Storage-server hybrids coming into vogue | CNET News.com:

When designing a data center, conventional wisdom holds that servers should do the thinking while storage systems should hang onto the data. But some industry heavyweights have begun seeing things a little differently.

Really, this is part of a natural evolution. The reason the industry shifted to separated storage and systems was that an all-in-one system couldn't handle the requirements. Now, with increased use of virtualisation, larger disks, smarter backup software, higher IO throughput requirements, these server/storage hybrids are on the way back in.

"StreamStor...denoted a complete package including streaming software. Nobody was coming up with a better code name, and it was very confusing," Fowler said. "So one day on the way to work, I decided to call it 'Thumper' after the fairy tale rabbit, with the specific idea that this would be such a stupid name that someone would come up with something better. No one did, and from now on I'm not allowed to name anything."

On a side note, I found that last comment remarkably amusing... Maybe it's just too early in the day...