Tuesday, December 09, 2003

RSS network meltdown? RSS network meltdown? Excellent post from the Audioblog/Mobileblogging News. Doc Searls received some push back to his RSS is a Good Thing piece.  Looks like some successful nodes/blogs are experiencing bandwidth issues with the present RSS network.  I agree with Doc that the problem is a solvable technical problem "I have faith that smart and respectful tech folks will work things out."  Maybe in 2004 we will see a syndication network layer emerge above the Web that is owned by none but shares the cost with all as we move forward. The network should transport RSS as well as other emerging/interesting XML messaging formats as well as media files, legal files like RSS files that is. A little RSStraint?    I've been pointed to some contrarian counterweights to my frequent assertions that RSS is a Good Thing.   Gary Lawrence Murphy laments The End of RSS. At the top of the webstats, the smoking gun: 30,000 requests for the Drupal-generated RSS feed from teledyn.com. That's after all his daily traffic quota was used up with more than 12 hours left. He explains,   Herein the black hole of RSS: If your feed works, if you are successful in attracting subscriptions on a global scale, if you do it right, you are doomed.   As friends tell friends, as links lead to visits which lead to subscribers, the snowball rolls on towards that day like last Friday. RSS may have thepotential to be a saver on bandwidth, but when you are getting hit once an hour or more by thousands of sites, 24,000 extra hits ads up, and it's all the worse when so many are using broken clients that ignore the caching rule.   Dan Sugalski has similar complaints. More here and here.   I have faith that smart and respectful tech folks will work things out. My advocacy here is on behalf of syndication. I don't want to get into technical arguments, unless they're about language, which is where my own technical expertise lies. [Doc Searls Weblog]   6:05:06 PM    comment []

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Customers Spending Too Much Time Doing Storage Operations - From The Yankee Group Comments From Stephanie Balaouras/Senior Analyst (Enterprise Computing & Networking) Of The Yankee Group At The SMS Summit in San Diego. Customers (289 Storage Decision Makers/ May 2003) increasingly say they spend too much time doing storage operations per week (approximately 43 hours total per week).   These activities, in order of time consumption - are provided below: Back Up Operations Provisioning Storage Managing Tape Libraries Managing Storage Networks Volume And File Management Archiving/HSM Capacity Planning Disaster Recovery Management/Testing Monitoring Storage Array Failures   5:32:07 PM    comment []

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The Value Of SMI-S From Roger Reich/Veritas Highlights from Roger Reich's (Veritas) Presentation On The Value Of SMI-S During The SMS Summit in San Diego Reason To Consider SMI-S:  Industry Acceptance Of SMI-S Should Increase Customer Demand For Storage Products Customer Value Chain:  Customer Value + Common Industry Transport + Standard Object Models = More Powerful Management Systems And Increased Interoperability = Increased Customer Demand For Products SMI-S Features Ability to "sculpt management backbone" to be either in band or out of band. Ability to provide "locking" (isolation of operations) between devices. Ability to provide "auto-discovery. Basic WBEM Server Discovery Server Capability (Profiles) Dynamic Upgrades For New Profiles Dynamic Upgrade For Simple Schema Extensions Ability to create more advanced storage management applications. CIM Features   CIM provides Performance Management that: Provides consistent application of durable names Creates stove pope association/correlation Provides Predictable profiles Quick Definition Overview Web-Based Enterprise Management is an initiative in the DMTF. Abbreviated WBEM. It is a set of technologies that enables interoperable management of an enterprise. WBEM consists of CIM, an XML DTD defining the tags (XML encodings) to describe the CIM Schema and its data, and a set of HTTP operations for exchanging the XML-based information. CIM joins the XML data description language and HTTP transport protocol with an underlying information model, CIM to create a conceptual view of the enterprise. Common Interface Model (CIM) is a data model for describing managed elements across the enterprise, including systems, networks and applications. The CIM schema provides definitions for servers, desktops, peripherals, operating systems, applications, network components, users and others along with details of each. One of the main functions CIM offers is the ability to define the associations between components. CIM's object-oriented approach makes it easier to track the relationships and interdependencies between managed objects. WBEM/CIM proponents tout this as a key advantage over SNMP. eXtensible Markup Language is a universal format for structured documents and data on the World Wide Web. Abbreviated XML. The World Wide Web Consortium is responsible for the XML specification. HyperText Transfer Protocol is an application level protocol, usually run over TCP/IP, that enables the exchange of files via the World Wide Web. Profile - the minimum amount of information that needs to be provided for a platform to be considered conforming to the SMI-S. 4:56:03 PM    comment []

