Nuova Systems.? Nuova System is a reincarnation of the Andiamo group which spun back into Cisco and today is what we all know as the Cisco MDS (SAN switching) product line.? There is little out there on Nuova Systems but the buzz is that they are working on a virtualization technology.? I guess the question is with all the money and power Cisco wields, does Brocade/McData stand a chance?? Does Brocade/McData have what it takes to innovate, or will the market goliath (Cisco) out innovate the smaller more nimble competitor?? With alliances like this it certainly looks that way.? One has to question the time that will be spent on the integration of the Brocade and McData product lines and positioning, and how much time this will leave for technology innovation.? It will be interesting to watch how this one unfolds.

-RJB

The Infrastructure Chasm

Posted on by
Reply

Last week I completed the first three cities (Dallas, Atlanta, Chicago) in a nine city road show event focused on "The Evolution of Disaster Recovery"? where we covered three core topics:

  • Recovery Management – What is it and how do we facilitate it?? What is the? state of the marketplace?
  • Remote Office Disaster Recovery – Leveraging edge-to-core data consolidation
  • Virtual Infrastructure – Taking disaster recovery to the next level

Despite a high potential for mistakes and missteps (due to the fact this was the first round) we managed to present 3 very good seminars.? I believe that 99% of the attendees walked away with some piece of valuable information.? Being that I will be speaking for 3 weeks on the same topic I attempted to change it up a little in each city to avoid the "Groundhog Day" effect.? In Chicago I talked a little about the "Infrastructure Chasm"?and surprisingly there was some serious head nodding going happening.? I think as we make our way to the 6 other cities I may discuss this in further detail.

-RJB

Humbleness is far more productive than expertness!

Posted on by
Reply

Prompted by a recent “Nick Burns” (Saturday Night Live character) event I needed to vent.

I never cease to be amazed by the vast number of people who put themselves in situations assuming they are the smartest person in a conversation, inevitably this always makes them the dumbest person in the conversation. I am guilty of this on occasion but I try to learn from my mistakes as often as possible. As a general rule I always assume that most people are smarter than I am. I have always taken this approach, because I have never met someone that given the opportunity could not teach me something. The passing of knowledge from one person to another tends to be a more fruitful and enjoyable when coupled with a little humility. I have always approached things in this manner is because it gives me a reason to puck myself as hard as humanly possible. In my opinion the key to putting yourself in a position of authority rests solely on an individuals desire and ability to study and comprehend the existing information on a particular topic coupled with the intellect to derive new conclusions. I truly believe that at the rate things change on this great planet, at any given time I know <1% of what I want or need to know. This philosophy has provided me with an insatiable thirst to know more and hopefully the ability learn enough to hold an intelligent conversation, but I would never consider myself an expert on anything; there is just to much to learn!

I feel much better now!

Just when we though we had the model nailed…

Posted on by
Reply

I just finished reading an article about how Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is investing 12.6 million in the Chinese market.? It appears the Maharashtra (literal translation: "Great Nation"), India based consulting firm is leveraging the even lower cost of labor in China.? With tech salaries rising at 15% a year in India the consulting company is looking to cash in on the low wage labor in China.? This should not be hard to do with monthly salaries for programmers in high-tech hot spots like Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen between $600 and $960.? TCS already has a secured the first China based contract with Microsoft for $2 million.? Is this the beginning of a trend where the proven low cost outsourcer is looking to move up the food chain and play middle man while developing technical expertise in low wage markets?

-RJB