After months of debating the pros and cons of implementing the technology, more than two thirds of the FCIAs member companies cast their votes last Friday afternoon. Despite vocal opposition and feigned indifference to the move from industry giants like Brocade Communications Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: BRCD), McData Corp. (Nasdaq: MCDTA), and Emulex Corp. (NYSE: ELX) over recent months, 60 percent of the companies voted for the 4-Gig extension, according to Skip Jones, the FCIA's sitting chairman and Qlogics director of planning and technology. Another 30 percent of the members voted against the move, and 10 percent abstained.
"We believe most major system OEM vendors, as well as Brocade and McData, voted against the concept, while component suppliers were
largely in favor," says Wall Street firm RBC Capital Markets in a note today. "Our contacts indicate that those in opposition were concerned about the extra effort required to design and test 4-Gbit/s solutions concurrently with a 10-Gbit/s deployment cycle. Those in favor cite the need for a less expensive upgrade alternative versus forthcoming 10-Gbit/s designs."
Jones says the large turnout lends credibility to the decision. "The vote provides a very clear and concise direction for where the industry as a collective is heading... Theres a very strong consensus."
Up until now, QLogics lone attempts to push 4-Gbit/s FC technology as the next natural step had been met by many industry players as ludicrous. Vendors that have already spent a lot of time and money developing 10-Gbit/s FC technology have been especially dismissive (see Fibre Channel SANs: 4G or Not 4G?). Following the FCIAs announcement today, however, industry players have been tripping over each other to jump on the 4-Gbit/s bandwagon (see JNI Gets Ready for 4/10-Gig FC and QLogic Gets 4-Gig FC Backers).
"Despite the official opposition, our system OEM contacts indicate a strong expectation that external 4-Gbit/s solutions will see meaningful adoption," says RBC in its note, adding that the large price gulf between 4- and 10-Gig will probably drive the adoption of the new technology.
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