But to many, the exchange between the two groups was indicative of a standards leadership void. And many thought that no-one was setting any standards at all, despite protestations from the key players. It also became more apparent that the speed of the network had increased faster than the speed of the data channel. The Fibre Alliance and SNIA were struggling with setting standards for Fibre Channel technology that doubled in speed from 100 megabytes per second to 200 megabytes per second. That, coupled with Gigabit Ethernet soon to jump to 10 Gbps, made the need to concentrate on one evolving standard more necessary than ever.
Standards depend on the customer That was then, and a lot of bridge building has been done since.
Storage vendors should be in a better position to meet a wide range of requirements just so long as new standards are adopted and quickly. Standards have to be driven by customers' needs. There aren't a lot of storage area networks in place at the moment and that has meant standardisation has been driven by technology rather than by what is wanted by customers. In addition, it will allow innovative independent software vendors to add greater functionality to San-based systems. The SNIA also aims to be an independent arbiter of San interoperability, having grabbed the nettle of establishing an independent test facility.