It may be a slow boat to converged networks

July 14, 2010 – The hype behind converged networks (or converged fabrics) is heating up, leading one to believe that we’re on the cusp of this game-changer in IT infrastructure. However, I think this is going to be a very slow transition that will take place in two distinct phases.

First, IT organizations will migrate to 10Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE), which is already well underway. As they do so, the underlying equipment (network adapters, switches) may in fact support a converged fabric (Ethernet LAN + Fibre Channel SAN via FCoE) but most users won’t take advantage of that functionality in the first phase of the migration.

For now, end users are primarily concerned about network performance, particularly in I/O-intensive environments such as virtual servers and, soon, virtual desktops (see “Storage considerations for VDI implementations,” by the Evaluator Group’s Russ Fellows and John Webster).

Faster Ethernet is priority #1, not truly converged fabrics. Remember, almost 90% of the server network ports in a data center are Ethernet.

This a central point in an InfoStor blog post from Frank Berry, CEO and senior analyst with IT Brand Pulse (see “3G C-NICs Address Mass Migration to 10GbE”).

In an end-user survey conducted by IT Brand Pulse, more than 70% of the users said they were either too busy to investigate convergence or were not planning to converge their networks (although that does leave 30% with at least a plan to do so).

According to Frank’s blog: “LAN and SAN convergence is happening today, but it’s deployment of LANs and iSCSI SANs that are making it happen. In 2010, less than 100,000 FCoE-enabled host network ports will be deployed, while over 1 million iSCSI host ports will be installed.”

Migration to 10GbE will go quickly, but the transition to a truly converged, single-wire network will go much more slowly.

One reason for this is not technology-related but, rather, cultural. More than ever, a converged network will require very close cooperation between the network and storage teams, which in some cases is like asking the Red Sox to merge with the Yankees.

Who’s in charge of product evaluation and purchasing? Who will “own” the converged network?

These factors, perhaps more than technology-related issues, could delay adoption of converged networks.

Related article:
Fabric convergence: Changing the nature of fabric attach

Gartner on FCoE: The rebuttal

March 25, 2010 – Earlier this week I blogged about a Gartner press release and report that purported to point out the flaws behind the pro-FCoE arguments. Essentially, Gartner analyst Joe Skorupa argues that Fibre Channel over Ethernet may not, in fact, reduce the number of switches and ports, nor the power and cooling requirements, in a converged network. He also argues that a converged network could be more difficult to manage than two separate networks (Ethernet and Fibre Channel).

For the full press release and a link to the ($195) report, see my previous post, “Gartner exposes FCoE ‘myths.’”

Predictably, those views set off some controversial fireworks, in part because (for better or for worse) Gartner holds a lot of sway in the IT world, which is where the FCoE battle will eventually be fought. For the best rebuttal to Gartner’s arguments that I’ve seen so far, see J Michel Metz’s “Gartner on FCoE: Whoa There, Sparky.”

I’m just glad to see the FCoE discussions moving away from arguments about which vendor is best-positioned to take advantage of FCoE toward more discussions about the technological merits and hurdles involved with the technology.