Storage Management Strategies for the CIO
Access "Speed wars: Fibre Channel vs. Ethernet"
This article is part of the Vol. 4 No. 12 February 2006 issue of Storage Products of the Year 2005
The appeal of 10Gb/sec Ethernet over copper is evident, but can it displace Fibre Channel in the data center? BRACE YOURSELF FOR ANOTHER ROUND OF THE PERPETUAL storage networking competition of whose pipe is the fastest. Just as Fibre Channel (FC) pulls significantly ahead in the performance race with 4Gb/sec speed, IP/Ethernet is about to leapfrog FC with 10Gb/sec Ethernet over copper wire. And no sooner will data centers have absorbed 4Gb/sec FC than 8Gb/sec will arrive. Do data center storage managers care about faster pipes? Judging from the current demand for high-speed storage networking links, perhaps not. In a survey conducted last June by the Milford, MA-based Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG), 50% of respondents reported using 1Gb/sec FC. "At that time, 2Gb/sec FC was just beginning to be widely deployed and 4Gb/sec FC was about to start up," says Tony Asaro, senior analyst at ESG. Based on that survey, "the market isn't demanding 8Gb/sec or 10Gb/sec," he concludes. "It's not yet even demanding 4Gb/sec FC." But analysts see two uses for the greater ... Access >>>
Access TechTarget
Premium Content for Free.
What's Inside
Features
-
- E-mail archiving moves downmarket
-
Speed wars: Fibre Channel vs. Ethernet
Just as 4Gb/sec Fibre Channel is poised to make its move into the data center, Ethernet is roaring back with its 10Gb/sec technology. But the lure of pure speed might not be enough for Ethernet to overtake Fibre Channel--at least for now.
-
Shopping for storage: One vendor or more?
Buying storage today is more difficult than ever. You need to get the best acquisition price, the lowest long-term TCO and avoid vendor lock-in. On top of it all, you must decide which is best: one vendor or more?
- EMC launches SMB line
-
Best storage products of 2005
Our fourth annual Products of the Year awards spotlight the 15 new or enhanced storage products that stood out from the rest in 2005. The editors of Storage and SearchStorage.com, along with a panel of users and industry experts, selected these winning products based on their innovation and performance, among other criteria.
-
- 10Gb Ethernet means more host support
- Survey says: Users opt for appliance-based virtualization
-
Not just a big switch
Fibre Channel directors don't just provide lots of ports, they also offer ways to connect disparate SANs, isolate data and devices within a fabric, and configure throughput for specific applications. We look at how the big three directors match up.
- New benchmark measures array throughput
-
Columns
-
Marriott's lost tapes are just the latest in a string of high-profile storage snafus
Storage bin: Marriott's lost tapes are just the latest in a string of high-profile storage snafus. But with plenty of viable security solutions available, there's simply no excuse for these very public blunders.
-
A toaster oven in the data center
by Stephen Foskett
The midrange array market may still be hot, but storage managers are wary of getting burned. While midrange vendors keep piling on the features, storage pros are becoming disenchanted with midrange systems despite their more modest price tags.
-
Startups and standards
Startups and standards
-
How safe is your archived data?
by Jon Oltsik
With government regulations like HIPAA and SEC 17a-4, archiving has become a global requirement. But how safe is all that archived data?
-
Marriott's lost tapes are just the latest in a string of high-profile storage snafus
More Premium Content Accessible For Free
Improve data storage efficiency with archiving technology
E-Zine
Data archiving technology moves inactive data from primary storage to more suitable media. It may be used for compliance, governance or storage ...
How to improve your virtual server storage setups
E-Zine
One of the biggest challenges of building a virtual server infrastructure is fine-tuning the storage that supports the virtual machines. Having ...
Rethinking the way storage architectures are packaged and presented
E-Zine
Cloud storage, virtualization and the growth of unstructured data have contributed to the way storage architectures are built and used. Virtual ...