STORAGE NETWORKING WORLD, ORLANDO, Fla., Oct. 31 /PRNewswire/ -- The Fibre Channel Industry Association (FCIA) today announced that it will showcase at Storage Networking World (SNW) the superiority that 4GFC holds over emerging technologies including SAS, SATA and iSCSI. With a broad range of 4GFC products on display in the FCIA booth #G2 from the industry's leading vendors, SNW attendees will have the opportunity to witness the performance, tiered storage flexibility and investment protection advantages of 4GFC technology. This "Future Proof your Storage," display will be held at the conference October 31-November 3, 2006 at the JW Marriott Grande Lakes Resort, Orlando, Florida.

"We continue to hear talk throughout the industry about the emergence and promise of multiple new technologies such as SAS and iSCSI, but when you read between the lines, Fibre Channel is still the best technology available to the market today," said Skip Jones, chairman, FCIA.

First introduced in 2005, 4GFC acceptance continues to ramp due to its superior capabilities. 4GFC offers the fastest performance among any storage interface, proven 42% faster than 3 Gb/s SAS. The flexibility of Fibre Channel also enables users to optimize their performance and capacity needs on the same SAN. By implementing an Information Lifecycle Management strategy that intermixes high-performance Fibre Channel drives and high capacity FC-SATA drives in the same solution, users are able to match the needs of their specific applications. Fibre Channel also far exceeds the distance limitations of other technologies, reaching up to 10,000 meters.

By offering full compatibility with past (1GFC and 2GFC) and future (8GFC) purchases, 4GFC also delivers on its promise of investment protection for storage networking customers.

"As Fibre Channel has evolved for more than a decade, the technology has proven over and over again to deliver the performance, investment protection and value to serve a vast range of enterprise users," said Harry Mason, director of industry marketing, Storage Components Group, LSI Logic. "As a provider of 4GFC solutions at every level from custom silicon and ICs to host bus adapters and storage arrays, we are pleased to be participating in this week's FCIA demonstrations showcasing the capabilities of 4GFC and the promise of future generations."

"For more than 10 years, Fibre Channel has been the leading technology for transporting valuable business data in networked storage environments, delivering outstanding performance and value to IT consumers, and we are pleased to be a part the FCIA and the 4GFC ecosystem of vendors," said Dan Crain, Brocade Chief Technology Officer. "Brocade is excited to be showcasing the award-winning SilkWorm(R) 4900 in the FCIA booth. The switch is part of the Brocade 4GFC family of products that range from 8 to 384 ports and are based on a common 4GFC hardware and software architecture."

"Emulex is the market leader in 4GFC HBAs and has been supporting industry advancements and the initiatives being championed through the FCIA since its inception," said Mike Smith, executive vice president of worldwide marketing, Emulex Corporation. "Emulex remains a catalyst for innovation and investment protection, and is the preferred supplier of storage networking solutions to the world's leading OEMs and their data center customers."

"Fujitsu is proud to help lead 4GFC adoption in the marketplace and be part of the efforts to facilitate the FC-SATA initiative while delivering flexible and cost-effective tiered storage solutions," said Mike Fitzpatrick, senior research executive, Fujitsu Computer Products of America, Inc. "The availability of industry leading technology such as the 4GFC and SATA hard disk drive integration ensures users increased data protection and strong competitive market advantage."

"Industry analysts are forecasting more than 50% year-over-year growth in Fibre Channel storage capacity," said Frank Berry, vice president of marketing, QLogic Corporation. "It's not surprising when you consider the backwards compatibility, price and performance of 4GFC solutions. Customers should expect 8GFC to provide them with the same winning formula."

"Industry adoption of 4GFC is picking up steam as IT professionals continue to see a genuine need for increased system bandwidth and performance," said Sherman Black, senior vice president and general manager, Enterprise Compute Business, Seagate. "Seagate's Cheetah hard drives are the industry's standard in providing reliability, performance and capacity to keep up with the voracious storage demands in the enterprise."

"The Fibre Channel storage infrastructure is evolving to address the need for cost-effective tiered storage solutions by enabling seamless integration of SATA hard drives for cost-capacity optimized applications such as e-mail, file and web servers, near-line and disk-based backup systems, said Joel Warford, vice president of marketing, SiliconStor. "SiliconStor is pleased to partner with FCIA storage industry leaders to promote FC-SATA technology as a complement to SiliconStor AAMUX(TM) technology to further accelerate deployment of enterprise-class SATA hard drives in Fibre Channel storage systems optimized for both high reliability and strong value."

"As application requirements and sophistication grows, bandwidth utilization becomes a major concern to IT professionals. Fibre Channel enables users to optimize their performance and capacity needs in the same fabric and at the same time, today's 4GFC offers investment protection by offering a roadmap to 8GFC and backward compatibility for legacy product," said Tim Piper, director of Marketing, Xyratex. "Xyratex is please to be working with the FCIA and its member companies to promote Fibre channel and its value."

About the Fibre Channel Industry Association

The Fibre Channel Industry Association (FCIA) is a nonprofit international organization of manufacturers, systems integrators, developers, systems vendors, industry professionals and end users. With 80 member companies and FCIA affiliates in the United States and Japan, 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, targeting both vertical and horizontal markets including storage, video, networking and SAN management. For more information on FCIA, please visit our web site: http://www.fibrechannel.org/, contact us: info@fibrechannel.org or call 1-415-561-6270.

All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

CONTACT: Sonal Dave of FCIA PR Counsel, +1-949-533-1655, or
sonal@cox.net; or Diane Hughes of LSI Logic Corporation, +1-425-282-5153, or
diane.hughes@lsi.com

Web site: http://www.lsilogic.com/