On February 2nd’s FCoE Fact vs. Fiction Peer Incite, we discussed that one of the key benefits of FCoE is that the robust vendor ecosystem including server, operating system, network, and storage vendors. The creation of the technology includes new standards in both storage (T11) and networking (IEEE and IETF). Some practitioners are concerned that FCoE could be plagued with some of the interoperability challenges that have historically been found in the FC market.
As vendors looking to move customers along the adoption curve of FCoE, they would do well to consider both the historical challenges of the industry and the long term goal of flexibility that customers are pursuing.
Action Item: Vendors who are serious about FCoE will do more than just give lip service to the development of solutions. They should actively engage in the creation of standards that will allow for vendor interoperability. They will also create robust documentation including reference architectures.
Footnotes: See:
- EMC’s FCoE Techbook and
- Emulex’s Convergenomics: The Converged Network Solutions Guide
See Stuart's blog for more information