Virtualization, which is increasingly finding its way into enterprise data centers, is also a big factor in vendors' 8-Gbit/s plans. (See Users Look Ahead to 2007, Virtual Iron, Users Talk Virtual Tension, and Tales From the Virtual Crypt.) "Virtualization creates more I/O, so users want to make sure that the pipe to the network is big enough for multiple virtual machines," says Berry.
At least one user, though, told Byte and Switch that he is unmoved by vendor hype. "If we're not going to stress the systems enough to justify 8-gig, we would probably stay with 2-gig," says John Careccia, computer services manager at Lane County, Oregon. Careccia may consider using 8 Gbit/s technology for a business continuity and disaster recovery SAN he is planning to deploy in 2008, although even this is not certain. Cost could be a deciding factor. "We would really have to look at what we were getting on 8-gig and look at the ROI," he explains.
There is still a big question mark hanging over the cost implications of 8-Gbit/s Fibre Channel SANs. A recent Byte and Switch Insider report, for example, questioned whether current standard copper-based twisted-pair cabling can handle the higher transmission rate over more than 25 meters. (See Insider: 4-Gig's Successor Uncertain.) The move to 8 Gbit/s may therefore require more expensive cabling, which would eliminate one of the biggest drivers of the current transition from 2 Gbit/s to 4 Gbit/s.
Even Cisco is not getting carried away with all the 8-Gbit/s brouhaha. "Do we see a lot of applications driving demand for 8-Gig? No," says Rajeev Bhardwaj, director of product management at the vendor's data center division.
The exec admits that virtualization could change this. And he insists that Cisco has been gearing up for 8-Gbit/s Fibre Channel on its own MDS 9500 director switches. (See Cisco Goes 4-Gig & Big, EMC Certifies Cisco Director, and Cisco's Storage Slows.) "The MDS portfolio is 8-gig ready today," insists Bhardwaj. "That means that I can take an 8-gig line card and put it into existing 9500 Series directors."
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