McData Signs On for 4-Gig SANs

McData Corp. (Nasdaq: MCDTA) has outlined a general roadmap to deliver 4-Gbit/s Fibre Channel support by 2005 -- becoming the first major storage switch vendor to throw its weight behind the next-generation SAN fabric technology.

"As a major proponent of industry standards, McData... intends to support 4-Gbit/s Fibre Channel fabrics in 2005, as it matures," said Mike Gustafson, McData's senior VP of worldwide marketing, in a statement.

Today, most Fibre Channel equipment supports 2-Gbit/s operation (which is backward-compatible with older 1-Gbit/s equipment). But there has been some question -- and some lively back-room debate -- about whether the industry should adopt 4-Gbit/s Fibre Channel as the next speed plateau for SANs, or if everyone should just move to 10 Gig. The 4-Gig FC specification was originally designed to connect high-speed drives within storage arrays.

The backers of 4-Gig, among which QLogic Corp. (Nasdaq: QLGC) has been the most active lobbyist, scored a victory in June when the Fibre Channel Industry Association (FCIA) approved the spec as a SAN fabric interconnect. (See FC Fires Up 4-Gig Fiesta, 4-Gig Fireworks, QLogic Starts 4-Gig Quest, and Fibre Channel SANs: 4G or Not 4G?.)

McData's announcement that it intends to support 4-Gbit/s Fibre Channel will put additional pressure on Brocade Communications Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: BRCD) to jump on board.Brocade -- which is today the No. 1 provider of Fibre Channel SAN switches -- has said publicly that it would support 4-Gbit/s Fibre Channel if market demand materialized for the technology. Privately, however, Brocade has been said to oppose it as an unnecessary step that will slow down the move to 10 Gig.

Jay Kidd, VP of product management at Brocade, says the company has not announced any 4-Gbit/s FC product plans. But he adds: "We will coordinate a public announcement in a more cooperative way with our OEMs... We're not worried about McData having an advantage here."

Meanwhile, host bus adapter vendor Emulex Corp. (NYSE: ELX) -- whose primary competitor is QLogic -- has unequivocally opposed the move to 4-Gig SANs. But that could change after Emulex's planned acquisition of Vixel Corp. (Nasdaq: VIXL), a developer of embedded FC switches that has been a proponent of 4-Gbit/s Fibre Channel (see Emulex Drops Cash for Vixel).

In any event, it appears the move to 4-Gbit/s SANs won't impede the development of 10-Gig FC. In fact, McData said today that it plans to deliver 10-Gbit/s support for its Intrepid directors in mid-2004; the company expects customers will use 10-Gig Fibre Channel for interswitch links (ISLs). It says it will demonstrate the technology next week at the Storage Networking World tradeshow in Orlando, Fla. (see McData to Demo 10-Gbit/s FC).

Also at SNW, McData plans to show off its storage network security solution based on the InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS)'s proposed FC-SP specification.In addition, it plans to demonstrate StoreAge Networking Technologies Ltd.'s data copy and mirroring applications running on the McData Sphereon intelligent fabric switches. McData is implementing Aarohi Inc.'s storage processors to provide advanced switch-based services (see McData Signs Deal With Aarohi).

Todd Spangler, US Editor, Byte and Switch