Finally, Some Common Sense About FCoE

By David Gross

Was reading this Fibre Channel over Ethernet story at Search Networking, and found it to be a pleasant surprise compared to all the hype the protocol has generated. Specifically, I liked the following quote from a CCIE, certainly echos the feedback I've gotten about FCoE:

"The guys who run Fibre Channel SANs like having a network of their own," Banks said. "When you talk to a storage guy and say, 'Hey, we want to take your network and bring it onto this big Ethernet network that's been doing data for a long time,' they're going to get worried about performance and a loss of control."

Along with the high cost of "converged" hardware, this is a major problem for FCoE. And is exactly what slowed other attempts to force networks together. The talk of LAN/SAN integration with FCoE reminds me a lot of the LAN/WAN integration we heard about in the 90s with ATM, or the LAN/MAN integration FDDI was supposed to deliver. I wouldn't be surprised if ten years from now we are having a good laugh over this misguided technology.