DALLAS, Oct. 16, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- The Fibre Channel Industry Association (FCIA) today announced that it will showcase emerging Fibre Channel solutions, including available 8GFC (Gigabit Fibre Channel) products interoperating together in real world applications demanding maximum performance, as well as a "proof of concept" Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) technology demonstration. Both exhibits will take place in booth P+1 at Storage Networking World (SNW), which will be held October 15-18, 2007 at the Gaylord Texan Resort Hotel and Convention Center in Dallas, Texas.
"As a Platinum Plus sponsor at SNW in Dallas, FCIA will be showcasing leading-edge Fibre Channel solutions at this premier storage networking conference that offers unrivaled access to the latest innovations in storage networking solutions," said Skip Jones, chairman, FCIA. "In alignment with the FCIA technology roadmap, today's 8GFC and FCoE demonstrations are further proof to end-users that Fibre Channel continues to be the most superior technology that is available in the market today and for the foreseeable future."
FCIA Showcases Two New Technologies at SNW: 8GFC and FCoE
In early 2004, the Fibre Channel roadmap was extended to include 8GFC in order to meet future performance demands and enable users and suppliers to plan future products and solutions. Today, leading storage companies are announcing their 8GFC solutions in order to meet customers' storage networking demands for their complex and growing data centers.
8GFC is essential in supporting the ever-changing business dynamics in high performance data centers that includes Multiple OS/Server and Quad Core Processors. Today's 8GFC solutions deliver support for consolidated servers that have increased through-put while ensuring the network does not become the bottleneck, boosting speed and performance, and maintain backward compatibility to protect the end user's existing investment.
This week in Dallas, the FCIA will demonstrate 8GFC, highlighting solutions from leading FCIA member companies and partners that include: Amphenol, Brocade, Emulex, Finisar, LSI, Molex, QLogic and Texas Memory Systems.
The FCIA will also demonstrate Fibre Channel traffic passing over an Ethernet fabric (FCoE), in the first public demonstration of the proposed INCITS T11 FCoE standard. This new standard promises to have a significant impact on customer data centers, enabling the consolidation of Fibre Channel and Ethernet traffic onto one fabric. FCoE will enable data center customers to reduce the amount of cables per rack, reduce the number of network interface cards required, which in turn reduces the amount of heat each server produces while simultaneously connecting to existing SAN infrastructures.
"Amphenol is again looking forward to working with the leading Fibre Channel industry companies, delivering reliable and robust copper and optical interconnect solutions. With our expanded focus and broadened product line, Amphenol has products today to support the emerging 8GFC and is working on future generation Fibre Channel requirements," said Ray Strauss, general manager of Amphenol Interconnect Products Corporation.
"The Fibre Channel Infrastructure remains the key foundation for storage connectivity, with exciting new technologies in development that will ensure its continued benefit for customers of all sizes," said Dan Crain, chief technology officer at Brocade. "Brocade is embracing the efforts of the FCIA and will deliver solutions in the coming months that will be highly integrated, high-performing and evolutionary. Brocade's fundamental approach is focused on extending the investment customers have made in their storage infrastructures, and we see the continued development of Fibre Channel -- including 8GFC and FCoE -- as the best way to protect the investment customers have made in their SANs."
"As a contributor of core intellectual property in the development of FCoE, Cisco is committed to delivering innovation to support our customers' data center requirements," said Ed Chapman, vice president, product management, Data Center Business Unit, Cisco. "Open standards delivered through strong industry partnerships are necessary to help IT organizations adopt new technologies such as FCoE, which enable the entire ecosystem of servers, storage, and networks to function more efficiently."
"CIOs and data center managers recognize the economics associated with Ethernet infrastructures, in terms of ubiquity, reduced complexity and lower deployment and management costs," said Jeffrey Nick, senior vice president and chief technology officer, EMC Corporation. "Converging Fibre Channel protocols with an Ethernet infrastructure while retaining Fibre Channel's enterprise-class quality of service and management features will result in a major win on many levels for both end-users and IT vendors. EMC is fully supportive of INCITS T11, FCIA, and their respective members to further develop a widely acceptable industry specification."
