The RAID Advisory Board is an organization dedicated to advancing the use and awareness of RAID and associated storage technologies. Started in 1992, RAB states its main goals as education, standardization, and certification.
As a forum for discussion on developments in the storage-technology industries, RAB recently sponsored RAID '95, a conference held in San Jose, California. During the four-day event, attendees could take a course on RAID basics, learn about the latest business and technical issues, and hear discussions about predicted future trends. Among the conference speakers was Garth Gibson, one of the three original researchers responsible for proposing RAID technology.
Joe Molina, chairman of R
AB, reported that one of this year's hot topics was adaptive RAID, a technology in which there is no predefined RAID; instead, the RAID subsystem makes this decision for the user, based on patterns of data use. Another hot topic was integration--that is, RAID subsystems that incorporate other types of storage media, such as tape and CD-ROM, and that utilize hierarchical storage management (e.g., automatically migrating older data off a hard drive and onto a tape jukebox).
Molina predicted that by the year 2000, almost all systems will have RAID, except notebooks and low-end stand-alones. PCMCIA RAID will become a reality, as will support for interfaces other than SCSI, such as fiber channel and arbitrated loop. (Currently, about 90 percent of RAID products are SCSI-based.) Also by the year 2000, today's cost of about $2 per megabyte with RAID should decrease to about 25 cents per megabyte. Molina agreed that while vendors may find it difficult to make money in this kind of market, users will benefit, a
nd there will be plenty of RAID products to choose from.
For more information on the RAID Advisory Board, contact:
Joe Molina, Chairman
RAID Advisory Board
13 Marie Lane
St. Peter, MN 56082
(507) 931-0967
fax: (507) 931-0976
0004706032@mcimail.com
RAID Advisory Board
