AoE - ATA over Ethernet - comments?

Hello !

sorry - I know this is slightly offtopic, but a little relation to ENBD is
probably given, though: 
ATA over Ethernet is a technology for sharing block devices via LAN.

Since there maybe many competent people on this list, I`d be interested, if
someone would like to give a comment (personal opinion) about AoE.

AoE is an open protocol and there is GPL'ed code:

- an AoE Client for Linux
- an AoE Server (2 variants: vblade [userspace] and vblade-kernel -
vblade-kernel has no project website for now, but it is working). I can
provide a link on request.

There is also a beta driver (closed source) for an AoE Client on windows. 


The best "entry" to AoE is the inventor`s website at www.coraid.com


I gave AoE a try and it works for me. 
It`s easy to understand, easy to install and it's fast, too.
>From my first point of view: great stuff, too! 

But - should I really trust AoE for now ?
Why is such more or less "trivial" technology born that late? what are the
caveats ?
Why should i use NBD/ENDB instead of AoE ? (ok, i cannot route AoE, but I
don`t need to route on my Lan/FakeSan add all)

Should ATA commands really be send over "unreliable" Ethernet at all ?
What happened to HyperSCSI? (similar concept, but seems completely dead
project)

Sorry for the noise - but maybe some of you find AoE interesting, too.

Regards
Roland

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