Rootsan Technologies Bangalore is a branch of Microaccess ltd Nigeria
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B r o c a d e a n d t h e F il i l e Ar A r e a N e t w o r k ( F AN AN ) October, 2006 Earlier in 2006, Taneja Group broadly defined the term “File Area Networking” (FAN) for the IT community. Our goal was to provide the industry with a common reference architecture architecture to describe the increasingly complex world of file management. In the same manner that we saw an evolution in block IO that led to the SAN, we now see similar evolutionary steps transpiring with file data. And so, the FAN reference architecture becomes a means for end users and vendors alike to deal with the many different aspects of file management management challenges by utilizing a common nomenclature. From the very beginning of the FAN concept’s first articulation, Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. has been leading this movement. We believe that Brocade is uniquely positioned within the IT vendor landscape to leverage both the converged block and file IO requirements of today’s enterprise. In this profile we take a look at how Brocade has positioned itself for the FAN paradigm, and where the company is likely to take the FAN + SAN world in the coming years. Brocade turned heads with some of its initial moves into the file realm, and we believe that is just the beginning. This is a fundamental shift in enterprise computing and that company’s ability to create a stateless end-to-end file and block infrastructure is at its core. No single technology can pull off this move, and Brocade has federated a range of solutions to make it possible, from namespace management, management, to WAFS, and file ILM controls. In the coming years, Brocade and FAN are likely to be as commonly referenced as Brocade and SAN are today.
W h a t i s a F il i l e Ar Ar e a N e t w o r k ? FAN (File Area Network) a new acronym that truly matters within infrastructure IT. While we know the appetite for new acronyms is already stressed, this is one that truly matters. The reason for our insistence on the criticality of FAN is simple: In all of our recent research on the topic of file management, we continue to find that IT teams are overwhelmed and confused by filerelated technologies. Too many choices, too many approaches, too many areas for error. As a result of this complexity, we need a new way of sorting our way through through this chaos.
87 Elm Street, Suite 900
To illustrate the challenges of file management, we need look no further than a recent Taneja Group survey of 225 IT decision-makers, (June, 2006), in which we found that 62% of respondents now view file data growth and file management as either their “top” or “one of the top” IT priorities. Further, 57% of our respondents said that they are actively evaluating new and emerging technologies to assist with these file challenges. However, in our follow-up discussions with IT teams, it has become obvious that many managers are not comparing technological “apples-to-apples.” There are simply too many options, too many technologies, and too many overlapping
Copyright© The TANEJA Group, Inc. 2006. All Rights Reserved Hopkinton, MA 01748 Tel: 508-435-5040 Fax: 508-435-1530
www.tanejagroup.com www.tanejagroup.com
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approaches that make a coherent file management strategy strategy difficult to achieve: • • • • • • • •
File virtualization WAFS and WAN optimization Advanced file replication replication Distributed or clustered file systems Document management software Classification and indexing software ILM and data movement software NAS clusters
The potential list is endless and growing. In the face of this complexity, we all need a common reference architecture that everyone – both IT teams and IT vendors – can point to and locate their technologies, challenges, and offerings without confusion. That file strategy framework is called a File Area Network (FAN). A FAN is an architectural architectural and methodological approach to enterprise-wide file management. It is an attempt to bring to the file realm the same manner of architectural commonality and nomenclature that was applied to block IO via the SAN over ten years ago. By agreeing to and implementing against a common architectural reference model, both the end user community and vendors alike can achieve much greater efficiency.
U n d e r s t a n d i n g t h e F AN AN A FAN is ultimately about applying businesslevel controls and intelligence to files; something not possible with block-level data that is necessarily void of business- or application-level context. This key shift is achieved through a focus on network-centric 87 Elm Street, Suite 900
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file management rather than our collective historical reliance on physical devices. When users begin to think of and deploy file management management in this network-centric fashion, the power of a FAN can become immediately evident: F A N B e n e f i t : A shift towards enterprise-
wide, pervasive controls of all file information, and management of file attributes based on metadata and content values, regardless regardless of platform. F A N B e n e f i t : The goal and ability to
establish user file visibility and access rights based on business values (e.g. departments, departments, projects, geographies) regardless of physical device residency, across the enterprise. F A N B e n e f i t : Establishing the expected
best practice of non-disruptive, transparent transparent movement of file information across all geographical geographical boundaries. F AN A N B e n e f i t : The ability to create tailored
file management software services that are deployed as true “services” to the entire infrastructure, not deployed in applicationspecific silos. Finally establishing measurable ROI for file management due to consolidation of redundant file resources (e.g. de-duplication of redundant data, optimization of persistent capacities, appropriate data placement based on value, etc).
