What are the drawbacks of Fibre Channel compared to iSCSI?
Fibre Channel is still viewed as an alien architecture. It requires special training and high-priced expertise to keep a Fibre Channel fabric operational. Fibre Channel also requires its own management software, which is not fully integrated with mainstream IP network management. So, although Fibre Channel fabrics have many technical strengths, overall they require additional skill sets and tools. IP storage protocols such as iSCSI, iFCP and iSNS integrate directly into mainstream IP networking. Every company has a trained IP network staff, familiar with IP routing and Gigabit Ethernet switches. All other data types are being merged into IP networks, including voice and video. From an IT administrator’s standpoint, IP storage is just one more variety of IP data that can be run over a familiar and strongly supported infrastructure.
