When Cisco first introduced FCoE in 2008 we knew that it was going to be the foundation for something very powerful in the data center.FCoE combined the best of both worlds in the Data Center -EthernetandFibre Channel storage -and allow them to run side-by-side using the same wire. It's a very simple concept, but with broad-reachingandprofound implications: now, instead of needing two wires, you only need one. Instead of needing two different types of switches, you only need one.And now FCoE is been recognized by our customersandindustry peers as Market Leader andvoted no.1 for 5th time!

IT Brand Pulse, today announced the results of brand leader surveys conducted in January 2014 covering Servers, Converged Systems and Converged Networking.  Survey respondents were asked which vendors they perceive as the leader in thirteen product categories. For each category, respondents chose the brand leader in Market, Price, Performance, Reliability, Service and Support, and Innovation.

For FCoE Switches,Ciscoestablished brand leadership for thefifth consecutive yearwith an all-encompassing win inMarket, Price,Performance, Reliability, Service & Support and Innovation 

Ciscoalso took over the Embedded Blade Server NetworkingMarketspot for the first time in several years, and IT pro perceptions also showed Cisco as the Performance, Reliability, Service & Support and Innovationleader. Market share leaderNetApp/Cisco FlexPodextended its reach into the brand awards by being tapped as the Converged SystemMarket, Performance, Reliability, Service & Support and Innovationchampion.

The FCoE is growing and some of our key customers lovethe agility, efficiency, responsiveness, and cost savings that FCoE offers. FCoE benefits include:

• High-Performance scalable storage
• Support any traffic type with wire-once agility
• Reduce the number of adapters, cables, and network devices as well cut power costs
• Simplify management with reduced footprint
• Preserve investment in existing FC SANs

FCoE Review Video  by J Metz

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RflATcqkAwM

"With Cisco solutions, we are utilizing the cores better, and increasing I/O with fewer cables and fewer switches. This consolidation means we use less floor space and power, as well as cut cooling costs." "With the Cisco OS, commands for managing the IP and FC sides of the house are very similar. This is critical because people with the skill sets to manage both tasks individually are very rare and very expensive. However, we can now use our existing personnel to manage both IP and FCoE resources quickly and efficiently, increasing their value within the company!"  -Dennis Kuehn, Technical Fellow at Boeing Defense System

"The new converged infrastructure provides us with a single architecture that is supported by one team. It will support anything that customers want to host, both today and tomorrow, and allow us to differentiate our services for improving our competitive advantage." -Tomoyuki Higashi, Assistant to GM, Cloud Service Marketing & Development at  ITOCHU Techno-Solutions Corporation

" It's quite impressive if you look at the server cabinets. You don't see that many cables because of FCoE and virtualization. Management has been simplified, and data center vendors have been reduced from ten to two" Lothar Hofmann, Member of the networking team , University of Siegen

More facts about FCoE!

With nearly two dozen products supporting converged LAN and SAN deployments, Cisco is a leader in providing both choice and value for server and storage connectivity !

• FCoE -it's all about providing customer choices, it's about multiprotocol convergence, it's about scale and it's about intelligence.  The same Ethernet connectivity can be used for NFS, CIFS, iSCSI, and FCoE.
• FCoE is pervasive:  Almost all major storage vendors support  FCoE.  The FCoE ecosystem is getting larger every day -most of the DC switch vendors currently support it today or have it on their near-term road map, and all major server vendors support FCoE today.

FCoE continues to gain momentum.  Customers from all industry verticals now use FCoE -here are a few customers that enjoy FCoE and gain efficiency in their DC.

• • How Cisco IT Consolidates I/O in the Data Center
  • University of Siegen Empowering Education and Advanced Research
  • Human Kinetics Optimizes Data Center, Improves Performance
  • AmWINS Group Improves Scalability and Enhances Services
  • Cisco Nexus, with unified fabric, helps GE Money Bank boost application availability and cut network port provisioning
  • City of Pforzheim, Germany, simplified the virtualized environment and realized cost savings by deploying FCoE over 10GBASE-T.
  • DataOne Asia builds its CloudSecure computing platform with Cisco Data Center and Virtualization
  • NetApp Engineering Shared Infrastructure Services (ESIS) Becomes Compatible with Future Systems
  • Xerox: Process and Document Leader Improves Cloud Services Delivery
  • Boeing Boosts Network Performance While Reducing Costs

To learn more about FCoE visit: www.cisco.com/go/FCoE

Tony Antony
Sr Marketing Manager, Datacenter and Cloud