When companies plan their data center infrastructure, there is always uncertainty. When servers, storage and networks are deployed, there is usually a lot of guessing around the memory, bandwidth and storage required.  The growth and changes in an environment are also very difficult to predict and manage.  Host adapters – including NICs (Ethernet), HBAs (FC), HCA (InfiniBand) and CNAs (FCoE) – and the appropriate cabling is a piece of the infrastructure that can see a lot of variability.  Historically, each deployment gets the type and number of adapters that are believed to be necessary for a deployment.  The initial cost of the adapters and cables must be justified.  Separate adapters are often required for each application according to management or security best practices.  As the environment changes, new adapters and cables are added.  The problem with this seemingly flexible environment is that adding/changing adapters and moving cabling is a very manual and time consuming process.