FAN
Benefit:
Certainly, those are all laudable goals for any infrastructure. However, it invites the question: What then are the network-centric
Copyright© The TANEJA Group, Inc. 2006. All Rights Reserved Hopkinton, MA 01748 Tel: 508-435-5040 Fax: 508-435-1530
www.tanejagroup.com www.tanejagroup.com
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technology elements that constitute a FAN? Below, we have identified six key elements in any FAN: 1. S t o r a g e D e v ic ic e s . The foundational level
atop which a FAN resides is the storage infrastructure. This can be either a SAN or a NAS environment. Ideally, this networked storage will be highly scalable and high performance. The only pre-requisite is that a FAN must leverage a networked storage environment to enable data and resource sharing, and the data to be managed is residing at the file level, meaning it has business and application application context. context.
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4. File Management and Control S e r v i c e s . The other central concept in the
architecture of a FAN is the software intelligence that inter-operates with namespaces to create new value across the entire enterprise. From a deployment perspective, these services might be integrated directly with file systems, or in networking devices, but they may also be stand-alone services. Examples include: • • • • •
2.
R
migration replication classification load balancing data placement de-duplication access and controls retention (e.g. compliance)
Devices/Interfaces.
•
Either as a directly integrated part of the storage infrastructure (e.g. NAS), or as a gateway interface (e.g. SAN), a FAN must have devices capable of surfacing file-level information in the form of standard protocols such as CIFS or NFS.
•
To be effective, many of these services need to operate in real time, enforcing policies mapped to business requirements.
3 . N a m e s p a c e s . A FAN is premised on the
5 . E n d C l i e n t s . A FAN has end client
existence of file systems with the ability to organize, present, and store file content for their authorized end clients. This capability is referred to as the file system’s “namespace”. It is one of the central concepts around which the entire FAN must revolve. There are several kinds of namespaces possible in a FAN: Non-shared, shared, and global. While beyond the scope of this profile, it should be understood that each kind of namespace enables varying levels of data sharing across physical file systems and platforms, with increasing levels of enterprise coverage. In no small way, the namespace is the heart of any FAN.
machines that access the namespaces created by file systems. Categorically speaking, these clients could be on literally any conceivable platform or kind of computing device.
87 Elm Street, Suite 900
•
6 . C o n n e c t i v i t y . There are many possible
ways that a FAN connects its end clients to the namespaces. They are commonly connected across a standard LAN, but they may simultaneously or alternatively leverage any manner of wide-area technologies, as well. More importantly, importantly, a FAN must truly function like a network wherein file requests can be received at any entry point in the FAN and be relayed to any other FAN device as
Copyright© The TANEJA Group, Inc. 2006. All Rights Reserved Hopkinton, MA 01748 Tel: 508-435-5040 Fax: 508-435-1530
www.tanejagroup.com www.tanejagroup.com
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necessary, just as an IP network operates today.
B r o c a d e T a p e s t r y S o lu lu t i o n s a n d t h e F AN AN
F i le le Vi V i r t u a l iz i z a t i o n a n d t h e F AN AN
Brocade is a company long associated with its dominance of the Fibre Channel SAN switching market. However, over the course of the past several years, the company has evolved into a leading data center networking company and expanded its strategic initiatives to encompass the domains of file management, as well. Broadly speaking, Brocade’s efforts in the file realm are encompassed in the company’s Tapestry product family initiatives. With the advent of the FAN reference architecture, Brocade has actively embraced the FAN paradigm, enabling the entire Tapestry file services product family to be viewed through a FAN “lens.”
