Fibre Channel Technology: Disruptive, Yes; Diminishing, No - Industry Trend or Event

Computer Technology Review, Oct, 2000 by Mark Ferelli

I think it's high time to do some clearer thinking about the status of Fibre Channel technology. Ever since the rise of alternatives to Fibre Channel in storage networking, such as Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, and a host of IP-based options, some very rough things have been said about the technology.

One financial analyst, commenting in a major newspaper in the aftermath of the Emulex press release hoax, referred to Fibre Channel as a "sunset technology." I presume this means a technology that has grown to its maximum and is now diminishing in the face of alternative technology choices. Fibre Channel diminishing? I don't think so.

Fibre Channel technology is what is known as a disruptive technology, I think. This is by no means a bad thing. And the fact that FC is a disruptive technology does not mean that it is fading into the financial community's sunset.

The term 'disruptive technology' comes from a book by Clayton Christensen called "The Innovator's Dilemma". It refers to technologies that at first appear to be more expensive, not as functional (in its early days), but have this arcane characteristic that has them growing at a very rapid rate. For very rapid, sometimes read exponential. (How many believe that the entire mass storage industry is disruptive by this definition? Me, too.)

I suggest that FC is such a technology. It is expensive...calculated at about $800 per port according to IDC. Whether FC is less or more functional is largely in the mind of the potential user, who is faced with a decision. The user wants to upgrade to storage networking. FC technology is here, now and available, but it requires an overhaul of the IT infrastructure. Finally, FC continues to grow healthily by just about any measure you care to apply.

It is also disruptive in the sense that it has helped conventional thinking about mass storage undergo a tremendous revolution. Fibre Channel and SANs may not be the same thing, but there are functional solutions out there, making a difference in performance and throughput and applications efficiency that can thank FC as a crucial enabler.

I'm going to amend the definition of disruptive by suggesting that disruptive technologies are typically newer technologies. This goes hand in hand with the characteristic that there be a rapid growth rate. Fibre Channel is a newer technology; far from the sunset, FC has barely come into the light of day. FC continues to mature...the report that the industry has achieved switch interoperability is a critical indicator that the technology is stepping forward. Competition and economies of scale will reduce the price per port over time. Whether it will get to the Ethernet per port price of $200 is anybody's guess...check with your favorite market research analyst.

So, Fibre Channel is disruptive in the sense of being an enabling technology that has created new thinking about storage and peripheral connectivity. Those who believe that the technology is fading into the sunset have not done their homework. But just as FC is not fading, it cannot be considered the only route to storage networking anymore. FC vendors cannot afford to believe their own publicity in the face of high-speed SCSI, Ethernet, and IP options. FC is not an uber-solution sweeping everything before it. That kind of arrogance is out of place and needs to be discarded.

I've identified FC as a maturing technology, a Wednesday's child that has far to go. Currently, using FC as the SAN interconnect strategy entails retraining of IT staff, investment in a reworked wiring plant, new hardware, and the deployment of a second network for out of band management of connected nodes. Development of management tools also continues. I don't believe that there is a peripheral I/O technology that didn't have similar problems when establishing presence and usefulness in the marketplace.

What does this all mean, then? First, it means that FC technology is alive and living, maturing and in deployment. It is following a growth path that is likely to overcome its current suite of challenges and limitations. But this also means that FC has serious competition to consider, and must approach the IT marketplace as a solution...a good solution...but not the only solution.