Fibre channel storage has long been considered the gold standard, but there’s no doubt that it can be expensive to implement and requires a steep learning curve to master its specialized equipment.  In recent months, an alternative technology, Internet SCSI (iSCSI) storage, has gained traction with small and midsize businesses as well as with large enterprises because of its unique advantages.

After surveying more than 500 companies, the Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) found that iSCSI adoption is now in the "early mainstream" stage, since early adopters and planned adopters now represent 37 percent of the companies it surveyed. 

iSCSI combines familiar storage SCSI commands with the ubiquitous IP and Ethernet networking infrastructure that provide the ultimate in manageability and cost-effectiveness.  Using standard Ethernet switches and routers to transport I/O block data from servers to storage arrays, iSCSI delivers storage access and SAN connectivity across any distance.

Simple Management plus low TCO

Many companies find iSCSI is simpler to manage than fibre channel because it uses familiar IP commands and Ethernet components.  Managing storage devices, whether using an iSCSI or a fibre channel network, remains the same. In fact, Dell/EMC arrays use the same management application for both iSCSI and fibre channel storage.  Moreover, iSCSI is much less expensive than fibre channel to deploy and offers big advantages over the other alternatives: internal storage, direct attached storage and network attached storage.

According to ESG, iSCSI won't replace fibre channel completely any time soon, but it is a fundamental technology for IP networking. In terms of iSCSI network performance, 87 percent of early adopters in the ESG survey were "very satisfied" or "satisfied" with iSCSI network performance, while 82 percent were very satisfied or satisfied with iSCSI application performance.

Familiar Standardized Components
iSCSI technology uses an Ethernet network and standardized switches, network cards and other components to cost-effectively access shared storage systems, which appear as local hard drives.  The host servers and storage systems are considered initiator and target nodes respectively, but unlike fibre channel storage, they don’t require specialized drivers.  Microsoft and Linux distributors offer free initiator software.

Connecting servers to iSCSI SANs is straightforward and economical, using standard Ethernet interface cards or iSCSI host bus adapters.  While fibre channel boasts 4 Gbps bandwidth compared to Ethernet’s 1 Gbps, the actual performance gap between the two technologies is much slimmer. Because so many key applications have random I/O patterns, performance is usually more affected by read-write operations to disk than by bandwidth limitations.  In any event, the advent of 10 Gigabit Ethernet promises to enable iSCSI networks to deliver faster performance than fibre channel within the next few years.

Excellent Performance and Security
For many applications, such as databases and messaging, iSCSI performance is comparable to that of fibre channel and at a much lower cost.  Applications that stream data, backup extensively to disk or have other high bandwidth demands, however, will usually perform better with fibre channel.  And, when logically and physically separated from the corporate network, iSCSI networks are as secure as fibre channel.

Simplified manageability, scalability, performance, security and low total costs of ownership all make iSCSI networks attractive to small and medium-sized businesses, as well as to large enterprises that want to implement cost-effective additional storage to their fibre channel SANs.  In ESG's survey results, 58 percent of early adopters use iSCSI for Tier-2 application primary storage, with 50 percent using it for their Tier-1 app primary storage.

Dell: Changing the Economics of Storage

Dell has developed iSCSI technology and forged partnerships to deliver the most cost-effective and advanced storage solutions. All Dell PowerEdge servers contain a TCP/IP Offload Engine (TOE), a dedicated piece of hardware that reduces CPU utilization of host servers connected to an iSCSI network, leaving the CPU available for application processing.

Dell/EMC storage systems support native iSCSI storage arrays for enterprises looking to consolidate storage or add tiered storage to a fibre channel SAN, and can support iSCSI and Fibre Channel connections simultaneously.   Dell PowerVault storage is optimized for unified NAS/iSCSI systems to deliver easy-to-use file sharing with block-level access in a single device.

iSCSI technology from Dell delivers the performance, expandability and value that enterprises need in a storage system. Dell also offers a wide range of product support and service options, to help customers plan, implement and maintain their networked storage environments.