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Why is SMI-S important to your company? Why is SMI-S important to your company?  Comments from four storage software leaders at the Storage Management Summit as part of panel moderated by John Webster of the Data Mobility Group. Larry Krantz/EMC All EMC Products Will Be SMI-S Compliant (Declared By CEO). First Products Shipped (GA) with SMI-S In Early 2004. Key component of EMC Information Lifecycle Management Strategy. Steve Quinn/Hitachi And HDS Guiding principle of TrueNorth aligns with CIM/SMI-S focus (True North = Hitachi's commitment to an open and collaborative framework based on industry standards). Allows for ease of integration of multi-sources management modules (benefiting from a common, standards-based architecture). Provides for consistent, complete view of objects under management. Provides for more complete integration of business rules and reliability standards. Provides standard interface for management of devices. Allows for reduced development effort. Provides value of a standard brand that has been compliance tested. Richard Escott/HP Customers are requesting simplicity, manageability, and adaptability - as they need to be able to integrate all the elements of their data center together - not just storage. Satisfying customer requirements (IT) will require an Adaptive Enterprise (Business/Management/Infrastructure Focus). "Just in time" delivery of resources is changing the economics of IT requirements.  SMI-S/CIM allows for ease of management Server/Storage/Network/Software resources. SMI-S links Adaptive Enterprise "stakeholders" - ISV Clients/HP Clients/IHV Providers/HP Providers.   Brent Ross/LSI Logic Storage Systems Critical customer issues addressed by SMI-S/CIM Reduction of management cost and complexity. Management of heterogeneous systems. Data protection and disaster recovery. Efficient use of capacity. Compliance with federal regulations. Decision Makers want standardization (SMI-S support now appearing in RFQs). SMI-S matches LSI Logic premier storage vendor model: Robust array products. Broadly interoperable with 3rd parties. Delivered through multiple business partners. On going SMI-S compliance is part of product roadmaps. John Webster/Data Mobility Group - Questions To The Panel Is SMI-S threatening to vendors?  EMC/Larry Krantz - "No, because it is standardization at the plumbing level allowing for differentiation above the plumbing level.". HP/Richard Escott - " No, actually enhances HPs ability to deliver an Adaptive Enterprise". How do you sell SMI-S internally? Hitachi - HDS/Steve Quinn - "Position it as a "development time saver" - with consideration not only of financial costs - but opportunity costs (other vendors compliant)". EMC/Larry Krantz - "SMI is a TCO win for EMC as it can reduce the costs of achieving (development) and demonstrating (testing) interoperability - thus providing operational expense savings". How do you get SMI-S promoted externally? LSI Logic/Brent Ross - "Need to be able to demonstrate an implementation that can actually be used in a customer environment - once you provide that demonstration - customers are interested". EMC/Larry Krantz - "Vendor community must push SMI-S through ICTP portion of standardization". HP/Richard Escott - "Agree with Ross/Krantz comments - and HP is also strongly promoting in developer community by provision of expertise and equipment". Is SMI-S capable of doing "management application" to "management application" integration? EMC/Larry Krantz - The Software interoperability (call and/or API set) is the next thing that needs to be addressed by SMI-S - like the hardware interoperability is being addressed at this time". HP/Richard Escott - "Need agreement on standardization of models of content to allow for the software interoperability". 3:17:30 PM    comment []

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Maranti Debuts Intelligent SAN Switches It took Maranti Networks Inc. awhile, but its long-promised intelligent storage area network switches have finally arrived.  [eWEEK Technology News] 12:48:35 PM    comment []

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VMware Connects With Storage Companies The company, which makes software designed to make server computers more efficient, says its code is compatible with data storage gear from several corporations.  [CNET News.com - Front Door] 12:01:47 PM    comment []

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Conformance/Consistency/Cooperation - John Blackman at Storage Management Summit Key comments from from John Blackman on the Storage Management Initiative (SMI) at the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA)  Storage Management Summit today in San Diego. "Standards are good and meaningful only if conformed to, implemented in a consistent manner and cooperation exists vendor-to-vendor and vendor-to-customer."   "Standards can be a differentiator in a commoditized market".     11:04:45 AM    comment []

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What are the top two capabilities your storage vendors need to deliver in the next 12-18 months? Customer requirements (see below) are driving the Storage Management Initiative (SMI) by the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA).   The Storage Management Initiative (SMI) is developing a highly functional and interoperable management interface for multi-vendor storage networking products and will drive the following activities within the SNIA organization: Technology Development via the Storage Management Specification (SMI-S) Interoperability testing of products utilizing the work being done in the Interoperability Conformance Test Programs (ICTP) area Outbound marketing, education and training managed by the Storage Management Forum 10:50:47 AM    comment []

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CA Released Unicenter Web-Services Management System Computer Associates on Monday released its Unicenter Web Services Distributed Management system. It manages Web services natively at the service level by monitoring Simple Object Access Protocol messages.  [eWEEK Technology News] 9:09:13 AM    comment []

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