Building Virtual Infrastructure is an all day free seminar for end-users where I talk about servers, storage, networking, and the future of the data center. We cover both server and, to a lesser extent, desktop virtualization and dive deep into topics like virtual I/O, solid-state storage, converged networking, and integration technologies like VAAI and DRS.

But the coolest thing about these Truth in IT seminars is the last hour, when we turn off the projector and dive deep into whatever the audience wants to talk about. There is so much to say about security, disaster recovery, advanced storage technologies, new products like Windows Server 2012 and Hyper-V 3 that we just can’t fit everything into the standard seminar. That’s what the unstructured hour at the end is for!

Building Virtual Infrastructure will be held on Wednesday, May 30. Attendance is free for qualified end-users, and I urge you to register now. The event is being held at the Embassy Suites Hotel Columbus in the Northern Woods/Northgate area. If you’re interested in backup technology, my friend W Curtis Preston will be presenting Backup Central Live at the same location on Thursday, May 31.

More Building Virtual Infrastructure Dates

We’ve got a whole year of events in the works. Assuming you’re not in central Ohio, how about London or New Jersey? And a little bird tells me we’re headed to Austin, Dallas, Denver, San Jose, Salt Lake City, Seattle, and Washington DC, too!

• June 20, London UK
• June 28, New Jersey

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2012. | Building Virtual Infrastructure, Columbus OH
This post was categorized as Events. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Real Carrier Flexibility, Even in United States

The United States mobile phone market is not consumer friendly, to put it mildly. We have a long history of carrier locked devices, long contracts, and restrictive plans. As if this wasn’t bad enough, the carrier technology and frequency picture is even worse: the Verizon and Sprint networks are incompatible with international GSM standards, and T-Mobile uses nonstandard frequencies for their “4G” HSPA+ network.

For consumers, this makes buying any kind of mobile device an expensive, multiyear commitment. If the contract or carrier lock doesn’t get you, the technology and frequencies will. This restrictive environment is something people from other countries have trouble comprehending, but Americans have grown to accept it.

What is needed is a “wonder device” that supports the widest possible diversity of mobile technologies and frequencies:

• “2G” GSM (AT&T and T-Mobile) and 1xRTT (Verizon and Sprint)
• “3G” HSPA (AT&T and T-Mobile) and WCDMA (Verizon and Sprint)
• “4G” HSPA+ (AT&T and T-Mobile) and LTE (AT&T and Verizon)

Behold the Wonder Device

Apple has been instrumental in breaking consumers from this carrier monopoly, though perhaps they could do more if it wasn’t for the big dollars they get from carrier subsidies. Already, Apple sells unlocked iPhones in the United States, and every iPad comes out of the box unlocked even though most consumers don’t know that.

There are currently two models of “Wi-Fi + 4G” iPad for sale:

• Wi-Fi + 4G for AT&T
• Wi-Fi + 4G for Verizon

Each device obviously supports the technology and frequencies of the named carrier. In the case of the AT&T iPad, this means their 700/2100 MHz LTE network and 2G/3G GSM-based network. Verizon’s device obviously works on their all-700 MHz LTE network and 800/1900 MHz 2G/3G CDMA network.

But many consumers do not know that the Verizon device also supports all the AT&T 2G/3G frequencies. Even though the AT&T iPad lacks compatibility with Verizon’s network, this does not hold true in the opposite direction!

That’s right, the Verizon iPad supports all the AT&T (2G and 3G/”4G”) and T-Mobile (2G only for now) frequencies and technologies, and it’s even unlocked! To prove this, I took the micro-SIM out of my AT&T iPhone 4S and, after installing an appropriate APN profile, got online at “4G” using AT&T’s HSPA+ network.

I haven’t tried a T-Mobile SIM, but reports indicate it works at 2G “EDGE” speed. And it should work great on most international 3G networks at full speed. And it ought to work fine on Straight Talk in the US too.

The Verizon iPad is only slightly short of being a true “do everything” wonder device: First, obviously, it’s not a phone and it’s kind of big to carry around. Second, it doesn’t work on the US T-Mobile network at 3G/”4G” speed yet, though T-Mobile is realigning their frequencies to fix that. Finally, the LTE interoperability picture doesn’t look good, and the iPad will likely never work on any LTE network but Verizon’s.

Free Personal Hotspot Tethering Too!

As if the unlocked/world-compatible picture wasn’t good enough, here’s the knockout reason to buy the Verizon iPad: It includes “Personal Hotspot” support (also known as tethering) for free!

AT&T doesn’t even offer tethering on their 4G iPad. If they did, they’d likely charge an extra $20 per month like they do with their iPhones.

