DataCore announced support for native Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) connectivity for its its SANmelody and SANsymphony storage virtualisation solutions.
The company has added the Emulex and Brocade FCoE converged network adapters (CNAs) and Cisco Nexus 5000 Series switches to its FCoE-qualified support list.
FCoE software drivers are currently available for Microsoft Windows and VMware ESX/vSphere.
FCoE is a new way of using Ethernet in data centres. It is primarily used to consolidate back-end cables in a data centre – enabling network administrators to use the Ethernet infrastructure for FC and IP protocols. What is needed to make it work is a converged network adapter (CNA), which serves as an FCoE card, along with a network switch.
According to DataCore, their customers can now transition to an FCoE infrastructure while still supporting existing Fibre Channel investments.
Customers can run both FCoE and IP traffic through the same port and on the same wire, eliminating the need and expense for separate SAN and LAN adapters and cables.
The ability to run FC protocol over existing Ethernet cabling is significant for network administration, the company claims. It means that administrators do not need to have a separate network for running Fibre Channel protocol.
Augie Gonzalez, director of product marketing in DataCore stated that their customers can take advantage of FCoE in their “highly scalable, non-stop storage pools without having to replace or modify their existing back-end storage, which may well include DAS, iSCSI and Fibre Channel interfaces.”
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