Use cloud concepts with caution

This article originally envisioned a discussion of the current situation with SSD (solid-state drive) and disk array controller architecture--Some vendors may already have the preparation to let existing arrays handle more SSD. However, in the process of data acquisition of this subject, I heard many information about the company's cloud actions, and a growing number of manufacturers announced the beginning of cloud computing, and in their own IT products to increase the "cloud" function.

So I temporarily decided not to talk about SSDs.

For marketing, the company's broad reference to the word "cloud", which uses almost all aspects of cloud concepts, can easily be reminiscent of 2007 years. At that time, a trend of marketing is: countless kinds of products that have never been related to environmental protection suddenly got a bunch of green certification, some manufacturers in the product declaration and display of the continuous promotion of green color plan. Of course, some of these vendors, such as EMC, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and 3PAR, do provide users with more efficient products and provide valuable solutions for energy savings.

Now I'm concerned that the same marketing trend is now turning to the cloud. Many vendors are adding cloud terminology to their existing product launches or future products. It's like trying to put ketchup on a spicy soy bean meal; in other words, if these two things do not match, why do they have to be together?

I recently saw some storage products abusing the "cloud" terminology. Recently, Emulex claims to have launched a cloud adapter. Yun Yu Adapter? InfiniBand adapters, Fibre Channel adapters, and iSCSI (Internet Small Computer system interface) adapters are accessible, and people know how to deploy, but the Yun Yu adapter is at a loss. Of course, this may be a more exaggerated concept-before any real business value is proven.

Look at this cloud adapter. It appears to be a ready-made Fibre Channel adapter plus a ready-made SAS adapter that can be synchronized with the target-side initiator transmission, written by a software layer and transferred to the EMC Atmos layer. I don't want to say anything bad about Emulex, but it looks like the manufacturer didn't create any new technology here, but it probably combines hardware and leverages EMC's API (Application programming Interface) set. Elastic？ Is it possible, but can this product reflect value in archiving, backup, replication, or data tiering? This is a challenge in front of the Emulex and its cloud adapters. In my opinion, it is possible that brocade, Cisco or QLogic will soon launch the product with the word cloud.

Let me guess what the next one might be ... Maybe a "cloud disk drive"--this optimized drive can store company data in a virtual cloud instead of a physical datacenter? I can imagine a manufacturer's word for this drive: a large disk drive that can store YB-level data (1YB=1024ZB).

On the other hand, IBM's recently released smart business and Cloudburst FX provide the technology, products, and services behind the firewall or in the cloud. IBM's use of cloud terminology on these solutions is appropriate; like ketchup on a hamburger--they match.

We know that many companies are using cloud concepts in their data centers and remote offices, or packaging themselves as cloud providers. What kind of situation do you belong to?