Customers needing storage connectivity at speeds > 1Gbps usually contact us first about iSCSI options and are hesitant to even entertain a FC proposition. These customers cite cost and future-proofing as their objections to a FC fabric. While Storage Networks deploys a large number of iSCSI SANs as they are the most flexible and cost effective solutions for many applications, we would like to spend some time dispelling myths about Fibre Channel because we are confident that native Fibre Channel SANs will capture a significant market share right beside 10GB HBA for at least another decade.
If you don’t have a dedicated 10GB HBA, the server CPU must perform the TCP/IP encapsulation. If you have an HBA such as the QLogic QLE8240 mentioned above, a TOE (TCP/IP Offload Engine) chip on the 10GB HBA takes care of this so the server does not have to. This is why we did not choose the cheapest 10GbE network adapter in our cost comparison. Depending on the speed of the server CPU and/or the quality of the chosen NIC, performance degradation due to TCP/IP encapsulation can be signification.