Many companies have not yet deployed SANs in their data centers. They will likely look to iSCSI because it has been around the block and is a proven technology, with decreased cost and a lesser learning curve than FC switched fabric. However are Ethernet and twisted pair near the end of its roadmap for bandwidth? CAT7 requires more costly shielded twisted pair and before you know it we’ll be back to fiber. Why aren’t we hearing more about Infiniband? It seems to have great potential for low-latency big-bandwidth. Is it fear of the unknown, is it too new? With its open standard, it may do for interconnections what LTO did for tape drives.

I think iSCSI is great for many companies and will continue to spread tremendously in new implementations. Smart SAN manufacturers will make arrays that support both FC and iSCSI if they haven’t already. This will take us into 2009 or so when people will wonder why they didn’t invest in an Infiniband array. I think SANs should start being offered with iSCSI and Infiniband, or FC and Infiniband, or perhaps all three! I’m not sure I see a good fit for FCoE. I would pursue Infiniband instead.

The only way that won’t take off is if the storage market follows the path of mobile technology; consumers may give up quality in pursuit of convenience. It’s possible that convergence technology such FCoCEE (Fibre Channel over Convergence Enhanced Ethernet) may take off, but I personally don’t see it. Companies will deploy iSCSI before diving into unproven convergence technology and risk their data network integrity.