Virtualization · Hardware · Networking
Fibre Channel
Also known as: FC, SAN, Fibre Channel SAN
Fibre Channel is a high-speed networking protocol purpose-built for storage area networks (SANs), offering lower latency and higher throughput than iSCSI but requiring dedicated FC hardware and switches.
Fibre Channel predates iSCSI and was the dominant enterprise SAN protocol for decades. It runs on dedicated FC infrastructure — FC host bus adapters (HBAs) in servers, FC switches (not standard Ethernet switches), and FC-attached storage arrays — rather than sharing Ethernet with other network traffic.
The result is deterministic, low-latency block storage access that doesn't compete with other network traffic. In the largest enterprise environments and data centers, FC SANs remain common for the most latency-sensitive workloads.
FC vs iSCSI
For most organizations today, iSCSI is the practical choice:
- iSCSI runs on existing 10/25G Ethernet infrastructure
- No separate FC switches or HBAs required
- Software initiators are free and built into all major OSes
- Performance gap with FC has narrowed significantly at 10/25G
Fibre Channel makes sense when:
- You're already invested in FC infrastructure
- You have extreme latency or throughput requirements
- Your storage vendor's FC support is better than their iSCSI support
New greenfield deployments rarely choose FC unless there's a compelling workload reason. iSCSI (or NVMe-oF for highest performance) is the current direction for shared block storage.