One of the key technological advancements enabling the FAN to come into existence is the ability to abstract the file and its values out from the physical devices on which the file resides. This kind of file-level virtualization is essential because it ultimately allows the namespaces for multiple file systems to be adjusted based on business needs or enterprise-wide enterprise-wide IT processes, not on parochial device-level dependencies. File data can then be literally “routed” from any end client machine to any physical machine on which the data resides, in a seamless fashion. This technical ability to separate and abstract the logical and physical relationships of files is variously referred to as file virtualization, Network File Management Management (NFM), or “file routing”. IT teams that are serious about investing in a file networking-based approach need to seriously explore their options for abstracting – virtualizing – their file controls above their file serving devices. Without that critical move, it will be difficult to achieve the many economic and management gains a FAN can deliver. We will now turn our attention to Brocade and that company’s efforts in the FAN paradigm. As the pioneering firm in adapting FAN principles, we believe that Brocade is uniquely positioned to both drive and benefit from this new category.
87 Elm Street, Suite 900
Earlier we identified 1) Storage Devices, 2) File Serving Devices/Interfaces, 3) Namespaces, 4) File Management and Control Services, 5) End Clients, and 6) Connectivity as the key elements of the FAN. Brocade Tapestry File Services support four of the six FAN elements. With its recent acquisition of NuView Inc., Brocade gained the ability to federate namespaces across geographically geographically distributed and heterogeneous file systems ( T a p e s t r y S t o r a g e X ) , control the placement and movement of file data based on business values and policies ( T a p e s t r y File L i f e c y c l e M a n a g e r , “ F L M ” ) and then dynamically customize or personalize views into those namespaces (Tapestry MyView). Finally, Brocade leverages its OEM relationship with Packeteer to provide distance extension capabilities that enable a distributed file serving environment to
Copyright© The TANEJA Group, Inc. 2006. All Rights Reserved Hopkinton, MA 01748 Tel: 508-435-5040 Fax: 508-435-1530
www.tanejagroup.com www.tanejagroup.com
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Tapestry Wide Area File Services ( W A F S ) is a core enabling technology for
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file management across heterogeneous primary and secondary storage is a critical capability in any enterprise FAN.
this. 1. T a p e s t r y S t o r a g e X is the centerpiece of the Brocade FAN and provides several important services. First, it federates namespaces across geographically distributed and heterogeneous file systems. Tapestry StorageX does not require client software or agents, resides “on top” of existing file systems, and leverages CIFS/NFS for file access. Tapestry StorageX is a standards-based solution that provides a scalable enterprise-wide unified Global Namespace without requiring specialized hardware in the data path. Secondly, the Tapestry StorageX platform can migrate or replicate file shares and/or directories when rebalancing or retiring storage devices. Finally as an enterprise-wide unified Global Namespace, Tapestry StorageX can provide business continuity services by redirecting users to shares/directories in a secondary site in the event of primary site failure. All of these services are performed “behind the veil” of the namespace without impacting or disrupting end user access to their data. 2. T a p e s t r y F i l e L i f e c y c l e M a n a g e r ( F L M ) is the classification and policy engine for automating management and placement of files. Today Tapestry FLM manages the lifecycle of file data in heterogeneous storage systems where the primary device is Network Appliance (NetApp). However, the ability to provide 87 Elm Street, Suite 900
3 . T a p e s t r y M y V i e w is a resource access
management solution that provides personalized, secure access to Windows file resources across the enterprise. As organizations begin to adopt the FAN reference architecture for dynamic file management, the ability to easily identify and control user access to file data and meet compliance objectives will grow in importance. 4 . T a p e s t r y W A F S is another means by
which file data can be extended over distances and then surfaced through a common namespace. Within a Brocade FAN, the Tapestry StorageX namespaces can then be accessed anywhere in the world, with near-local user experience. This step of connecting WAFS to a Global Namespace is key to the FAN vision and Brocade is the only company today that has fully integrated these elements into one coherent product vision. Put simply, from a Brocade perspective, the Tapestry File Services family (Tapestry StorageX, Tapestry FLM, Tapestry MyView, and Tapestry WAFS) constitutes a true “enterprise file routing and control” capability for a Brocade FAN that also complements the entire Brocade SAN product family. As such, it constitutes the first time that a networking company has successfully integrated integrated both the file and block realms into a single unified vision of data management: FAN + SAN. These elements of the Tapestry family are critical to Brocade’s
Copyright© The TANEJA Group, Inc. 2006. All Rights Reserved Hopkinton, MA 01748 Tel: 508-435-5040 Fax: 508-435-1530
www.tanejagroup.com www.tanejagroup.com
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ability to execute against that vision in the future. The Tapestry product line leaves no doubt that Brocade is making a big bet on file management.
