Fibre channel is the technology standardfordatacentre
SAN environments and fibre channel over Ethernet(FCoE), writes Walter Dey, board of directors,SNIA
Europe. It is an extension of fibre channel
storage protocol that uses Ethernet as its physical transmission
technology. It is an example of the evolution in fibre
channel-based architectures and business solutions.
FCoE combines fibre channel and Ethernet to provide users with a
converged network for storage SAN connectivity, client server
messaging connectivity (often referred to as LAN traffic), and
server-to-server messaging connectivity (sometimes referred to as
server metadata or server sync heartbeat). Combined with
enhancements to Ethernet, FCoE allows datacentres to consolidate
I/O and network infrastructures into a converged network. This
allows IT workers to reduce capital and operational expenses,
power, heat, cabling and space.
Because FCoE looks like fibre channel to the rest of the system
and OS upper layers, it preserves existing fibre channel storage
management and utility software. I believe the future of FCoE could
deliver performance without the latency and complexity issues of
TCP. Since FCoE combines two tried and proven technologies,
Ethernet and fibre channel, I expect swift and reliable deployment
of FCoE in business.
For organisations relying on fibre channel in their datacentres,
connecting servers with FCoE to emerging FCoE native targets, fibre
channel targets or directly to fibre channel networks is seamless.
It has the potential to preserve past, present, and future fibre
channel investments in the datacentre.
The Fibre Channel Industry Association (FCIA) and SNIA Europe are
working together to educate users about fibre channel
technologies.