Louie, you wrote:
<< The IBM connection.
nwfusion.com
>>IBM to tout Fibre Channel server options
By Marc Songini
Network World, 4/13/98
IBM is looking to boost backbone connectivity options for users by adding support for
Fibre Channel across its line of servers.
By year-end, the firm is ex-pected to add Fibre Channel interface boards to everything
from its mainframes to its NetFinity servers.
IBM is also expected to add Fibre Channel support to its 9729 Optical Wavelength
Division Multiplexer and to resell a communications device from Ancor Communications,
Inc. that will let users link Fibre Channel servers to Gigabit Ethernet backbones.
Until now, IBM has supported Fibre Channel on its RS/6000 servers running AIX and on
its RS/6000-based Scalable Power parallel processing servers.
Fibre Channel is a network technology that can support data throughput speeds in excess
of 100M bit/sec. It has typically been used to link big servers with high-speed storage
devices or to cluster servers to support high-bandwidth applications.
IBM intends to join Digital Equipment Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., Data General Corp.
and EMC Corp. with a line of Fibre Channel products.
IBM's Global Services division is so enamored of Fibre Channel it recently installed
Ancor's GigWorks Fibre Channel switches to move hundreds of terabytes of data every
night from IBM's Research Triangle Park, N.C., facility to a central backup center.
"1998 will be the year for Fibre Channel," said Ron Howell, network architect at IBM
Global Services. Howell is interested in using Ancor's switch in his net to connect
workgroups demanding high-speed, wide-bandwidth communications to the backbone.
Howell said Fibre Channel products have load-balancing and automatic failover capacities
that are critical to most company's operations. "We can't have our applications down for
even one second," he said.
By adding Fibre Channel support to its server line, IBM is trying to cash in on the growing
trend to cluster servers, analysts said. Fibre Channel also offers a much more powerful
way to link external storage to a server than today's SCSI interfaces. SCSI supports the
clustering of at most two servers; Fibre Channel lets users link any number of servers to
storage units.
While Fibre Channel products have been available for years, analysts note, their popularity
has only now begun to grow.
Others said Fibre Channel still has a long way to go before it is considered a mainstream
backbone technology.
"Instances of people running Fibre Channel to the desktop are as common as people
getting struck by lightning while riding UFOs," said Tom Nolle, president of CIMI Corp., a
consultancy in Voorhees, N.J.
As for Ancor, the firm will be announcing a product that lets users tie Fibre Channel
products to a Gigabit Ethernet backbone. The unnamed device will convert Gigabit
Ethernet frames into Fibre Channel and vice versa, Ancor said. Executives at the firm did
not disclose the name of its device but said it would cost between $8,000 and $10,000 and
would be on display at the upcoming NetWorld+Interop 98 trade show. <<
Regards
Louie>>
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Louie, thanks for posting the article/link. Rather than shoot from the hip like SI people love to do, I have been doing some digging in past weeks and based on info from Industry sources ( NOT Ancor ), my take is the following:
IMHO, this news with IGS is bigger than most on SI can comprehend.
IGS has assets in many countries, including Europe, US, Canada, Asia, Latin America, Australia, South America, etc, practically every corner of the world. IGS provides mostly commercial customers with a complete end to end solutions, including Internet dial, private IP dial(customers only can access their own company LAN),host applications, servers support, Networking support etc. IGS itself has a couple thousand ( +/-) RS/6000s, plus many more it supports throughout the world. It has a hugh marketing force which integrates large to small enterprise networks into IGS's backbone as well as computing resources. Its endorsement of Ancor's switch is like a stamp of approval ( assuming you believe in the accuracy of the article..I have no idea since I have not spoken to any Ancor person for at least a month ). It means a steady revenue stream which will come with the next generation of IBM FC products. Stay tuned.
The IGS relationship is not to be confused with any potential IBM Storage OEM opportunity which may or may not exist this year. IF IBM decides to do an OEM(s) deal with a FC switch vendor, I think we are 1-2 quarters away from any decision(s) but I could be wrong. Roy Sardina spoke months ago about Brocade selling IBM a stripped down 8 port switch at $1,000/port..That seems rather expensive to me, but for all I know, Roy could be right. He was bang-on about Storage Technology ( STK ) going with Brocade, however I believe the line he is getting from Sun about developing their own FC switch is wrong. Brocade won Sun. End of story. Also, any EMC FC switch is likely to be a McData switch for obvious reasons. |
