FCIA Showcases Fibre Channel Superiority at SNW
October 31 2006 - 6:00AM
PR Newswire (US)
Vendors Come Together at SNW to Showcase the Performance and
Flexibility That Makes 4 Gigabit per Second Fibre Channel (4GFC)
the Industry's Top Choice STORAGE NETWORKING WORLD, ORLANDO, Fla.,
Oct. 31 /PRNewswire/ -- The Fibre Channel Industry Association
(FCIA) today announced that it will showcase at Storage Networking
World (SNW) the superiority that 4GFC holds over emerging
technologies including SAS, SATA and iSCSI. With a broad range of
4GFC products on display in the FCIA booth #G2 from the industry's
leading vendors, SNW attendees will have the opportunity to witness
the performance, tiered storage flexibility and investment
protection advantages of 4GFC technology. This "Future Proof your
Storage," display will be held at the conference October
31-November 3, 2006 at the JW Marriott Grande Lakes Resort,
Orlando, Florida. "We continue to hear talk throughout the industry
about the emergence and promise of multiple new technologies such
as SAS and iSCSI, but when you read between the lines, Fibre
Channel is still the best technology available to the market
today," said Skip Jones, chairman, FCIA. First introduced in 2005,
4GFC acceptance continues to ramp due to its superior capabilities.
4GFC offers the fastest performance among any storage interface,
proven 42% faster than 3 Gb/s SAS. The flexibility of Fibre Channel
also enables users to optimize their performance and capacity needs
on the same SAN. By implementing an Information Lifecycle
Management strategy that intermixes high-performance Fibre Channel
drives and high capacity FC-SATA drives in the same solution, users
are able to match the needs of their specific applications. Fibre
Channel also far exceeds the distance limitations of other
technologies, reaching up to 10,000 meters. By offering full
compatibility with past (1GFC and 2GFC) and future (8GFC)
purchases, 4GFC also delivers on its promise of investment
protection for storage networking customers. "As Fibre Channel has
evolved for more than a decade, the technology has proven over and
over again to deliver the performance, investment protection and
value to serve a vast range of enterprise users," said Harry Mason,
director of industry marketing, Storage Components Group, LSI
Logic. "As a provider of 4GFC solutions at every level from custom
silicon and ICs to host bus adapters and storage arrays, we are
pleased to be participating in this week's FCIA demonstrations
showcasing the capabilities of 4GFC and the promise of future
generations." "For more than 10 years, Fibre Channel has been the
leading technology for transporting valuable business data in
networked storage environments, delivering outstanding performance
and value to IT consumers, and we are pleased to be a part the FCIA
and the 4GFC ecosystem of vendors," said Dan Crain, Brocade Chief
Technology Officer. "Brocade is excited to be showcasing the
award-winning SilkWorm(R) 4900 in the FCIA booth. The switch is
part of the Brocade 4GFC family of products that range from 8 to
384 ports and are based on a common 4GFC hardware and software
architecture." "Emulex is the market leader in 4GFC HBAs and has
been supporting industry advancements and the initiatives being
championed through the FCIA since its inception," said Mike Smith,
executive vice president of worldwide marketing, Emulex
Corporation. "Emulex remains a catalyst for innovation and
investment protection, and is the preferred supplier of storage
networking solutions to the world's leading OEMs and their data
center customers." "Fujitsu is proud to help lead 4GFC adoption in
the marketplace and be part of the efforts to facilitate the
FC-SATA initiative while delivering flexible and cost-effective
tiered storage solutions," said Mike Fitzpatrick, senior research
executive, Fujitsu Computer Products of America, Inc. "The
availability of industry leading technology such as the 4GFC and
SATA hard disk drive integration ensures users increased data
protection and strong competitive market advantage." "Industry
analysts are forecasting more than 50% year-over-year growth in
Fibre Channel storage capacity," said Frank Berry, vice president
of marketing, QLogic Corporation. "It's not surprising when you
consider the backwards compatibility, price and performance of 4GFC
solutions. Customers should expect 8GFC to provide them with the
same winning formula." "Industry adoption of 4GFC is picking up
steam as IT professionals continue to see a genuine need for
increased system bandwidth and performance," said Sherman Black,
senior vice president and general manager, Enterprise Compute
Business, Seagate. "Seagate's Cheetah hard drives are the
industry's standard in providing reliability, performance and
capacity to keep up with the voracious storage demands in the
enterprise." "The Fibre Channel storage infrastructure is evolving
to address the need for cost-effective tiered storage solutions by
enabling seamless integration of SATA hard drives for cost-capacity
optimized applications such as e-mail, file and web servers,
near-line and disk-based backup systems, said Joel Warford, vice
president of marketing, SiliconStor. "SiliconStor is pleased to
partner with FCIA storage industry leaders to promote FC-SATA
technology as a complement to SiliconStor AAMUX(TM) technology to
further accelerate deployment of enterprise-class SATA hard drives
in Fibre Channel storage systems optimized for both high
reliability and strong value." "As application requirements and
sophistication grows, bandwidth utilization becomes a major concern
to IT professionals. Fibre Channel enables users to optimize their
performance and capacity needs in the same fabric and at the same
time, today's 4GFC offers investment protection by offering a
roadmap to 8GFC and backward compatibility for legacy product,"
said Tim Piper, director of Marketing, Xyratex. "Xyratex is please
to be working with the FCIA and its member companies to promote
Fibre channel and its value." About the Fibre Channel Industry
Association The Fibre Channel Industry Association (FCIA) is a
nonprofit international organization of manufacturers, systems
integrators, developers, systems vendors, industry professionals
and end users. With 80 member companies and FCIA affiliates in the
United States and Japan, FCIA is committed to delivering a broad
base of Fibre Channel infrastructure to support a wide array of
industry applications within the mass storage and IT-based arenas.
FCIA working groups focus on specific aspects of the technology,
targeting both vertical and horizontal markets including storage,
video, networking and SAN management. For more information on FCIA,
please visit our web site: http://www.fibrechannel.org/, contact
us: or call 1-415-561-6270. All trademarks are the property of
their respective owners. DATASOURCE: Fibre Channel Industry
Association (FCIA) CONTACT: Sonal Dave of FCIA PR Counsel,
+1-949-533-1655, or ; or Diane Hughes of LSI Logic Corporation,
+1-425-282-5153, or Web site: http://www.lsilogic.com/
Copyright