Jeff probably hit the point - NetApp do not have a solution for SAN and I think that NetApp should re-think their direction. With more and more vendors competing in the nas /san domain, these products will be better and provide more functionality and better performance. The current connectivity limitations will be eliminated. With fibre fabric you will not be limited to the current limited implementation. I think that NetApps products are great but I am disappointed that they don't plan for future competitive products.
-----Original Message----- From: Jeff Van Cleave [mailto:jeffvc@icopyright.com] Sent: Wednesday, March 22, 2000 6:13 PM To: toasters@mathworks.com Subject: RE: nas storage
NetApp is not designed to compete with SAN - and yes, you cannot say that 100mb ethernet will compete with fiber channel.
However, direct attach has limitations in the number of servers it can connect to. At last check, EMC can connect with 32 systems. Hitachi can connect to a large number with a channel box (I don't know the high end limit). But you are limited by the length of cable between the SAN and the server.
Basically we approached using NetApp as a replacement for all of our NFS servers, and to some extent our data servers. For direct attach, we will probably go with Hitachi.
I think in any environment, both SAN and NetApp can be used effectively. It is not really an argument of which one is better, but what is your functional requirement and how will those needs be met.
Jeff
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