Add up the cost of data and tethering on Verizon and AT&T (if they ever offer tethering) and the service fee really seals the deal. I love the flexible data plans on the iPad, too: Just pay for some data and it’s good for a month. If you run out, pay for some more. Why don’t phones work like this?

Note that Personal Hotspot service is tied to the carrier. If you swap an AT&T SIM into your Verizon iPad you don’t get to tether on AT&T. This is a bummer to folks like me who have grandfathered unlimited data plans on AT&T, though the company has started actively limiting these “unlimited” accounts anyway.

It’s unclear how the Verizon iPad handles being overseas, though I’ll find out next month. I’m traveling in the UK and plan to pick up a cheap micro-SIM for the iPad while I’m there. If it works as a Personal Hotspot, I might not need to reactivate my trusty Three Mifi!

Stephen’s Stance

The Verizon LTE iPad is a no-brainer. It’s compatible with just about every mobile network in the world and includes free tethering (on Verizon at least). It’s so good, I’m not sure if the average person really needs to buy a MiFi anymore: The incremental cost for an LTE iPad is about the same as the MiFi hardware, and the iPad data plans are much more flexible.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2012. | Buying a New iPad? Get the Awesome, Unlocked Verizon Model!
This post was categorized as Apple, Deals, Personal. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Most American networks use 850/1900 MHz, while most European countries use 900/2100 MHz and the rest of the world uses just 2100 MHz

Overview: 2G, 3G, 4G, and more-G!

Today’s worldwide mobile phone network consists of many different technologies operating at many different frequencies. Setting aside the frequency issue (we’ll get to that in a moment), let’s talk standards.

Generally speaking, the world’s mobile phone networks use one of two “branches” of technology:

• “GSM” is “the European standard”, defining 2G (true GSM and GPRS as well as “2.5G” EDGE), 3G (properly called UMTS, HSPA, etc.), and faux-4G (HSPA+). All GSM phones use a SIM card for subscriber information.
• “CDMA” is popular in the United States, Japan, and some other countries. More properly called IS-95 in 2G guise and CDMA-2000 for 3G, CDMA technology includes 1xRTT and EV-DO data protocols.

This is a vast oversimplification, and the true technology and terminology is much more complex. For example, 3G GSM networks use the W-CDMA channel access method, though are incompatible with the networks commonly referred to as “CDMA”. But these are the popular terms for the two networks.

GSM and UMTS is said to have 80 to 85% of the global mobile phone market, with most of the rest relying on some evolution of IS-95. The SIM card has become ubiquitous in popular culture worldwide, and is as much of an emblem of mobile phones as the floppy disk was of computers a decade ago.

Global roaming is impractical or impossible without a SIM-equipped GSM phone, though some CDMA phones and devices are unlocked and can thus be used on a variety of networks. The SIM card makes it much more practical to self-provision local service, however, as does the ubiquitous presence of GSM networks.

GSM Frequencies: the Blessed and Cursed

Not all GSM phones are capable of roaming even if they are unlocked and equipped with a local SIM card, however. The phone hardware must also be compatible with the local GSM network, and this is a major stumbling block in countries like the United States and Japan which use a variety of frequencies for GSM signals.

There are five frequencies that stand out for worldwide coverage and usability. One could consider these the “blessed” frequencies, since an unlocked device that supports 2G GSM or 3G UMTS here could be used nearly everywhere in the world:

• Globally, the most popular frequencies for GSM access are 900 MHz (Band VIII “GSM”), 1800 MHz (Band III “DCS”), and 2100 MHz (Band I “IMT”). This trio is used in all of Europe and much of the rest of the world for both 2G and 3G service. Note that the DCS Band is only used for 2G communication, while the IMT Band is predominantly a 3G UMTS range. Most countries outside the Americas and Europe are strictly 2100 MHz for 3G service.
• The second most popular frequency pair for GSM access is 850 MHz (Band V “CLR”) and 1900 MHz (Band II “PCS”). Sometimes called the American standard, thanks to the massive AT&T network, this pair is also used in many other Western Hemisphere countries, and 850 MHz is popular in Southeast Asia and the Pacific countries as well.

Alas, not all networks are configured in this “standard” way, and not all devices support the same technologies on all bands. This is particularly thorny in United States, where AT&T (by far the dominant GSM carrier) and T-Mobile operate incompatible 2G and 3G networks. Since AT&T has more than 3 times as many customers as T-Mobile, equipment vendors have been reluctant to support the smaller rival’s 1700/2100 MHz network.

Worldwide, companies operating networks outside the “blessed” bands find it hard to offer the latest devices and attract revenue from tourists and travelers. The iPhone and iPad, for example, support only the four popular 2G and 3G frequencies, dramatically reducing the attractiveness of providers outside this range. In United States, T-Mobile is currently realigning their entire network to the AT&T standards for this reason, a costly and time-consuming process. Examples of non-standard frequencies include 450 MHz, 800 MHz, and 1700 MHz.

Stephen’s Stance

Although frequency mismatches are frustrating to travelers, this is not an easy issue to fix. Allocating spectrum is a massive challenge globally, and realignment and reuse takes decades. It is heartening to see the world: as around “just” 4 frequency bands for GSM and UMTS, but the same battle is starting again with LTE. We haven’t seen the last of hassles and headaches!

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2012. | Making Sense of Global Mobile Phone Networks
This post was categorized as Apple, Personal. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

What might the world have been like if aero planes had been a failure?

I don’t get much chance to read for pleasure, but two things I’ve been reading recently spurred my imagination. After reliving the advent of modern transportation in the solid non-fiction Jet Age by Sam Howe Verhovek, I stumbled upon two pieces of speculative fiction from an unlikely source that predated everything presented there. In between The Jungle Book and hundreds of other works, Rudyard Kipling imagined a future of air transportation that is coherent yet entirely unlike our modern world.

A world without radio communication and jets!

With the Night Mail

One doesn’t often think of Rudyard Kipling as a science fiction author. Indeed, considering that he was active around the turn of the last century, science fiction was not even a literary genre in his time! But Kipling wrote two thought-provoking “future stories” in a world where global transportation had trumped politics, population growth, and even war.

Written in 1905, With the Night Mail supposes that the world would be linked politically and socially by an active air transportation network. But Kipling’s future is based on massive yet buoyant dirigibles not the airplanes of today. And this is just the start of the fantastic yet inaccurate world he imagined.

To maintain movement through the skies, the Aerial Board of Control (A.B.C.) was given complete control of traffic through the skies and (ominously) “all it implies.” With the Night Mail follows a protagonist’s journey from London to Québec on a “Postal Packet” airship, and is written in the typical confident Victorian English style.

It is astonishing that, 25 years before H.G. Wells, Kipling would create so thorough a future world around a fairly mundane story. Indeed, like Tolkien, Kipling includes a strange postscript of “bonus content” set in this future world in the form of newspaper advertisements and letters to the editor.

The story itself is not much great literature, with forgettable characters who do little to develop or challenge the reader. Clearly, Kipling delighted in piecing together a future world rather than setting compelling characters in it.

Marvelously Clever Yet Entirely Off-Base

Airplanes (unproven technology in 1905) are sidelined as dangerous and impractical. As an advertisement for a dirigible construction company proclaims, “it is now nearly a generation since the Plane was to supersede the Dirigible for all purposes. TO-DAY none of the Planet’s freight is carried en plane. Less than two per cent. of the Planet’s passengers are carried en plane.”

Kipling’s power source is a turbine moving inside a closed-loop compressor and condenser reminiscent of today’s refrigeration coils. The propellant is “Fleury’s gas”, which “can lift anything” with “almost indefinite powers of expansion” yet will condense instantly once it touches a radium-powered ray. This same substance provides both lift and thrust, yet requires constant attention from an expert operator. Kipling delights in creating future jargon for these airships while incorporating conventional ocean lingo varying from quaint to precocious.

Although Guglielmo Marconi had already begun demonstrating radio communication at the time, Kipling does not grasp the importance of this work. The dirigibles are guided by illuminated beacons on the ground and “Mark ships” in the sky. Although a “General Communicator” presumably relies on radio waves, the captain shouts to passing airships through an open window. Most communication is through colored or flashing beams of light rather than long-distance radio beams.

Indeed, the entire purpose of the story’s journey is archaic: Packet 162 is delivering paper mail, and transports a “coach” containing bored clerks sorting sacks of letters. It would be impossible to imagine a time of continuous communication, broadcast media, or a global network of intangible information exchange at that time.

"Mark boats" are lighthouses in the sky

As Easy as A.B.C.

Where With the Night Mail was confident if a little tempered in terms of enthusiasm, Kipling’s next work in this fictional world was downright gloomy. As Easy as A.B.C. follows another aerial journey, this time to quell uprising in Chicago that threatens the flow of traffic through the skies. it is here that Kipling dives into the ominous overtones of the A.B.C.’s mandate of “all that it implies”.

The narrator, a reporter, joins an international crew on a high-performance A.B.C dirigible on their way to Chicago. The trouble? The people of Northern Illinois shut down their navigational beacons to force the A.B.C. to intervene against a group of “serviles” who dare to promote government, organization, and “crowds.”

This is by far the most surprising difference between Kipling’s two stories: The first was an amusing lark, while the second is serious commentary on the state of human relations and government.

Kipling also seems surprisingly reactionary in terms of the development of technology in the intervening years. While his 1905 story could be forgiven for not taking “aeroplanes” seriously, by 1912 the Wright brothers had successfully demonstrated controllable, manned, powered flight. Yet Kipling still dismisses it.

This stands in stark contrast to his seeming acceptance of radio technology. From a “ground hold” that uses supergravity to a light-based weapon, Kipling has well and truly accepted that electromagnetic waves are the future of technology.

Most interesting is Kipling’s take on the future of government. He presumes that greater availability of communication and transport technology would lead to a state of ultra-libertarianism, where governments would be dissolved apart from boards like the A.B.C. which merely facilitated transport. The population of Chicago despises “crowds”, collectivism, and government generally. This is well beyond the anti-communism and -socialism that would be a hallmark of writing and thought 50 years later. And it seems truly bizarre to modern readers.

Luxury liners and ultra-libertarianism!

Stephen’s Stance

It is wonderful to open one’s mind to completely alien ideas. This is especially true when reading speculative fiction from a century ago, since one can compare the actual development of society and technology with that supposed by the author. For me, science fiction helps reinforce an attitude of humility. After all, if great thinkers and writers could be so wrong about the world of today, surely I can be entirely wrong about the world of tomorrow!

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2012. | From Kipling’s Dirigibles to the Jet Age
This post was categorized as Everything, Features, Personal. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Even though I grew up on the other side of the great baseball divide, I have always loved going to New York City. Next week, I return again, but this time I’m bringing a whole new event to the city: This is the first time the New York audience gets to see my Building Virtual Infrastructure presentation!

If you haven’t been to my seminars before, let me give you a brief bit of background. I’m an IT guy, coming from a UNIX systems administration background, and I like to talk tech. But I’m also familiar with the business side of things, and I’ve seen enough IT nonsense to question the real value of new technologies. But above all else, I want to challenge the status quo and push the industry to move forward. My seminar talks include all of that!

Building Virtual Infrastructure is an all day free seminar for end-users where I talk about servers, storage, networking, and the future of the data center. We cover both server and, to a lesser extent, desktop virtualization and dive deep into topics like virtual I/O, solid-state storage, converged networking, and integration technologies like VAAI and DRS.

But the coolest thing about these Truth in IT seminars is the last hour, when we turn off the projector and dive deep into whatever the audience wants to talk about. There is so much to say about security, disaster recovery, advanced storage technologies, new products like Windows Server 2012 and Hyper-V 3 that we just can’t fit everything into the standard seminar. That’s what the unstructured hour at the end is for!

Once again, I’ve updated my presentation with visuals and details to back up my talk. This time around, I have new slides on the 3 faces of virtualization, better comparison of Fibre Channel, Ethernet, and InfiniBand performance, and a whole new section about Ethernet fabric technologies. As I go through my content, I’m always saying to myself, “I wish I had a slide to demonstrate what I’m talking about right here.” Now I do!

Building Virtual Infrastructure will be held on Wednesday, May 16. Attendance is free for qualified end-users, and I urge you to register now. The event is being held at the Doubletree Metropolitan Hotel in Midtown. If you’re interested in backup technology, my friend W Curtis Preston will be presenting Backup Central Live at the same location on Tuesday, May 15.

If you’re attending, or know someone who is, drop me a shout on Twitter. Maybe we can even get together for dinner or drinks on Tuesday! I’ll see you in New York!

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2012. | Building Virtual Infrastructure in New York City
This post was categorized as Events, Virtual Storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

What We Know so Far

Obviously, Microsoft is going to support SMB 3.0 in a big way. Windows Server 2012 will certainly be the premier server platform, especially for Windows 8 clients. But who else will support this new protocol?

Microsoft is going all-out to work with third parties, and is being unusually forthcoming with specifications and interoperability testing opportunities. I have seen reference to “plugfests” at the Storage Developers Conference and Build last year, as well as a special event on the Microsoft campus in early February. Specifications for SMB 2.2 (which has been renamed SMB 3.0) have been made available openly on the Microsoft website for months now, with frequent updates to match the progress of “Windows Next” development.

Microsoft’s presentation at SNIA SDC 2011 included contributions from Dennis Chapman of NetApp and John Hayden of EMC, so it’s a good bet that those two storage giants are on board to support SMB 3.0. Furthermore, NetApp’s Vaughn Stewart promised that version 8.2 of their core Data Ontap software will support the protocol when it is released this year.

Another clear vote of support came from the Samba team. A group of Samba developers participated in an “SMB 2.2 testing opportunity” at the Microsoft campus in late February. In a blog post, they outline the test setup and features tested (signing, persistent handles, and transparent client failover). So it seems very likely that Samba will also have at least partial SMB 3.0 support very soon.

Another player in the SMB market to announce support for SMB 2.2 is Likewise, makers of the popular server product used by many enterprise storage vendors. But Likewise was acquired by EMC’s Isilon division in late March. It is likely that many current customers will stick with Likewise for the time being, but the future is cloudier. At the very least, this indicates that Isilon will have solid SMB 3.0 support at some point.

Smaller companies may get SMB 3.0 support through Windows Server 2012, Likewise or Samba, but many are also working on their own homegrown support. Unlike SMB 1/CIFS, the simplified SMB2/3 protocol is much easier to implement successfully. This is why companies like Nimbus Data have come out publicly to endorse the protocol.

Which Features Will Be Supported?

SMB 3.0 is a big, complex protocol. It is unlikely that every implementation will support every feature. Indeed, certain elements (e.g. BranchCache and SMB Direct) are likely to be fairly rare while others (directory leasing and transparent failover) should be common.

If I could pick features to support, I would go with transparent failover and multichannel, along with the leasing improvements introduced since SMB 2.0. These would allow application server workloads in a fairly straightforward manner. The new client/server capabilities negotiation protocol is another must-have feature, since it allows pretty much everything else to function.

Encryption is another great feature on paper, but I’m not sure I would make it a priority. Application workloads are likely to be local, and network administrators have a fairly good handle on security in the data center. Plus, encryption was not even mentioned back at SDC, giving developers much less time to work on it. For these reasons, SMB 3.0 encryption should be late among third-party companies.

SMB Direct may see even less support among third-party array vendors. Most do not support InfiniBand, RoCE, or iWARP today, and those that do may find this new protocol difficult to add. In the long run, I do expect to see third-party SMB Direct-capable arrays appear, but for another year and not if customers don’t move in this direction.

VSS support is another big question mark. Although most NAS devices support snapshots today, it may be difficult to implement a “work-alike” VSS solution. Microsoft has already released documentation of this feature, however. The same could be said of BranchCache integration, though an open-source implementation is already available.

What about Everybody Else?

Although EMC and NetApp are big fish in the NAS market there are a great deal many more companies that could support SMB 3.0. BlueArc, now part of HDS, IBM, Dell, and HP are all major players. I would love to hear from those companies regarding SMB 3.0 plans.

Stephen’s Stance

Naysayers may point to previous Microsoft initiatives that failed to gain traction, but I think SMB 3.0 has a lot going for it. Microsoft’s openness with documentation and testing is a positive sign, as are commitments from major vendors like EMC, NetApp, and Samba. Add in the discontent with CIFS and existing work to implement SMB 2.0 and 2.1, and I expect widespread availability of at least some of the features of SMB 3.0 around the same time that Windows Server 2012 is released this summer.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2012. | Who Will Support SMB 3.0, and Which Features Will They Support?
This post was categorized as Enterprise storage, Gestalt IT, Virtual Storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

SMB Part 3

SMB 3.0 is just loaded with new features. In development, this was going to be SMB 2.2. But Microsoft added so much, it really deserves the major version number recently assigned.

As you may recall, SMB 2.0 was a complete rewrite of the classic Windows protocol sometimes known as CIFS. Released along with Windows Vista, SMB 2.0 addressed most of the issues storage geeks like me had with that much-maligned protocol. SMB 2.1, released with Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2, included features improving performance over WAN links, as well as BranchCache, which helped with remote offices.

Now we have SMB 3.0, which includes all this and much more. Slated to be part of Windows 8 and Server 2012, SMB 3.0 is backwards compatible with 2.0 and 2.1. New to the protocol is intelligent negotiation of features supported by clients and servers, a necessity given the veritable smorgasbord of new options added.

Big New Features Let SMB 3 Support Applications

Although SMB has traditionally been a protocol for client and end-user computing, SMB 3.0 is all about application server storage. This seems to be the message out of Microsoft right now: Using file server storage for applications including Exchange, SQL Server, and Hyper-V. This is a very different mission for any storage protocol, and required quite a bit of reengineering. As you will see, nearly every added feature supports this new mission.

Perhaps the most important new feature is transparent failover of client access. This means that clients can remain connected even if the server they are talking to fails, and they can recover and continue talking to different server in a cluster if needed.

SMB multichannel is another massive new feature added to the protocol. It allows you to use multiple network links if they are available, scaling performance and adding additional fault-tolerant connections. Microsoft talks about consolidating four 10 GbE links into a 40 Gb channel between a client and file server. Pretty impressive, if you ask me!

If you want even more performance, SMB Direct enables communication over RDMA adapters, including InfiniBand, RoCE, and iWARP. These ultralow latency networks should allow massive performance, in the gigabyte per second range. Who would have thought that SMB would beat Fibre Channel for throughput and latency?

SMB 3.0 also includes Remote VSS support, allowing snapshots to be made on the fileserver instead of the local server. Microsoft’s familiar Volume Shadowcopy Services (VSS) are the standard mechanism in Windows for application-consistent snapshots, and this now works for file server storage too.

And More For Clients

There’s a whole lot more in SMB 3.0 besides application server support. On-the-fly encryption of data traffic is huge, and directory leases and BranchCache improvements accelerate remote client performance. There’s even more, but I’m not sure if I’m allowed to talk about it all yet!

Encryption is one of those funny things that people don’t think about when it comes to storage protocols. Even when it is supported, it’s not often used except outside the local network. But with SMB increasingly able to deal with WAN links, it was a good idea to add encryption to the menu.

Some of the big changes in SMB 2.1 revolve around “leases” to improve file access over unreliable networks. SMB 3.0 adds directory leases to the mix, so clients should stay connected and active even as networks drop and reconnect. This is especially important for WiFi networks and tablets.

BranchCache is another often-overlooked technology in Windows 7. It enables peer-to-peer offload of file server connections in remote office scenarios. SMB 3.0 adds extensions for the next version of BranchCache, supporting deduplication, another exciting new storage feature in Windows Server 2012.

Stephen’s Stance

My days of not taking Windows file servers seriously are definitely at an end. File protocols are dramatically improving, even as end users are looking for alternatives to the tired block protocols they have been using for decades. Microsoft has a real opportunity to push application server storage forward, and I am excited to be able to watch these developments. I’ll be writing a lot more about SMB 2.0, 2.1, and 3.0 in the coming months. But for now, I recommend downloading the beta and trying out some of these new features for yourself!

Special thanks to Jose Barreto of Microsoft for the protocol image and lots more info!

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2012. | SMB 3 is Going to be Huge, in both Scope and Impact
This post was categorized as Enterprise storage, Features, Gestalt IT, Virtual Storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Jailbreaking and unlocking are two very different things!

Carrier Locks and Unlocked Phones

Most mobile phones in the United States, and many in the rest of the world, are sold at a discount thanks to a subsidy from the mobile service carrier. Companies like AT&T and Verizon will spend hundreds of dollars to gain a new subscriber and lock them in for a few years of monthly service. They do this because the service is where their profit is, and service revenue usually adds up to 10 times the amount they spend on subsidies.

In exchange for the subsidy, the carrier requires the customer to sign a long-term contract for service. They also configure the phone only to connect to their network. This keeps the customer from signing up to get the subsidy and then breaking the contract to use the device on another network. But these carrier locks remain in place even after the contract is up, often rendering the phone less valuable, or even useless, on the secondhand market.

The situation is very different outside the United States, where consumers generally have a choice of buying subsidized and locked devices or spending more for unlocked devices. This is much more popular in markets with numerous competitive GSM carriers, since consumers can buy a device and expected to work on just about any network they choose. Most of my friends from Europe shop phones and service plans separately, and are happy to pay full price for an unlocked device.

Even the United States, it is possible to buy some devices unlocked, including the Apple iPhone and some Android devices, and there are unlock “hacks” for most phones. But the American GSM networks of AT&T and T-Mobile use different frequencies and are thus incompatible for most devices. Sprint and Verizon use totally different technology that doesn’t lend itself to unlocking. So Americans are generally stuck with their chosen carrier whether the device is locked or not.

Getting Root and Breaking out of Jail

So-called “dumb phones” (officially, “feature phones”) don’t run third-party software. You buy the phone, and whatever it does is what it does. Smart phones are different, though. As Apple learned, consumers want to run native applications on their smart phones, not just browse the web or read e-mail.

Smart phones are little computers, and running applications on them is a major risk. Viruses, Trojan horse applications, and plain poorly written software put the user at risk, and carriers might not want certain applications on their network. The device vendor also wants to keep battery sucking, crash prone junk off the phone to avoid being blamed for the issues caused.

This is why modern smartphone operating systems like Android and iOS put the user in a “sandbox” (derisively called “jail”). This allows native applications to run, but puts many functions off-limits. In the case of Apple iOS, the phone will only run official, signed programs from Apple’s App Store, whereas many Android devices will run applications from many different sources.

