... he just means using Solaris/Linux servers or NetApp/EMC filers to manage storage that is exported to a Windows box and then shared over SMB3. For example, use SRP and export a drive to Windows server, then share resources over SMB3. You can even get a semi multipath setup using multiple SRP targets and RAID0 them on the Windows sever. I feel(don't have experience directly) this is similar to how you would use a NetApp or EMC filer; export LUNs to the server which manages access.
Yes, to my knowledge - that feature and ability is not going away... To be able to attach to SAN (of any flavor) via iSCSI is still present.
As you know, up until SMB 3.0, MS did not have anything to offer users looking for high-speed, low latency interconnect within the Win <--> Win stack. Engineers/Architects had the choice of ethernet, fiber or IB, but native IB was stunted in Windows as MS only offered IBoIP (Infiniband over IP) within Windows <--> Windows stack (where Infiniband sat atop IP).
Even still Infiniband was often faster than ethernet/Fiber offerings. But MS was not leveraging the true power and effeciency of IB as IBoIP was bloated with the necessary protocol translation overhead and, as such, placed a heavy demand on the hardware.
Now comes SMB3, offering RDMA via SMB Direct for Windows <--> Windows and finally giving the community high speed, low latency, and low hardware utilization. Folks can now use SMB Direct as a preferred inter-op between physical devices in a windows network.
So SMB3 is a MS implementation for a Windows environment, giving MS an effective means for high-speed, low latency interconnection. That is great news for Windows. IMHO, they are a bit late to this party. Better late than never I suppose and they appear to have brought some cool new party favors too (RSS, easy teaming, etc...)
But I have read nowhere that MS intends to deprecate iSCSI over RDMA as a means to attach to external storage devices. This would make no business sense as so many DC's today employ SAN appliances which rely on such a protocol.
I do not see SMB Direct as a direct replacement for iSCSI. I do see it as an alternative - if one wishes to host their storage arrays on Windows (via Storage Spaces).
But before Windows 2012, what were the options for high speed interconnects within a windows environment? Not only storage <--> compute but storage <--> storage, compute <--> compute, compute <--> workstation?
To my knowledge, there was never much of a mainstream offering there... Until now (SMB3).
What are your thoughts here?
peace,