This past March, the Wikibon community gathered to discuss Five Reasons CIOs should Care about Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE). In a Professional Alert at that time we indicated that future servers and blade systems will use a single Ethernet card on a Converged Enhanced Ethernet (CEE) network. What was missing from the picture, however was the endorsement of a major Tier 1 server player.
On May 26, 2009 IBM announced the availability of native FCoE connectivity on all Intel Nehalem-based BladeCenter and System x servers. QLogic is providing the converged network adaptor (CNA) technology to IBM, which is packaged on a compact card in a single chip using less than 4 watts of power, complementing the power management function inherent to IBM’s HS22 Blade Server. QLogic is also providing IBM with a 10Gb CEE Pass-Thru Module, which provides connectivity between CNAs installed on IBM BladeCenter servers and external 10G switches and devices.
As we’ve indicated, FCoE technology will allow customers to preserve existing FC SAN infrastructure investments while at the same time creating unified WAN, LAN, and SAN networks as a single set of resources that can be managed, shared and carved into sub-networks to do specific tasks.
FCoE will initially be of interest to large users who want to develop a converged network strategy to simplify management and reduce network costs. Users should consider two key issues regarding converged networks:
- 10Gig Ethernet infrastructures must be established as reliable, manageable, and cost-effective. Users should start now with small networks and get the skills in place to prepare for scaling 10GbE over the next two years.
- Users planning to connect new servers to 10Gig Ethernet networks need to ensure they are FCoE enabled in order to preserve existing SAN infrastructure (i.e. new servers must provide CNA support).
This announcement from IBM and QLogic is another signal that converged networks are coming and FCoE is maturing. A tier 1 server vendor design win is significant for QLogic as it continues to demonstrate leadership in the market. CIO’s should take note because the business case for FCoE is compelling as it utilizes the network more efficiently and provides any-to-any connectivity.
Action Item: Users should begin developing a pilot converged network infrastructure connecting local and remote servers, FC SANs and clients with the intent of developing the skills necessary to build out larger scale converged networks that will dramatically reduce network management costs and leverage existing SAN infrastructure.
Footnotes: Press release