T a n e j a Gr G r o u p O p in in io n File management complexity demands a new rationalizing view in order to help both IT teams and vendors solve challenges efficiently. The FAN is an answer to that challenge. We are very excited to see that Brocade became the first company to take the step of explicitly defining its entire file strategy around FAN principles. If one agrees (as we do) that the future of enterprise computing intelligence will continue to gravitate towards networkcentric solutions, then Brocade’s embrace of FAN as expressed through its Tapestry File Services family of products makes perfect sense: New file management and control technologies that still hold network-centricity as a constant.
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what it has done in the SAN world, Brocade could create a new kind of networking company: One that delivers software and networking infrastructure with equal aplomb, leveraging whatever compute, storage, and network resources are available to solve a given challenge. It is the vision of a flexible, stateless, end-to-end software systems provider, completely resident in the network. Brocade moved beyond the traditional block IO world’s way of thinking when it started on the Tapestry journey three years ago. If Brocade stays true to the initial genius of this insight and continues its innovation path, we are confident that both customers and Brocade will benefit handsomely. File data is now serious business and it demands serious attention from IT. In short, it will demand that every enterprise articulate a FAN strategy. Brocade can already show you theirs. Be sure to check it out. .
If the company aggressively continues to adopt and deploy advanced FAN technologies and create a developer ecosystem of FAN-aware programs similar to
NOTICE: NOTICE: The information and product recomm endations mad e by the TANEJA GROUP are based upon public information and sources and m ay also include include personal opinions opinions both of the TA NEJA GROUP and others, all of which w e believe believe to be accurate an d reliable. reliable. Ho w ev er , as m ar ke t con dit ion s cha ng e an d no t w ith in ou r con tr ol, th e inf or m at ion an d re com m en da tion s ar e m ad e w ith ou t w ar ra nt y of any kind. All product names used an d m entioned herein are the tradem arks of their respective respective ow ners. The TANEJA GROUP, GROUP, Inc. assum assum es no responsibility or liability for any damages whatsoever (including incidental, consequential or otherwise), caused by your use of, or reliance reliance upon, the inform inform ation and recomm endations presented herein, herein, nor for any inadverten t errors which may appear in this docum docum ent. .
87 Elm Street, Suite 900
Copyright© The TANEJA Group, Inc. 2006. All Rights Reserved Hopkinton, MA 01748 Tel: 508-435-5040 Fax: 508-435-1530
www.tanejagroup.com www.tanejagroup.com
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B r o c a d e a n d t h e F il i l e Ar A r e a N e t w o r k ( F AN AN ) October, 2006 Earlier in 2006, Taneja Group broadly defined the term “File Area Networking” (FAN) for the IT community. Our goal was to provide the industry with a common reference architecture architecture to describe the increasingly complex world of file management. In the same manner that we saw an evolution in block IO that led to the SAN, we now see similar evolutionary steps transpiring with file data. And so, the FAN reference architecture becomes a means for end users and vendors alike to deal with the many different aspects of file management management challenges by utilizing a common nomenclature. From the very beginning of the FAN concept’s first articulation, Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. has been leading this movement. We believe that Brocade is uniquely positioned within the IT vendor landscape to leverage both the converged block and file IO requirements of today’s enterprise. In this profile we take a look at how Brocade has positioned itself for the FAN paradigm, and where the company is likely to take the FAN + SAN world in the coming years. Brocade turned heads with some of its initial moves into the file realm, and we believe that is just the beginning. This is a fundamental shift in enterprise computing and that company’s ability to create a stateless end-to-end file and block infrastructure is at its core. No single technology can pull off this move, and Brocade has federated a range of solutions to make it possible, from namespace management, management, to WAFS, and file ILM controls. In the coming years, Brocade and FAN are likely to be as commonly referenced as Brocade and SAN are today.
W h a t i s a F il i l e Ar Ar e a N e t w o r k ? FAN (File Area Network) a new acronym that truly matters within infrastructure IT. While we know the appetite for new acronyms is already stressed, this is one that truly matters. The reason for our insistence on the criticality of FAN is simple: In all of our recent research on the topic of file management, we continue to find that IT teams are overwhelmed and confused by filerelated technologies. Too many choices, too many approaches, too many areas for error. As a result of this complexity, we need a new way of sorting our way through through this chaos.
