Bullish Cisco predicts Fibre Channel over Ethernet storage arrays in 2009

By Dave Raffo, News Director 07 Jul 2008 | SearchStorage.co.uk

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During its Technology Day on June 26, Brocade executives said they expect FCoE to start showing up in servers in 2010 and they don't expect mainstream use of FCoE in storage before 2011.

More on FCoE Brocade waves caution flag for FCoE Cisco buys Nuova, launches FCoE-compliant switch iSCSI vendors: Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) purely defensive Storage vendors propose FC over Ethernet standard

But, Cisco vice president of business development Jackie Ross painted a different picture in an interview with SearchStorage. Ross said she expects customers to begin using FCoE in production on servers in August with volume shipments coming in November. She forecasts that SAN arrays with native FCoE support will appear by late 2009.

"We are very bullish on the adoption rate of FCoE," she said. "I think the large SAN array vendors are thinking, 'Let's see how fast this gains traction,' and if they see traction picking up, I think we can see native FCoE [on storage] at the end of 2009."

FCoE equipment will let data centres converge Fibre Channel and Ethernet into one network with common cabling and connection devices.

How much and how fast FCoE moves into storage networks depends largely on three factors. First, the FCoE standard and the Converged Enhanced Ethernet standard that FCoE relies on must be ratified. Then the vendor ecosystem of products must be available to support FCoE. Third, when will customers want to implement FCoE?

As for standards, Cisco's Ross said she expects FCoE to be standardised by the InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS) later this year, with Converged Enhanced Ethernet becoming a standard in the first half of 2009. Brocade execs don't disagree with the timing of the standards but think it will take longer for products to roll out and customers to adopt the new technology.

Cisco points out that FCoE products already exist, including its Nexus 5020 switch and an Intel FCoE 10 Gbps PCIe adapter. Emulex and QLogic expect to have Converged Network Adapters (CNA) – FCoE equivalents of HBAs – by the end of summer.

Storage vendors not disclosing FCoE roadmaps

Storage system vendors haven't disclosed roadmaps for FCoE systems, although EMC and NetApp are considered the most committed to FCoE. An EMC spokesman said the vendor is qualifying Cisco Nexus 5000 FCoE technology on its storage gear and expects customer deployments this year, but would not give a timeframe for native FCoE support on EMC products.

Joel Reich, vice president of NetApp's SANiSAN business unit, said he expects ratification of the FCoE standard by the end of this year, and NetApp will have a native FCoE target soon after. He said FCoE is a "logical progression" of NetApp's unified storage approach of offering Fibre Channel, iSCSI and NAS in its enterprise systems.

On the customer front, Brocade execs spoke several times of "confusion in the market" on FCoE during their Tech Day. "We have some customers who say they want FCoE tomorrow and some who say they don't ever want it," Brocade marketing vice president Tom Buiocchi said. He said Brocade advises customers there are not products yet to implement.

Ken Male, CEO of market research firm TheInfoPro (TIP) presented information during Brocade's Tech Day that shows slow adoption of FCoE. According to TIP interviews with Fortune 1000 companies, only 16% say FCoE is in their plan for pilot or implementation in 2008. FCoE ranked twenty-second and last on TIP's storage "Heat Index," which measures customer interest in implementing technologies.

But Cisco's Ross said more than 250 customers are evaluating the Cisco Nexus 5020 switch, and many of them are using it with storage.

Tags: SAN switch,  Fibre Channel (FC) SAN,  VIEW ALL TAGS

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