The most significant thing about the announcement is that it is another proof point of the blurring of the line between Fibre Channel and Ethernet, says Stuart Miniman, senior analyst, Wikibon. "On the adapter side, the two primary FC HBA suppliers--Emulex and QLogic--are providing products that can be deployed today as FC, and if a customer wants to switch to more Ethernet, they can. Many customers are hesitant to embrace FCoE, but there is consensus that moving to a converged environment is the long-term goal. Buying a solution that can do FC or any of the Ethernet options--FC, iSCSI, NAS--gives customers the options of convergence with the flexibility of not being locked into a single option."
Bob Laliberte, senior analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group, believes the 16-Gbit announcement is pretty significant, with virtual machine densities rapidly increasing. ESG research surveys indicate that 31% of respondents anticipate having 25 or more VMs per physical server in the next year. "So the additional throughput will be welcomed."
He also thinks the TOR switch is pretty cool, too. "Great price-to-performance, with a lot of room to scale, and it offers any port to be configured any way, which is important for future proofing. Plus, QLogic claims it will plug into B or C fabrics, so they are positioning it to be a very attractive TOR switch."
Overall, Laliberte thinks it's still early in the 16-Gbit Fibre Channel race, and he would be surprised if 8-Gbit Fibre Channel has reached 60% penetration yet. "But this helps to drive SAN designs, and clearly QLogic is hoping to make a dent in Brocade’s and Cisco’s switch business, as well as improve upon their HBA and 3G CNA footprint."
He says Fibre Channel will be around for the foreseeable future and expects to see adoption of 16-Gbit Fibre Channel in the market. "The flexibility Qlogic provides in the adapter and switch will enable organizations to buy FC today and then transform the infrastructure to Ethernet-based technology when and where they need to. One of the keys to QLogic's success will of course be how well their OEM partners embrace and sell their solutions."
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