SINGAPORE--Storage networking vendor Brocade plans to release Fiber Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)-enabled switches by year-end, for customers to test the emerging technology that is not expected to become mainstream before 2011.
Deb Dutta, Brocade's vice president for Asia-Pacific and Japan, said at a media briefing Wednesday that its customers will be able "to play with" the technology by the end of the year, even though FCoE is expected to become relevant only around 2010, with real storage infrastructure built in 2011 or 2012.
Dutta said: "There's always the saying that you do the plumbing ahead of putting in the gear, so we have to be proactive with coming out connectivity technology even before the gear is made available."
FCoE, in a nutshell, is applying the Fiber Channel storage networking technology to Ethernet networks. Unlike Fiber Channel which has multiple interfaces for different connectivity, FCoE simplifies the network by providing a common interface and a single window for management.
The backbone driving the FCoE is the open standard Converged Enhanced Ethernet (CEE) developed by 16 vendors including Brocade. Cisco has a proprietary standard called the Data Center Ethernet (DCE).
Brocade's FCoE offerings, according to Dutta, will be available in "two footprints"--one is a blade sitting on a Brocade director, and the other, a "pizza box" storage.
The three years' lead-time, explained Dutta, would be enough for customers to write down their existing investments in core Fiber Channel infrastructure, and for FCoE testing and transition support to be ready. Pricing could also stabilize--FCoE is currently "a more expensive proposition to Fiber Channel", he added.
But while FCoE can help fulfill data center convergence by addressing requirements of server-to-server connectivity and server-to-storage connectivity, it will not happen overnight when the time comes, said Dutta. "There's going to be a transition where some applications will move to FCoE while some will stay in fiber channel, and people will get used to the FCoE environment before they move off from fiber channel."
By year-end, Brocade's Asia-based consultants will be trained to help customers in testing its FCoE offerings, said Dutta. In the region, Brocade has over 50 consultants, both in-house and that of its partners.
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