iSCSI is a block storage protocol for storage networking. It’s been around since 1988, is supported by multiple operating systems, and has been a standard since 2000.
iSCSI has been used mostly for so-called “secondary” block storage, meaning storage for applications that are important but not mission-critical, and storage that must deliver good—but not great—performance.
The fact that iSCSI runs on Ethernet and can be deployed without specialized hardware has made it very popular in clouds and cloud storage, so its usage has blossomed with the growth of cloud. Today, iSCSI is the most popular way to access block storage over Ethernet networks.
The Threat to iSCSI
However, the emergence of NVMe over Fabrics™ (NVMe-oF) now threatens to displace iSCSI for high-performance block storage access to flash storage. Simultaneously, the growing use of file and object storage poses a threat to both iSCSI and to Fibre Channel SANs.
How great is the risk to iSCSI? What does the future hold? Find out in a recent Digitalisation World article by John F. Kim, Chair of the SNIA Networking Storage Forum, “iSCSI – Is it the Future of Cloud Storage or Doomed by NVMe-oF,” where John outlines iSCSI advantages, limitations and growth prospects amid the high performance and growing popularity of NVMe-oF. It’s an interesting read about what the future may hold for this ubiquitous storage protocol.
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