I think the article brings out a good point. Why can't we get a simple one to one test of the two boxes withthe same amount of useable storage, and as similar a configuration overall as possible? That way we can really see the price and performance of each. Up to now all we have is hearsay and Marketing BS. I don't think we're comparing apples to apples yet. For example, I suggest we test five real world applications. 1) Test both in a home directory configuration 2) Test both running a common Oracle application 3) Test both running a Lotus Notes application 4) Test both running exchange 5) Test both simulating recovery form an Oracle outage and an Exchange outage and how long it takes to recover.
Let the best box win : ).
--- Bruce Sterling Woodcock sirbruce@ix.netcom.com wrote:
----- Original Message ----- From: "Chris Thompson" cet1@cus.cam.ac.uk To: "sg" sly789@yahoo.com Cc: emcnas@mathworks.com; toasters@mathworks.com Sent: Sunday, March 25, 2001 2:46 PM Subject: Re: NAS Wars
Now if he had made some serious points about
NetApp's implementation
being dependent on cost-effective fast
uniprocessors, and what the
future prospects for such beasts might imply (as
compared to systems
that can make better use of multiprocessors),
rather than wittering
on about irrelevancies like the above, maybe the
article would have
been worth reading.
I agree. And that's a great point, Chris. I don't doubt the ability of Netapp to do multiprocessor, and for all I know they have already done the code. But their approach, so far, has always been to rely on the scaling of single processors, both in performance and in price, to keep turning their product line. Will there come a time when that will no longer be possible amd multiprocessor offerrings become necessary? Sure, but I thought that a few years ago, and it still hasn't happened.
The "dual everything" IP4700 design is nice, though... and with two processors you can still continue to function if the other one fails.
Bruce
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