87 Elm Street, Suite 900
To illustrate the challenges of file management, we need look no further than a recent Taneja Group survey of 225 IT decision-makers, (June, 2006), in which we found that 62% of respondents now view file data growth and file management as either their “top” or “one of the top” IT priorities. Further, 57% of our respondents said that they are actively evaluating new and emerging technologies to assist with these file challenges. However, in our follow-up discussions with IT teams, it has become obvious that many managers are not comparing technological “apples-to-apples.” There are simply too many options, too many technologies, and too many overlapping
Copyright© The TANEJA Group, Inc. 2006. All Rights Reserved Hopkinton, MA 01748 Tel: 508-435-5040 Fax: 508-435-1530
www.tanejagroup.com www.tanejagroup.com
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approaches that make a coherent file management strategy strategy difficult to achieve: • • • • • • • •
File virtualization WAFS and WAN optimization Advanced file replication replication Distributed or clustered file systems Document management software Classification and indexing software ILM and data movement software NAS clusters
The potential list is endless and growing. In the face of this complexity, we all need a common reference architecture that everyone – both IT teams and IT vendors – can point to and locate their technologies, challenges, and offerings without confusion. That file strategy framework is called a File Area Network (FAN). A FAN is an architectural architectural and methodological approach to enterprise-wide file management. It is an attempt to bring to the file realm the same manner of architectural commonality and nomenclature that was applied to block IO via the SAN over ten years ago. By agreeing to and implementing against a common architectural reference model, both the end user community and vendors alike can achieve much greater efficiency.
U n d e r s t a n d i n g t h e F AN AN A FAN is ultimately about applying businesslevel controls and intelligence to files; something not possible with block-level data that is necessarily void of business- or application-level context. This key shift is achieved through a focus on network-centric 87 Elm Street, Suite 900
P
R
O
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file management rather than our collective historical reliance on physical devices. When users begin to think of and deploy file management management in this network-centric fashion, the power of a FAN can become immediately evident: F A N B e n e f i t : A shift towards enterprise-
wide, pervasive controls of all file information, and management of file attributes based on metadata and content values, regardless regardless of platform. F A N B e n e f i t : The goal and ability to
establish user file visibility and access rights based on business values (e.g. departments, departments, projects, geographies) regardless of physical device residency, across the enterprise. F A N B e n e f i t : Establishing the expected
best practice of non-disruptive, transparent transparent movement of file information across all geographical geographical boundaries. F AN A N B e n e f i t : The ability to create tailored
file management software services that are deployed as true “services” to the entire infrastructure, not deployed in applicationspecific silos. Finally establishing measurable ROI for file management due to consolidation of redundant file resources (e.g. de-duplication of redundant data, optimization of persistent capacities, appropriate data placement based on value, etc).
FAN
Benefit:
Certainly, those are all laudable goals for any infrastructure. However, it invites the question: What then are the network-centric
Copyright© The TANEJA Group, Inc. 2006. All Rights Reserved Hopkinton, MA 01748 Tel: 508-435-5040 Fax: 508-435-1530
www.tanejagroup.com www.tanejagroup.com
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technology elements that constitute a FAN? Below, we have identified six key elements in any FAN: 1. S t o r a g e D e v ic ic e s . The foundational level
atop which a FAN resides is the storage infrastructure. This can be either a SAN or a NAS environment. Ideally, this networked storage will be highly scalable and high performance. The only pre-requisite is that a FAN must leverage a networked storage environment to enable data and resource sharing, and the data to be managed is residing at the file level, meaning it has business and application application context. context.
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4. File Management and Control S e r v i c e s . The other central concept in the
architecture of a FAN is the software intelligence that inter-operates with namespaces to create new value across the entire enterprise. From a deployment perspective, these services might be integrated directly with file systems, or in networking devices, but they may also be stand-alone services. Examples include: • • • • •
2.
R
migration replication classification load balancing data placement de-duplication access and controls retention (e.g. compliance)
Devices/Interfaces.
•
Either as a directly integrated part of the storage infrastructure (e.g. NAS), or as a gateway interface (e.g. SAN), a FAN must have devices capable of surfacing file-level information in the form of standard protocols such as CIFS or NFS.
•
To be effective, many of these services need to operate in real time, enforcing policies mapped to business requirements.
