Unifying the Network

Recent news from Cisco has started what some experts foresee as a major shakeup that will significantly alter the landscape of network equipment vendors. The industry giant’s move to “Unify, simplify, amplify” communications networks is based on a strategic change of focus, with Cisco announcing that it will begin offering products that will directly compete with segments of its current customer base. To characterize this move solely as Cisco entering the server market, however, is to perhaps underestimate its near-term impact.

Consider that one of the primary value propositions of FCoE is unification of the network. Rather than have to maintain distinct storage and data network infrastructures, organizations will be able to deploy a single, logical network using virtualization and Ethernet as underlying technologies. However, while bridging networks across a single interface will simplify network access from an application standpoint, such unification is only possible through added complexity introduced into the network hardware itself.

One of the challenges for designers of next-generation network equipment will be in implementing this added complexity so as to be transparent to network administrators. If integrating equipment from different vendors presents too many problems, FCoE adoption will stall. From this perspective, Cisco’s announcement can be seen as an attempt, yes, to expand its market scope, but also to simplify deployment through unification at both the hardware and management software level. Put another way, by offering a system comprised of servers and fabrics, network administrators will not have to purchase various components and integrate them together as these issues will already have been taken care of. For example, Cisco’s new backplane consolidates myriad cables to a single cable. Additionally, a single system could house thousands of virtual servers. Without question, the drive to unify the network is changing how networks are being designed and deployed. FCoE is playing a key role in enabling this unification from a network perspective.

Certainly there is much that is controversial with this approach. There is also the question, as these systems come to market, of whether such systems will support existing infrastructure or interoperate only with a limited subset of available equipment that requires a more homogenous (i.e., single vendor) implementation.

Regardless of whether one views Cisco’s announcement as a prelude to a vendor shake down or as a welcome push to increase the momentum behind FCoE, it is clear that this industry leader is serious in its commitment to FCoE. For a technology that is already very promising given the benefits it brings to next-generation data centers, such strong support from the number one network equipment vendor can only mean accelerated adoption.