Since Apple places its users in “jail” and Android locks out “root” access, both devices can be considered “locked down” in a different way from the carrier lock. Many users feel the need to remove these restrictions, and this has led to the development of “jailbreaking” and “rooting” technology. Today, most iPhones and Android devices can be unrestricted if the user wishes.

Jailbreak, Root, Unlock, and Compete

It is important to understand that none of this is technically illegal in most countries, and that many unlocks do not require jailbreaking or root access. As mentioned above, Apple sells unlocked iPhones officially in most countries, and every iPad is sold without a carrier lock. These devices are incredibly popular with foreign tourists, since prices here in United States are usually much cheaper than in other countries.

I would also like to point out that unlocked phones do not place the user at greater risk of security issues. Although many Trojan horses have found their way onto Android phones, this has nothing to do with the carrier lock. And Apple’s iOS “jail” has proven remarkably sturdy against malware even though jailbroken and unlocked phones are commonplace.

Unlocking may become more popular in the United States in the coming years as T-Mobile realigns its “4G” HSPA+ frequencies to the same standards as AT&T. Next year at this time, users will have a real choice of high-speed GSM carriers, and they will be able to carry their unlocked phones abroad as well.

On the other hand, the crazy diversity of LTE frequencies used by Verizon, AT&T, Clearwire/Sprint, and international carriers does not bode well for unlocking. As is the case with Verizon and Sprint today, what good is an unlocked phone if it cannot be used on another carrier’s frequencies? Already, the AT&T and Verizon iPad models cannot roam on each other’s LTE networks, and neither works internationally.

Stephen’s Stance

I have, on occasion, jailbroken my iPhones, and I am the proud owner of a few unlocked devices as well. I found little interest in the former but a great deal of value in the latter. And I love the idea of a competitive carrier market as is the case with European GSM carriers and will soon be possible here, at least with AT&T and T-Mobile. It’s just too bad it took so long for this to happen!

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2012. | What’s the Difference Between a Jailbroken and an Unlocked Phone?
This post was categorized as Apple, Ask a Pack Rat, Features, Personal, Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

IBM really knows how to put on an event, so come on out to Orlando next month!

Introducing IBM Edge2012

IBM Edge2012 is divided into 3 tracks: TechnicalEdge is targeted at IT professionals; ExecutiveEdge is for business and IT executives; and WinningEdge is sales training for IBM partners. I’ll obviously be focusing my time at TechnicalEdge, as I imagine most of my readers will, though I’m curious about ExecutiveEdge as well.

As you may know, I have been working with IBM since early 2011, contributing content to the Storage Community blog that they sponsor. I have also been strengthening my relationship with the company through other work, including a recent webinar, and will continue all this in the future.

IBM’s storage organization is really trying to step into the “big leagues” of thought leadership in enterprise storage. Of course, IBM invented enterprise storage in previous decades, but it seems that many customers overlook their products, contributions, and technology when considering storage purchases. This is a shame, because the company has some great products like SVC and the new, improved XIV array.

I’ll also be hosting a “Tweetup”/#Storagebeers at Edge! Sign up now!

My Session: VMware vSphere Integration

IBM has really gone all out in supporting server virtualization lately. The company recently announced a standard platform for VMware VAAI across all major storage products, giving them the technical chops to compete with EMC, NetApp, HDS, HP, and Dell. VMware integration is the topic of a session I will be presenting at TechnicalEdge in June, as a matter of fact.

Introducing VMware vSphere Storage Features - This introductory-level session discusses the challenges created by server virtualization, focusing on VMware vSphere. We will begin with an overview of the issues of data format (SCSI LUNs and NFS shares vs. vmdk files) as well as I/O patterns (“the I/O blender”) and what can be done to address them. We will then proceed to discuss the advances in VMware vSphere 4 and 5 with regard to storage integration, specifically the VAAI and VASA APIs. Attendees will come away with knowledge of the special requirements of virtual servers and the integration points with enterprise storage arrays, including IBM’s offerings.

Wednesday, June 6 at 1 PM

Come to IBM Edge (Cheaper!)

New! Win a free pass to TechnicalEdge2012!

If you are an IBM storage customer, you really must come to IBM Edge in June. Even if you aren’t already an IBM customer, you might consider coming along to the technical sessions. I’m sure you’ll learn something (as will I), and you might even come away with a new appreciation for IBM’s products.

Registration is open now, and I’m happy to announce that readers of my blog are eligible for a special discount! Just enter the code, “A2Z” when you register!

If you do come to IBM Edge2012, come find me and say hello. I’ll probably be in the sessions, the social media lounge, and the bar for most of the event!

Not a bad place for a tech conference!

