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So what will it be -- Fibre Channel or Gigabit Ethernet? Seems like a pretty arcane question to anyone who isn't buried deep inside the info tech field. But the answer will affect the fortunes of millions of shareholders and dozens of companies scrapping for turf in the sizzling data-storage area.
Fibre Channel and Gigabit Ethernet are the two nascent protocols for moving data to and from storage networks and storage devices -- the places where companies safeguard the reams of data spawned by a networked world. Companies are demanding faster delivery of larger quantities of data over fatter pipes, and the storing of that data in easily and quickly accessible systems permits quick record retrieval, speedy Web browsing, and more.
It's becoming clear to many companies that they must upgrade their storage networks -- and soon. Nick Allen, a vice-president at consultancy Gartner Group, says many of his customers used to ask him why they should invest in a new storage networking technology. But that was last year. "I haven't gotten that question this year. That's because Fibre Channel and Ethernet are much more of a reality now," says Allen.
FLEXIBLE TRANSPORT.
So what should every CEO know about the differences between Fibre Channel and Gigabit Ethernet? Fibre Channel emerged in the early 1990s from industry groups seeking to spiff up data movement in storage networks. The protocol provides reliable delivery of data with very little error tolerance. It dedicates a certain amount of bandwidth for each connection between a file or Web server and a storage device. When the connection is idle, so is the bandwidth.
That's no big deal if bandwidth is abundant, an increasingly common situation. On opposite ends of the connection are two buffers that accept data in a number of formats. This allows for very flexible transport of different types of data streams.
Gigabit Ethernet came out of the existing Ethernet standard, a protocol used for decades in many local area networks (LANs) that make up the guts of most small and midsize business networks. In 1997, engineers put together a higher-level protocol that would provide for much faster data streams. Although the current speed limit is about 1 gigabit per second, researchers believe they could top 10 gbps sometime in the near future. Gigabit Ethernet is a hybrid of Fibre Channel and the old Ethernet architecture, with some of the optimal characteristics of both but also some crucial differences.
"WOULDN'T IT BE NICE?"
Unlike Fibre Channel, Gigabit Ethernet assumes that some data errors will occur in transport, and thus it requires added software to correct for mismatched or lost data packets. Whereas Fibre Channel uses a dedicated bandwidth space, Gigabit Ethernet shares a network line with numerous devices -- not just the storage device and a server. Although that optimizes use of bandwidth, it also means that bandwidth may not always be accessible for transport of data to and from the storage devices.
Each system has its advantages. Since Ethernet is such a popular protocol, analysts believe companies will have an easier time using it, as well as finding employees to manage Gigabit Ethernet storage systems. "With Ethernet, there are a lot of people that know it. And people are a big issue. If you're going to build a big network, wouldn't it be nice to have people know how to run it?" says John Roy at Merrill Lynch.
But the software needed for data correction in Gigabit Ethernet gobbles up computer speed and power, and can slow down storage and server systems. Furthermore, Gigabit Ethernet is not as good at shipping massive blocks of data as Fibre Channel. So for now, Fibre Channel provides a superior technology for streaming media and other processes that require movement of very large masses of data. But the sheer speed of Gigabit Ethernet might be enough to overcome that disadvantage.
THIRD WAY.
Gartner's Allen says Fibre Channel holds a three-to-five-year lead over the competing protocol. But Fibre Channel systems that come from different vendors often have difficulty communicating with each other. That poses problems if it's to become a common standard in the future. And it explains why Sun Microsystems, IBM, Cisco Systems, and Compaq Computer have thrown their weight behind development of the Ethernet protocol in recent days. That has added a bit of urgency to the Fibre Channel camp's efforts to work the bugs out of its system. "What's happening is, they're saying, 'If we don't get our act together in the Fibre Channel area, we're going to get creamed,'" says Merrill Lynch's Roy.
To be sure, neither Fibre Channel nor Gigabit Ethernet yet hold dominant positions in storage networks. Most companies are still using older, more basic storage systems that don't involve exotic protocols. But most analysts expect that will quickly change, as the older and slower protocols give way to these two up-and-coming challengers.
Down the road, Allen and others see a third protocol as a possible contender. Called Infiniband, it's still in its infancy, however. "It's too soon to tell who's going to rule. But I think the future is united technology, where you can put any protocol on any transport medium and you can optimize to solve what your problems are," says Gary L. Phillips, a manager at Compaq and the secretary of the Storage Networking Industry Assn.
For his part, Roy sees Gigabit Ethernet having a solid edge, given the companies flocking toward its easily understood and distributed technology. But in a report Roy co-authored in May, he recommended that investors place bets on companies embracing both major standards. For what it's worth, the big companies in the storage space appear to be heeding Roy's advice: None of the major players have put all their chips on one technology or the other.
Copyright 2000 , by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
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