3 . N a m e s p a c e s . A FAN is premised on the
5 . E n d C l i e n t s . A FAN has end client
existence of file systems with the ability to organize, present, and store file content for their authorized end clients. This capability is referred to as the file system’s “namespace”. It is one of the central concepts around which the entire FAN must revolve. There are several kinds of namespaces possible in a FAN: Non-shared, shared, and global. While beyond the scope of this profile, it should be understood that each kind of namespace enables varying levels of data sharing across physical file systems and platforms, with increasing levels of enterprise coverage. In no small way, the namespace is the heart of any FAN.
machines that access the namespaces created by file systems. Categorically speaking, these clients could be on literally any conceivable platform or kind of computing device.
87 Elm Street, Suite 900
•
6 . C o n n e c t i v i t y . There are many possible
ways that a FAN connects its end clients to the namespaces. They are commonly connected across a standard LAN, but they may simultaneously or alternatively leverage any manner of wide-area technologies, as well. More importantly, importantly, a FAN must truly function like a network wherein file requests can be received at any entry point in the FAN and be relayed to any other FAN device as
Copyright© The TANEJA Group, Inc. 2006. All Rights Reserved Hopkinton, MA 01748 Tel: 508-435-5040 Fax: 508-435-1530
www.tanejagroup.com www.tanejagroup.com
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necessary, just as an IP network operates today.
B r o c a d e T a p e s t r y S o lu lu t i o n s a n d t h e F AN AN
F i le le Vi V i r t u a l iz i z a t i o n a n d t h e F AN AN
Brocade is a company long associated with its dominance of the Fibre Channel SAN switching market. However, over the course of the past several years, the company has evolved into a leading data center networking company and expanded its strategic initiatives to encompass the domains of file management, as well. Broadly speaking, Brocade’s efforts in the file realm are encompassed in the company’s Tapestry product family initiatives. With the advent of the FAN reference architecture, Brocade has actively embraced the FAN paradigm, enabling the entire Tapestry file services product family to be viewed through a FAN “lens.”
One of the key technological advancements enabling the FAN to come into existence is the ability to abstract the file and its values out from the physical devices on which the file resides. This kind of file-level virtualization is essential because it ultimately allows the namespaces for multiple file systems to be adjusted based on business needs or enterprise-wide enterprise-wide IT processes, not on parochial device-level dependencies. File data can then be literally “routed” from any end client machine to any physical machine on which the data resides, in a seamless fashion. This technical ability to separate and abstract the logical and physical relationships of files is variously referred to as file virtualization, Network File Management Management (NFM), or “file routing”. IT teams that are serious about investing in a file networking-based approach need to seriously explore their options for abstracting – virtualizing – their file controls above their file serving devices. Without that critical move, it will be difficult to achieve the many economic and management gains a FAN can deliver. We will now turn our attention to Brocade and that company’s efforts in the FAN paradigm. As the pioneering firm in adapting FAN principles, we believe that Brocade is uniquely positioned to both drive and benefit from this new category.
87 Elm Street, Suite 900
Earlier we identified 1) Storage Devices, 2) File Serving Devices/Interfaces, 3) Namespaces, 4) File Management and Control Services, 5) End Clients, and 6) Connectivity as the key elements of the FAN. Brocade Tapestry File Services support four of the six FAN elements. With its recent acquisition of NuView Inc., Brocade gained the ability to federate namespaces across geographically geographically distributed and heterogeneous file systems ( T a p e s t r y S t o r a g e X ) , control the placement and movement of file data based on business values and policies ( T a p e s t r y File L i f e c y c l e M a n a g e r , “ F L M ” ) and then dynamically customize or personalize views into those namespaces (Tapestry MyView). Finally, Brocade leverages its OEM relationship with Packeteer to provide distance extension capabilities that enable a distributed file serving environment to
Copyright© The TANEJA Group, Inc. 2006. All Rights Reserved Hopkinton, MA 01748 Tel: 508-435-5040 Fax: 508-435-1530
www.tanejagroup.com www.tanejagroup.com
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entity .
