I/O Consolidation in the Data Center: A Complete Guide to Data Center Ethernet and Fibre Channel Over Ethernet

by Silvano Gai, Claudio DeSanti

Using Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and related technologies, data centers can consolidate data traffic onto a single network switch, simplifying their environments, promoting virtualization, and substantially reducing power and cooling costs. This emerging technology is drawing immense excitement, but few enterprise IT decision-makers and implementers truly understand it. I/O Consolidation in the Data Center is the only complete, up-to-date guide to FCoE. FCoE innovators Silvano Gai and Claudio DeSanti (chair of the T11 FCoE standards working group) systematically explain the its benefits, tradeoffs, and what it will take to implement it successfully in production environments. Unlike most other discussions of FCoE, this book fully reflects the final, recently-approved industry standard. The authors also present five detailed case studies illustrating typical FCoE adoption scenarios, as well as an extensive Q and A section addressing the issues enterprise IT professionals raise most often. This is a fully updated version of Silvano Gai's privately-published book on FCoE, written for leading FCoE pioneer Nuova Systems before the company was acquired by Cisco. Nearly 12,000 copies of that book have already been distributed, demonstrating the immense interest in FCoE technology, and the scarcity of reliable information that has existed about it.

Genres: Technology

168 pages, Paperback

First published September 8, 2009

Reviews

[Theo · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent book, well structured, good depth of content, well written, and the right length. I finished this book feeling that I have a much better understanding of data center Ethernet and Fibre Channel over Ethernet and the technologies that work in conjunction with them. Additionally, I feel the book contains the information I will need to reference on this technology in the future. Said another way, this book is not just an 'I/O Consolidation 101', but also a reference book I am likely to use again.

The simple but effective structure consists of Chapter 1: I/O Consolidation Summary, Chapter 2: Enabling Technologies, Chapter 3: FCoE, and Chapter 4: Case Studies. This quickly builds the readers knowledge and gives a depth of understanding that I found rather pleasing for only having to read 168 pages.

The format is very dense (not verbose), but with enough good examples to solidify concepts in the mind. I would ensure anyone reading this book has a solid understanding of TCP/IP networking to get the most from this book. This being said, I don't think you need a deep understanding in Fibre Channel as the authors adequately explain this technology.

[Truong Son]

I think this books very important with me