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  5. FCoE Storage From NetApp - No Surprise: Page 2 of 2
Data Centers

FCoE Storage From NetApp - No Surprise: Page 2 of 2

This week NetApp announced they'd start shipping filers with QLogic CNAs, adding FCoE to the long list of storage access protocols they support on their flagship platform. Since they've been demonstrating FCoE access with first generation QLogic CNAs for months, I wasn't surprised. The real questions are: how much will being first with FCoE help NetApp in their quest for block storage mindshare? And, does FCoE on the storage back end matter?
Howard Marks
August 13, 2009

If they can get the network-centric organizations that are going with FCoE now to look at a filer for storage because it does FCoE, they may gain some new customers. Eventually they may even convince those same customers to replace their Celerras with filers, too.

The other question is what does FCoE on the storage get us? Servers get to replace the tangle of cables used today with 2 10Gbps CEE, DCE, DCB Ethernet cables. Blade and 1u servers save slots and everyone saves switch ports. On the storage side, you still need an FCoE switch that has 8Gbps FC ports, so why not connect the storage to those ports?  The 12.5% additional bandwidth doesn't seem like a good reason to me.

Are you waiting for FCoE native storage?  If so Why?

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