Making the Transition to Converged Storage and Data Networks

Storage and data network convergence holds the promise to transform the data center and make it a more cost effective operation for the Enterprise. There is the potential for considerable savings as a result of reducing the number of network interface cards per server, reducing cabling, and lowering the power and cooling draw, as well as having one less physical network to manage. The change is made possible by the capability to transport Fiber Channel frames over 10 GB Ethernet using Fiber Channel over Ethernet technology. Making the transition isn’t an easy task though. Let’s take a look at some of the considerations and how the transition can be made more easily.

The value of converging networks using FCoE is compelling and many organizations are considering making the move to FCoE but the question is how to do it without disrupting operations. For organizations that are building new data centers and consolidating older ones the answer is easy. They can just build an FCoE capable network in the new data center and migrate their applications and storage over to the new infrastructure. The more difficult situation is what to do if you need to convert an existing production network and cut over to FCoE live? This is where it gets interesting.