Tapestry Wide Area File Services ( W A F S ) is a core enabling technology for
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file management across heterogeneous primary and secondary storage is a critical capability in any enterprise FAN.
this. 1. T a p e s t r y S t o r a g e X is the centerpiece of the Brocade FAN and provides several important services. First, it federates namespaces across geographically distributed and heterogeneous file systems. Tapestry StorageX does not require client software or agents, resides “on top” of existing file systems, and leverages CIFS/NFS for file access. Tapestry StorageX is a standards-based solution that provides a scalable enterprise-wide unified Global Namespace without requiring specialized hardware in the data path. Secondly, the Tapestry StorageX platform can migrate or replicate file shares and/or directories when rebalancing or retiring storage devices. Finally as an enterprise-wide unified Global Namespace, Tapestry StorageX can provide business continuity services by redirecting users to shares/directories in a secondary site in the event of primary site failure. All of these services are performed “behind the veil” of the namespace without impacting or disrupting end user access to their data. 2. T a p e s t r y F i l e L i f e c y c l e M a n a g e r ( F L M ) is the classification and policy engine for automating management and placement of files. Today Tapestry FLM manages the lifecycle of file data in heterogeneous storage systems where the primary device is Network Appliance (NetApp). However, the ability to provide 87 Elm Street, Suite 900
3 . T a p e s t r y M y V i e w is a resource access
management solution that provides personalized, secure access to Windows file resources across the enterprise. As organizations begin to adopt the FAN reference architecture for dynamic file management, the ability to easily identify and control user access to file data and meet compliance objectives will grow in importance. 4 . T a p e s t r y W A F S is another means by
which file data can be extended over distances and then surfaced through a common namespace. Within a Brocade FAN, the Tapestry StorageX namespaces can then be accessed anywhere in the world, with near-local user experience. This step of connecting WAFS to a Global Namespace is key to the FAN vision and Brocade is the only company today that has fully integrated these elements into one coherent product vision. Put simply, from a Brocade perspective, the Tapestry File Services family (Tapestry StorageX, Tapestry FLM, Tapestry MyView, and Tapestry WAFS) constitutes a true “enterprise file routing and control” capability for a Brocade FAN that also complements the entire Brocade SAN product family. As such, it constitutes the first time that a networking company has successfully integrated integrated both the file and block realms into a single unified vision of data management: FAN + SAN. These elements of the Tapestry family are critical to Brocade’s
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ability to execute against that vision in the future. The Tapestry product line leaves no doubt that Brocade is making a big bet on file management.
T a n e j a Gr G r o u p O p in in io n File management complexity demands a new rationalizing view in order to help both IT teams and vendors solve challenges efficiently. The FAN is an answer to that challenge. We are very excited to see that Brocade became the first company to take the step of explicitly defining its entire file strategy around FAN principles. If one agrees (as we do) that the future of enterprise computing intelligence will continue to gravitate towards networkcentric solutions, then Brocade’s embrace of FAN as expressed through its Tapestry File Services family of products makes perfect sense: New file management and control technologies that still hold network-centricity as a constant.
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what it has done in the SAN world, Brocade could create a new kind of networking company: One that delivers software and networking infrastructure with equal aplomb, leveraging whatever compute, storage, and network resources are available to solve a given challenge. It is the vision of a flexible, stateless, end-to-end software systems provider, completely resident in the network. Brocade moved beyond the traditional block IO world’s way of thinking when it started on the Tapestry journey three years ago. If Brocade stays true to the initial genius of this insight and continues its innovation path, we are confident that both customers and Brocade will benefit handsomely. File data is now serious business and it demands serious attention from IT. In short, it will demand that every enterprise articulate a FAN strategy. Brocade can already show you theirs. Be sure to check it out. .
If the company aggressively continues to adopt and deploy advanced FAN technologies and create a developer ecosystem of FAN-aware programs similar to
NOTICE: NOTICE: The information and product recomm endations mad e by the TANEJA GROUP are based upon public information and sources and m ay also include include personal opinions opinions both of the TA NEJA GROUP and others, all of which w e believe believe to be accurate an d reliable. reliable. Ho w ev er , as m ar ke t con dit ion s cha ng e an d no t w ith in ou r con tr ol, th e inf or m at ion an d re com m en da tion s ar e m ad e w ith ou t w ar ra nt y of any kind. All product names used an d m entioned herein are the tradem arks of their respective respective ow ners. The TANEJA GROUP, GROUP, Inc. assum assum es no responsibility or liability for any damages whatsoever (including incidental, consequential or otherwise), caused by your use of, or reliance reliance upon, the inform inform ation and recomm endations presented herein, herein, nor for any inadverten t errors which may appear in this docum docum ent. .
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