When it comes to storage, a byte is a byte is a byte, isn’t it? One of the enduring truths about simplicity is that scale makes everything hard, and with that comes complexity. And when we’re not processing the data, how do we store it and access it? The only way to manage large quantities of data is to make it addressable in larger pieces, above the byte level. For that, we’ve designed sets of data management protocols that help us do several things: address large lumps of data by some kind of name or handle, organize it for storage on external storage devices with different characteristics, and provide protocols that allow us to programmatically write, find, and read it. On April 17^th, the SNIA Ethernet Storage Forum will host another of its “Great Debates” webcasts. This time, it’s “File vs. Block vs. Object Storage.” In this live webcast, our experts, Mark Carlson, Alex McDonald and Saqib Jang will compare three types of data organization: file, block and object storage, and the access methods that support them. Each has its own set of use cases, advantages and disadvantages. Each provides data management ranging from simple to sophisticated, and each makes different demands on storage devices and programming technologies. Perhaps you’re comfortable with block and file, but are interested in investigating the more recent class of object storage and access. Perhaps you’re happy with your understanding of objects, but would really like to understand files a bit better. Or perhaps you want to understand how file, block and object are implemented on the underlying storage systems – and how one can be made to look like the other, depending on how the storage is accessed. Join us as we discuss and debate:

• Storage devices
  • How different types of storage drive different management & access solutions
  • Which use cases tend to favor block, file or object
• Block
  • Where everything is in fixed-size chunks
  • SCSI and SCSI-based protocols, and how FC and iSCSI fit in
• Files
  • When everything is a stream of bytes
  • NFS and SMB
• Objects
  • When everything is a BLOB
  • HTTP, key value and RESTful interfaces
• Altogether…
  • When files, blocks and objects collide, it will rock your world!

I will be moderating this “friendly debate” where there won’t be winners or losers, just more information on these three popular data storage technologies. We hope you will register today to come join the debate on April 17^th. And if you missed our first hugely popular “Great Debate” – Fibre Channel vs. iSCSI, it’s now available on-demand.