RE: iFCP as an IP Storage Work Item

["Y P Cheng" <ycheng@advansys.com>]

> While it is easy to say that as a vendor it should be possible for them to
> support iSCSI, iFCP and FCIP protocols, the cost of developing a solution
> that addresses all three (which includes not just product development but
> testing, certifying and validating interoperable solutions) is something
> that we as a vendor would not like to be drawn into. If you think
> this is a business reason, and should be ignored, we
> disagree with that opinion.

I have been trying to avoid taking side on this iFCP vs. FCIP debate on the
technical merits.  May be I can take my technical hat off and debate on the
business merits.

No, the world does not need two standards and the IPS WG should force the
issue.  While companies will always do their own, the mission of a standard
committee is to find one and only one standard to make everyone's life
easier.  Failing to do so does not serve this community.

If FCIP is good enough, why do I need iFCP?  Do I really need the
scalability of 4 billion fibre channel nodes visible to me?  For Internet
domain names I may need IPv6, but, for storage devices?  24-bits of D_ID
with 16 million nodes are a lot of addresses.  I do understand perfectly if
one wishes to dominate the FC switch market.  As a consumer, this is not my
concern unless one can provide me alternatives with a much lower costs.

As a customer, all I care is to have the ability to access storage devices
on IP network at lower cost.  I don't care the standard as long as there is
one that gives me choices of low-cost vendors.  Many people even believe
among the networks of Ethernet, Fibre Channel, and InfiniBand, there will be
only one winner.   Therefore, among iFCP, FCIP, and iSCSI, please give me
just one.  Having said that, I do believe we need fibre channel before
Ethernet folks taking over the world while InfiniBand lurks on the horizon.
ISA was wonderful until EISA comes along.  VESA was great until PCI appears.
Now PCI-X and InfiniBand. We all suffer through technology transitions.
Therefore, the last thing we need is to have another standard even before we
start.  Don't repeat VHS and Beta.  I still have a lots of tapes in Beta
format.