4-Gig for Show

PHOENIX -- Storage gear designed for 4-Gbit/s Fibre Channel networks is on display here at the Storage Networking World tradeshow. But sources remain divided over just how big a market this will be and when, if ever, it will materialize.

Vendors of 4-Gbit/s equipment say their ability to offer products at a cost comparable to that of 2-Gbit/s Fibre Channel kit is giving the new speed a boost, though widespread deployment is still an open question. Following is a list of the latest "pro 4-Gbit/s" announcements here in Phoenix:

Testers

Components

Host bus adapters

Other gear

These and other announcements tout emerging support for 4 Gbit/s, even though demand isn't full blown. "We're able to provide more throughput at a cost not that different from 2-gig," says Jean Manuel Dassonville, product manager for Storage Area Network Test at Agilent. But he acknowledges that OEMs aren't storming the market with 4-Gbit/s gear just yet.

Others say widespread use of 4-Gbit/s Fibre Channel is largely a pipe dream. "Four-gig is too late and too soon at the same time," says Mark Fishburn, VP of technical strategy at Spirent Communications. He says Spirent OEMs that make Fibre Channel devices aren't interested as a group in 4-Gbit/s, because they're having trouble filling 2-Gbit/s capacity. In contrast, network equipment OEMs think 4-Gbit/s is too slow for SAN aggregation, and they want to go right to 10-Gbit/s.

Instead of glomming onto the 4-Gbit/s bandwagon, Spirent's touting its ability to test 10-Gbit/s interswitch links for Fibre Channel equipment with a modular add-on for its SmartBits tester. Spirent will demo the feature at SNW this week by running tests on the SANbox 5200 Stackable Fibre Channel Switch from QLogic Corp. (Nasdaq: QLGC).QLogic's been conspicuous in its absence at the 4-gig product demos, even though it started the 4-gig ball rolling last year (see QLogic Starts 4-Gig Quest). QLogic VP of corporate marketing Frank Berry says QLogic's adoption of the new speed is still too far off to showcase. "We'll do that when it's closer to coming out," Berry says. "We're not interested in science experiments."

Others, too, think 4-Gbit/s Fibre Channel remains a distant prospect, and its ultimate reality may be different from what some originally anticipated. Joel Reich, product marketing director of Network Appliance Inc. (Nasdaq: NTAP), says he doesnt expect to see 4-gig in shipping product until mid-2005. Even then, he expects interest to coalesce at the high end. “Most of the 2-gig systems in product aren’t close to being utilized at 2-gig. About 10 percent of our customers need 4-gig, but that’s the very high end of the storage market.”

— Mary Jander, Site Editor, and Dave Raffo, Senior Editor, Byte and Switch