"Emulex is taking a leadership role in developing and delivering new technologies, such as 8GFC and FCoE," said Mike Smith, executive vice president of worldwide marketing, Emulex Corporation. "Teaming with industry-leading companies within the FCIA provides an ideal platform to showcase and promote the development of these new technologies."
"Finisar has a rich history of being first to market with leadership testing solutions that speed the development and adoption of critical new technologies," said Bill McDaid, director of marketing at Finisar. "We are very excited about our latest solutions supporting 8GFC and the emerging FCoE standard, and our partnership with FCIA at SNW."
"Fujitsu is proud to work with industry leaders to drive 8GFC Fibre Channel adoption in the marketplace," said Joel Hagberg, vice president marketing and business development, Fujitsu Computer Products of America, Inc. "Fibre Channel continues to forge ahead by enabling critical and innovative solutions in today's data centers, with its performance and reliability addressing issues of complexity and compliance across IT organizations. The availability of industry leading technology ensures users increased data availability, protection, performance and strong competitive market advantage."
"Fibre Channel over 10 Gigabit Ethernet promises to reduce network infrastructure costs, complexity and power consumption while maintaining the storage area network advantages that IT managers have enjoyed with Fibre Channel," said Tom Swinford, general manager, Intel LAN Access Division. "FCoE technology will enable the industry to achieve comprehensive virtualization solutions sooner with easier implementation."
"As a leading provider of Fibre Channel solutions, from custom and standard product ICs to host bus adapters and systems, LSI is pleased to be participating with the FCIA and its member companies at SNW," said Noam Shendar, director of corporate strategic planning, LSI Corporation. "LSI is very active in driving continuous innovation through next-generation industry standards, such as 8GFC and FCoE."
"As a provider of high speed copper and optical connectors and cables, Molex is pleased to participate in the next generation Fibre Channel demonstration at SNW," said Jay Neer, strategic product manager at Molex.
"NetApp is pleased to partner with the FCIA and its member companies to enable the next generation 8GFC and FCoE standards," said Patrick Rogers, vice president of solutions marketing at NetApp. "Consistent with the NetApp multi-protocol, unified storage architecture, we are delighted that these advancements will offer customers choices in storage networking solutions with performance enhancement and broader protocol options which enables IT to adapt to changing business needs."
"Nuova is pleased to be a sponsor of the FCIA's SNW booth and encouraged by their 10GB/s FCoE demonstration. As a principal in the development of the proposed INCITS T11 FCoE standard, we view the recent unanimous agreement by 25 leading data center equipment vendors on the FCoE Frame Format as a positive step. The live demonstration of FCoE at SNW showcases how far the proposed standard has progressed in a short time and illustrates that deliverable solutions could be available as early as 2008. This is important for data center managers since FCoE will provide the path for I/O consolidation and a converged fabric with benefits of cost, power, network simplification and management," said Soni Jiandani, chief marketing officer at Nuova Systems.
"QLogic customers in the data center are using virtualization technology to consolidate servers and storage at an amazing pace," said Frank Berry, vice president of corporate marketing, QLogic. "The demos shown this week showcase the ability of 8GFC Fibre Channel and 10Gb FCoE technology to deliver the performance, I/O consolidation and energy efficiency needed in the new data center."
In addition to demonstrations, the FCIA will be speaking in various Fibre Channel tutorials including a presentation by Tom Hammond-Doel, vice chairman FCIA on innovations in Fibre Channel technologies on Tuesday, October 16th from 4:00 p.m. to 4:45 p.m. in the Infrastructure/Data Center Track at SNW.
About FCIA
The Fibre Channel Industry Association (FCIA) is a non-profit international organization whose sole purpose is to act as the independent technology and marketing voice of the Fibre Channel industry. We are committed to helping member organizations promote and position Fibre Channel, and to providing a focal point for Fibre Channel information, standards advocacy, and education.
FCIA members include manufacturers, system integrators, developers, vendors, industry professionals, and end users. Our member-led working groups and committees focus on creating and championing the Fibre Channel technology roadmaps, targeting applications that include data storage, video, networking, and storage area network (SAN) management. For more info, go to http://www.fibrechannel.org