Spaid Breaks Ground

If you're digging the details on where storage network virtualization should or should not take place, consider using a SPAID.

Depending on whom you ask, SPAID stands for "split path acceleration of independent data streams" or "split path acceleration of intelligent devices."

Regardless of terminology, Spaid signifies a technique that combines the advantages of in-band virtual links with out-of-band ones. And sources say it's starting small but likely to build momentum over the next couple of years.

Let's take it from the top. Many IT shops today are returning to a serious consideration of virtualization as a means of consolidating and managing stored data. But adding virtual functions such as remote replication to a storage network calls for separating the stored data from the control information that's needed to organize it and apply virtual functions to it.

There have traditionally been two solutions proferred by storage vendors:

Examples of in-band products are the SAN Volume Controller from IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM), Tagmastor from Hitachi Data Systems (HDS), and solutions from FalconStor Software Inc. (Nasdaq: FALC).

Out-of-band products include the nascent storage router from EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC).

Arguments about in- versus out-of-band have risen to a mind-boggling cacophany (see Startups Abuzz Over Intelligence, EMC Takes Storage Router for a Spin, and EMC & IBM in Virtual Skirmish). Both have pros and cons. In-band solutions are easier to deploy, but they don't scale, some say, and there's a performance hit. Out-of-band products scale better, but no one likes server agents because they're tough to maintain and introduce complexity.Enter Spaid, in which ASICs and software combine to provide an out-of-band solution sans server agents. Spaid implementations contain sufficient intelligence to separate the control and data information and to assign virtualization applications to multiple paths. One analyst who asked not to be named calls Spaid a kind of "multipath fabric agent." Ewwweeee!!

"It's an architecture that takes the best of both in- and out-of-band approaches," says Arun Taneja of the Taneja Group consultancy. By the way, he favors the second spellout for Spaid given above.

Several vendors are at work on Spaid solutions, but just one has actually announced and shipped a product. At a trade show last year, Troika Networks Inc. unveiled software constructed in partnership with StoreAge Networking Technologies Ltd. (see Troika Turns a Corner).

A slew of vendors are working on Spaid solutions with a range of partners announced and unannounced. Chipmakers Aarohi Inc., Astute Networks Inc., and iVivity Inc. are said to be turning up Spaids. Other companies, such as startup Incipient Inc., which says it will ship a product sometime this year, are creating software that could work in conjunction with Spaid solutions.

The possibilities of Spaid have opened a steady stream of gossip about who's working with whom. For now, not much has actually materialized in the realm of live implementations, except the Troika/StoreAge solution, which Troika says is meeting a warm reception in prospective customer shops.Clearly, the Spaid area will need much tilling before it produces a solid harvest. But for now, it's a concept that's well worth watching.

Mary Jander, Site Editor, Byte and Switch