Hitachi Hoists 2-Gig Standard

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) is first out of the blocks with a RAID storage system that supports the new 2-Gbit/s Fibre Channel standard.

HDS says it has been shipping its Thunder 9200 disk arrays with 2-Gbit/s Fibre Channel interfaces to selected customers for a couple of months, but general availability started today. It's out with the goods well before its archrival EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC).

Moving up from one gig to two gigabit Fibre Channel means companies can get data to their users twice as fast,” says Mel Tungate, director of storage marketing at HDS. (Mel was clearly a math major.)

However, analysts say that the installed base of 1-Gbit/s FC kit will slow down the rate at which users will adopt 2-Gbit/s Fibre Channel equipment.

“Getting the utmost in speed is also a diminishing return on cost…Nobody in their right mind would rip out an existing infrastructure or add incompatible parts to a running infrastructure, just to get more speed,” says Dan Tanner, storage analyst at the Aberdeen Group.“The vast majority won’t rip out everything, but they will make increments where they are most needed,” counters HDS's Tungate. "We are not expecting them to change all the interfaces at once."

Fibre Channel must also face up to the growing threat posed by Ethernet and IP, which in its next iteration will run at 10-Gbit/s (see A Taxonomy for Storage Networks ).

— Jo Maitland, Senior Editor, Byte and Switch http://www.byteandswitch.com