The point is, VFrame makes no differentiation between storage and networking, just like Cisco itself.  Look across the rest of Cisco’s storage product line and if you squint hard enough you might be looking at their network line!  This was Cisco’s big contribution to the storage industry: bringing along everything they learn about networking.  For some reason, the rest of the Fibre Channel equipment makers were unable to take the lessons from networking and apply them to storage until Cisco came along.

Cisco’s new switch hardware continues to blur the line between storage and networking.  Although storage products are still separated from network equipment within the company, it’s clear that there’s a lot of technology sharing going on.  I wonder if the advent of 10 gigabit Ethernet will cause the two product lines to come even closer.

Clearly, it’s difficult to differentiate the products – just read the Byte and Switch article about Cisco’s announcement and watch James Rogers “seamlessly” blend Fibre Channel and Ethernet!  Yeah, yeah, like I’ve never made a mistake before!

Edit: Yup, I guess Raffo and the rest are alive – Byte and Switch swapped out the references to “4 gbit/s Ethernet”…

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2007. | Is Storage Really That Different?
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