Adaptec cites Microsoft's enthusiastic embrace of iSCSI--and its interoperability testing program--as a significant driver, but qualifies its timetable for iSCSI adoption on the basis of Fibre Channel's installed base and iSCSI's inferior speeds and feeds. Interestingly, the vendor refers to the commonly held view of iSCSI performance (75 percent of rated IP network bandwidth) as a myth, and points to both TOEs (TCP Off-load Engines) and increasing processor speeds, as well as the advent of 10-Gigabit Ethernet, as remedies to this purported limitation.
Adaptec, (408) 945-8600. www.adaptec.com
Brocade Communications Systems
Long a driving force in the Fibre Channel community, Brocade submitted a surprisingly inclusionary response to our questionnaire. Only a year ago, we interviewed a Brocade exec who said iSCSI was useful primarily as a technology for attaching "less important" servers to an FC SAN. That's code for, "If the server were important, it would have been connected to the FC SAN from the get-go."
Times have changed. A kinder and gentler Brocade acknowledged that iSCSI and FCP serve different application requirements with different price points, and that both would likely find a home in the market. Hammering the speeds and feeds advantages of FC, Brocade states FCP is achieving four times the performance of iSCSI on Gigabit Ethernet. The company also notes that 10 Gigabit Ethernet, while available, is not widely deployed, then makes the eminently savvy observation that when 10 GigE does become widespread, speed will no longer be the primary issue anyway. We agree--faster processor speeds on servers and improved TOE technology, combined with trunking services in iSCSI, will soon negate FCP's speed advantages.
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