|
San Francisco - April 10, 2002 -The Fibre Channel
Industry Association (FCIA) announced today that it successfully
completed its recent large group test period. Various FCIA
member organizations collaborated to demonstrate the ability
of Fibre Channel to support multiple protocols and integrate
Fibre Channel with general-purpose Ethernet networks. This
open industry sponsored "Plugfest" was attended
by 16 hardware and software companies. The purpose of this
event was to demonstrate the true capability of Fibre Channel
as a complete multi-protocol network infrastructure, as well
as support everyday business network applications such as
streaming media, Internet access, and Ethernet LAN printing—directly
from a Fibre Channel fabric.
The following multi-vendor networking capabilities were
demonstrated: streaming video; accessing the public Internet
by Fibre Channel attached computer platforms (while seamlessly
integrating with Gigabit Ethernet); Storage Area Network/Local
Area Network (SAN/LAN) printing; and creating a multi-switch
fabric to deliver a SAN configuration for both disk and tape
applications.
According to Chris Lyon, FCIA executive director, "Watching
companies come together at this FCIA sponsored event was very
rewarding. Even among competitors, there was a cooperative
spirit in the air. We saw that 1 and 2 Gigabit interoperability
is very solid, and that multiple protocols run smoothly over
a Fibre Channel fabric. Switch vendors also came together
to build a large fabric and deliver an interoperable SAN configuration."
Representatives from the following companies participated
in this event:
Agilent Technologies: www.agilent.com
Brocade Communications:
www.brocade.com
Finisar: www.finisar.com
Gadzoox: www.gadzoox.com
HP: www.hp.com
Hitachi Data systems: www.hitachi.com
I-tech: www.i-tech.com
IBM: www.us.ibm.com
INRANGE Technology: www.inrange.com
McDATA: www.mcdata.com
Mylex: www.mylex.com
Qlogic: www.qlc.com
RaidTec: www.raidtec.com
SANcastle: www.sancastle.com
Seagate: www.seagate.com
University of New Hampshire InterOperability Lab: www.iol.unh.edu
Vixel Corp: www.vixel.com
Next plugfest scheduled
The next FCIA-sponsored Plugfest is scheduled for July 15th.
The focus of this event will be extending 1-2 Gigabit interoperability
across the fabric and remote back-up across Fibre Channel
and the LAN. For more information about this important event,
please contact Bill Martin at: bmartin@brocade.com.
About the FCIA
The Fibre Channel Industry Association (FCIA) is an international
organization of manufacturers, systems integrators, developers,
systems vendors, industry professionals, and end users. With
more than 190 members and affiliates in the United States,
Europe and Japan, the FCIA is committed to delivering a broad
base of Fibre Channel infrastructure to support a wide array
of industry applications within the mass storage and IT-based
arenas. FCIA Working Groups focus on specific aspects of the
technology that target both vertical and horizontal markets,
including storage, video, networking and SAN Management. For
information, please contact the Fibre Channel Industry Association
at (415) 750-8355 or via e-mail atinfo@fibrechannel.org,
or visit the FCIA web site at http://www.fibrechannel.org.
|