Networking vendors may promise that end-to-end Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) is ready for primetime, but users are still largely split on the matter.

FCoE supporters say that IT shops can start with the technology at the edge, but will very soon be able to pull that convergence throughout every rack using 10 Gigabit Ethernet technology and data center bridging. Yet disbelievers say that Ethernet is not nearly reliable enough for storage traffic and that running end-to-end FCoE requires far too much engineering.

In this point-counterpoint feature, two storage and networking experts, Stuart Miniman of the technology forum Wikibon and Stephen Foskett of Gestalt IT and Tech Field Day, take on the FCoE issue from opposing views. Read both sides and see which one you support.

Stuart Miniman's point: