Comments on: People Against FCoE, Its Loud and Proud - Part 1 http://etherealmind.com/2008/04/16/fcoe-is-looking-like-junk-part-one/ Network design, architecture, thinking, working. Tech. Thu, 28 Aug 2008 17:21:15 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc By: Greg Ferro http://etherealmind.com/2008/04/16/fcoe-is-looking-like-junk-part-one/#comment-156 Greg Ferro Fri, 18 Apr 2008 10:22:55 +0000 http://etherealmind.com/?p=162#comment-156 Well, its a shame that FCoE is going somewhere. Maybe we should bring back FDDI as well for another run. I can only hope that the market wakes up and bypasses it. _grin_ I will take the challenge so I have purchased your book, it should arrive in a couple of weeks, and hope I will find some time to read it. If it convinces me, I will post it here, if it doesn't, I will still be here. Well, its a shame that FCoE is going somewhere. Maybe we should bring back FDDI as well for another run.

I can only hope that the market wakes up and bypasses it. _grin_

I will take the challenge so I have purchased your book, it should arrive in a couple of weeks, and hope I will find some time to read it. If it convinces me, I will post it here, if it doesn’t, I will still be here.

]]> By: silvanogai http://etherealmind.com/2008/04/16/fcoe-is-looking-like-junk-part-one/#comment-154 silvanogai Thu, 17 Apr 2008 18:29:59 +0000 http://etherealmind.com/?p=162#comment-154 Greg, the message you are referring to is old, but it contained a prediction that became true: in June 2007 the discussion about FCoE moved to the FC-BB-5 working group of T11, that has been working intensively on the topic. The last meeting was yesterday and we agreed that all the crucial aspect of FCoE are closed and that the June 2008 meeting will be the last for technical inputs and in August 2008 we will start letter ballot. A great result only one year after the work started. Two weeks ago we had SNW in Orlando, FL. At the FCIA boot 16 companies showed FCoE connectivity, including 6 initiator from Brocade, Broadcom, Intel, Mellanox, Emulex and Qlogic. Cisco had the Nexus 5000 FCoE switch, Finisar had a protocol analyzer, Netapp had a native FCoE storage array and more. Another great result. We can like it or not, but the reality in the Fortune 1000 companies is that Fibre Channel is a very well established reality and they want to move FC over Ethernet. FCoE is the perfect answer. iSCSI is great, may be is better than Fibre Channel, but it is different: it is SCSI over TCP and not FC over Ethernet. It has a different management model (may be better, but different), it does not support diskless booting as well as FC and the reality is that it has not gained ground fast enough to replace FC. Finally I have just finished a book on Data Center Networks and FCoE, http://www.lulu.com/content/2123054 if you send me your address, I will be happy to send you a copy. May be you will change your mind ;-) -- Silvano Gai Greg,

the message you are referring to is old, but it contained a prediction that became true: in June 2007 the discussion about FCoE moved to the FC-BB-5 working group of T11, that has been working intensively on the topic. The last meeting was yesterday and we agreed that all the crucial aspect of FCoE are closed and that the June 2008 meeting will be the last for technical inputs and in August 2008 we will start letter ballot. A great result only one year after the work started.

Two weeks ago we had SNW in Orlando, FL. At the FCIA boot 16 companies showed FCoE connectivity, including 6 initiator from Brocade, Broadcom, Intel, Mellanox, Emulex and Qlogic. Cisco had the Nexus 5000 FCoE switch, Finisar had a protocol analyzer, Netapp had a native FCoE storage array and more. Another great result.

We can like it or not, but the reality in the Fortune 1000 companies is that Fibre Channel is a very well established reality and they want to move FC over Ethernet. FCoE is the perfect answer.

iSCSI is great, may be is better than Fibre Channel, but it is different: it is SCSI over TCP and not FC over Ethernet. It has a different management model (may be better, but different), it does not support diskless booting as well as FC and the reality is that it has not gained ground fast enough to replace FC.

Finally I have just finished a book on Data Center Networks and FCoE,
http://www.lulu.com/content/2123054
if you send me your address, I will be happy to send you a copy.

May be you will change your mind ;-)

– Silvano Gai

]]> By: Greg Ferro http://etherealmind.com/2008/04/16/fcoe-is-looking-like-junk-part-one/#comment-151 Greg Ferro Thu, 17 Apr 2008 06:33:43 +0000 http://etherealmind.com/?p=162#comment-151 My reading is that the article was pro-iSCSI, or at the least, negative on FCoE. In my current view, FC / FCoE has no value in a modern IT network and is a legacy or dead end technology that hasn't quite reached market failure conditions. Your response (as shown in the article) looks or appears very much like obfuscation by attempting to run the authors concerns into a bureaucratic hole in a standards process. Thus 'to spike' means to put it on hold, or into a queue where the matter / topic can be delayed or never even even considered. IBM calls it 'the backburner'. If this is true, then that is bad form. greg My reading is that the article was pro-iSCSI, or at the least, negative on FCoE.

In my current view, FC / FCoE has no value in a modern IT network and is a legacy or dead end technology that hasn’t quite reached market failure conditions.

Your response (as shown in the article) looks or appears very much like obfuscation by attempting to run the authors concerns into a bureaucratic hole in a standards process. Thus ‘to spike’ means to put it on hold, or into a queue where the matter / topic can be delayed or never even even considered. IBM calls it ‘the backburner’. If this is true, then that is bad form.

greg

]]> By: Silvano Gai http://etherealmind.com/2008/04/16/fcoe-is-looking-like-junk-part-one/#comment-149 Silvano Gai Wed, 16 Apr 2008 16:19:27 +0000 http://etherealmind.com/?p=162#comment-149 it is not clear what you mean with "spike the pro-iSCSI debate", what has iSCSI to do with FCoE? Also you accuse me of 'bad form" because "I am pushing some process complaint into the argument about standards". what does that mean? -- Silvano Gai it is not clear what you mean with “spike the pro-iSCSI debate”, what has iSCSI to do with FCoE?

Also you accuse me of ‘bad form” because “I am pushing some process complaint into the argument about standards”. what does that mean?

– Silvano Gai

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