In the world of industry standards, we usually see 2-4 year spec development cycles, followed by 1-2 year product and market development cycles, followed by 1-2 year early adopter cycles … and finally (maybe) mainstream deployment. It’s usually a long process that, in itself, doesn’t guarantee ubiquity. For that you also need the commitment of a critical mass of vendors, a genuine customer need (an economic imperative), and deployment scenarios that complement existing investments.
In comparison, FCoE seems to be moving at lightening speed (see my blogs from December 3 ‘07, December 15 ‘08, January 14 ‘09, March 17 ’09 here and June 4 ‘09). Less than two months after spec approval we are already seeing second–generation product announcements (from NetApp, Brocade and QLogic), complete with early adopter testimonials. Expect to see more in the coming months.
FCoE seems to have arrived in the right place at the right time. 10 Gigabit Ethernet deployment is now in the mainstream and growing fast. FCoE has the strong support of the Fibre Channel infrastructure vendors. It enables IT organizations to dramatically simplify and take cost out of their data center network at a time when almost all organizations are revisiting their infrastructure strategy. And it enables an orderly transition over time of the SAN to an Ethernet-based unified network, without requiring existing Fibre Channel storage to be ripped and replaced.
I promised I myself I wouldn’t use the hackneyed phrase “a perfect storm” -- but I really can’t resist…
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