Fibre Channel
Fibre Channel is a high-speed network technology primarily used for storage area networks (SANs), providing reliable, low-latency data transfer between servers and storage devices. It operates over optical fiber or copper cabling and supports protocols like SCSI and NVMe to enable block-level storage access. The technology is standardized by the T11 committee and is widely deployed in enterprise data centers for mission-critical applications.
Developers should learn Fibre Channel when working in enterprise environments that require high-performance, scalable, and fault-tolerant storage solutions, such as in financial services, healthcare, or large-scale databases. It is essential for roles involving SAN management, storage infrastructure design, or applications demanding consistent I/O performance, as it offers features like zoning, fabric services, and lossless data delivery. Use cases include virtualization clusters, backup systems, and high-availability setups where storage reliability is paramount.