One more thing: IBM is hosting Edge2012 at a wonderful resort in Orlando. My family vacation last year was at the same resort, and my kids just loved the water park at the Hilton. It’s extremely close to Epcot Center, too, so you can take your family on vacation while you go to the technical sessions. If you can stand being outside in Orlando in June, that is!

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2012. | IBM Edge2012 – Orlando
This post was categorized as Enterprise storage, Events, Virtual Storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

I'm headed back to Las Vegas for Interop once again

I am thrilled to return to speak at Interop next week, though not so much about returning to Las Vegas for the third time already this year. This time around, I’ll be on two Interop panel discussions in Mike Fratto’s storage track. If you will be at Interop and would like to meet up, let me know.

Considering Interop

The grand old tradeshow, Interop has changed a great deal over the decades. No longer affiliated with Novell (obviously), Interop is unusual in that it attracts a wide variety of companies in many different IT verticals. Fields like Wi-Fi networking, network security, data center and campus Ethernet switching, and (yes) storage have other shows, of course, but most are affiliated with one company or another. Interop has become the home of the independents, the upstarts, and the startups in enterprise IT. Shows like EMC World and Cisco Live are great draws for buyers and companies within their ecosystem, but what about their competitors? Interop has become the place to find them. Interop is really 2 different events: The tradeshow and conference. The show floor in New York and Las Vegas is reasonably sized and houses a diverse group of companies. Folks looking to browse the latest enterprise IT technology enjoy walking the floor for a day or so. Then there is the conference, with its educational tracks and speakers like me. This is a separate admission, so traffic is usually a little lighter. Panel discussions usually attract a packed house, however. This is especially true if, as is the case for my Las Vegas panels, they fall at the middle of the event. I am hopeful that we will have a good turnout this time.

My Plans For Interop

Our panel session last year was standing room only!

I will be arriving Monday, just before noon, and will spend the day on the tradeshow floor. If you would like to meet up for lunch or dinner, or just to walk the halls, let me know. I’ll probably be getting a few folks together for dinner and drinks Monday night! Tuesday, I have 2 panel sessions. “What’s Next in Storage” will be held in Lagoon D at 11:30, and “Great Debate: Cloud Storage Is Dead on Arrival” will be in the same room at 3:45. I plan to record and stream both sessions live from Interop, so watch this post for the embedded video.

What’s Next in Storage

• Location: Lagoon D
• Tuesday, May 8, 2012, 11:30 AM-12:30 PM
• Speakers:
• Moderator – Mike Fratto, Editor, Network Computing
• Panelist – Stuart Miniman, Senior Analyst, wikibon
• Panelist – Howard Marks, Founder & Chief Scientist; Contributing Editor/Blogger, DeepStorage.net; Informationweek
• Panelist – Stephen Foskett, Community Organizer, Gestalt IT

Storage continues to evolve to meet the demands of the enterprise. Whether you are supporting big data initiatives, building a private cloud, going to the cloud, or trying to reduce costs and make more efficient use of your existing storage systems, there are many options to choose from. We’ll also get their take on what is coming in the 12-18 months and how to prepare for it. Come prepared with questions as this session will be mostly Q&A driven.

Great Debate: Cloud Storage Is Dead On Arrival

Note: I’m debating Howard on cloud storage. He’s been asked to argue that cloud storage is dead, and I’ll be taking the stance that it is alive and well. I don’t think this is Howard’s true belief, but it should make for an interesting panel debate.

• Location: Lagoon D
• Tuesday, May 8, 2012, 3:45 PM-4:45 PM
• Speakers:
• Moderator – Mike Fratto, Editor, Network Computing
• Panelist – Howard Marks, Founder & Chief Scientist; Contributing Editor/Blogger, DeepStorage.net; Informationweek
• Panelist – Stephen Foskett, Community Organizer, Gestalt IT

The statement under debate is that cloud storage is dead on arrival. There are a number of benefits with cloud storage like huge cost savings and supporting public cloud applications, but there are also draw back such as governance and the potential for lock-in. In this debate, our panel of experts will be taking one side or the other and in an old-school debate format, will be arguing their respective points. We’ll ask the audience to vote before and after to see who wins. Bring your questions and stump our experts. We’ll have fun and learn something.

Join Me at Interop!

I’ll also be getting some folks together Tuesday for lunch and dinner, as well as evening entertainment. I know quite a few people who are attending the event, and I always like getting together as diverse a group as possible at events like this. I fly out first thing Wednesday morning. Although it would be nice to spend longer at Interop, I just can’t afford to take a whole week out of my schedule for the event.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2012. | Interop Las Vegas 2012
This post was categorized as Enterprise storage, Events, Personal, Virtual Storage. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.