The reality of 10 Gb Fibre Channel is still a couple of years away, according to the Founder of DragonSlayer consulting, Marc Staimer. At Storage Decisions 2003, Staimer spoke about how competing technologies such as 10 Gb Ethernet and Infiniband are pushing 10 Gb FC further down the tech spectrum.
Which of these technologies will win the day? And when?
Staimer claimed that business will drive the technology. For example, a 10 Gb Fibre Channel Port costs -- on the average -- about $40,000. This is nothing to sneeze at when you figure an InfiniBand port retails for about $1,000 per port. But, that doesn't mean 10 Gb FC is out of the running. The prices will drop and the performance of 10 Gb FC might be too good to overlook once the price does come down.
Another factor holding 10 Gb FC back is that the surrounding technology just cannot handle the throughput it offers. Staimer said we'll probably see 4 Gb FC make more of an impact as a stopgap technology rather than a jump from 1 Gb and 2 Gb to 10 Gb.
As for timetables, Staimer predicted that InfiniBand -- which is available now -- will be mainstream in 2004. 10 Gb Ethernet is available now, but won't be widespread until 2005. Although 10 Gb FC is available now, its high prices will limit it to early adopters throughout 2004, and can be expected to hit the mainstream market in late 2005 or 2006.
Presentation slides and other links to the full session proceedings are available here.
About the speaker: Marc Staimer has over 15 years experience within the storage industry and is recognized as one of the most preeminent storage and SAN market experts.
Mr. Staimer is the founder of Dragon Slayer Consulting, an independent marketing and business development-consulting firm, focused on the storage and storage networking industry. His four-year-old consulting practice includes over 50 vendors and 50 end-users comprised of some of the most recognized names in the industry.
