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  5. How Will Thunderbolt Affect Enterprise Storage?: Page 3 of 3
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How Will Thunderbolt Affect Enterprise Storage?: Page 3 of 3

Last week, Intel and Apple dropped a bombshell on the consumer computer peripheral market. The new Thunderbolt port, a 10G bps interconnect found on Apple's latest MacBook Pro laptop computers, combines DisplayPort video and PCI Express and is opening a new world of expansion options. But how will this technology, formerly known as Light Peak, impact enterprise storage?
Stephen Foskett
March 08, 2011

But Intel must first remove the DisplayPort video requirement. There is no reason to require it beyond personal computer compatibility, and MacBook Pro users are unlikely to plug into a rack-mount RAID enclosure. The video is multiplexed with the data signal, and the controller can fall back to video-only mode. Why not fall forward to PCI Express-only, as well?

The biggest stumbling block for Thunderbolt is not technological, however. It is the fact that Apple directed the creation of the technology and appears to have exclusive access to it until 2012. Apple is perhaps the least enterprise-friendly computer maker, and seems set on snubbing the corporate market.

Consider Apple's continuing exit from the enterprise space. The company unceremoniously dropped its Xserve RAID Fibre Channel storage system in 2009, and killed the rack-mount Xserve servers at the end of 2010. Now the word has come out that the server version of its next operating system, Mac OS X 10.7 "Lion," will be a mere feature pack for the desktop offering. Apple clearly wants no place in the data center.

Intel would likely love a market for its Thunderbolt chips besides the still fairly small world of Apple-loving creative professionals. But will Apple allow the use of its Mini DisplayPort connector without the video signal? Might we see a parallel technology using a different connector and, perhaps, an alternate name?

A more-likely future would be development of an open alternative for external PCI Express connectivity. The legions of chip makers left out in the cold by the Intel/Apple move likely have both the resources and desire to create such a protocol. Perhaps this will be Thunderbolt's real effect: spurring the creation of a new PCI Express-based interconnect for the data center.

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