VLANs and VSANs and...

Recent posts discussed the correctness of the term Virtualization in it's current use. Also the post on the "Storage Virtualization" which should actually be called some form of "Volume Manager" made me think of the next storage related network. The File Area Network, in which the file management problems are to be handled. I've been doing some reading in the new Brocade pocket book which I got at a recent "Brocade Fusion Tour" seminar, and this tought me that most file management issues are in the Windows environment. Where else I immediately thought. We all know that there are already several products which claim to handle the large volumes of files we all seem to have problems with. There's enough NAS gateways/files or other solutions out there to choose from, but that's actually not what I am aiming at.

The previous posts, and the Brocade booklet lead me to the following:
At first we had Local Area Networks, then Cisco (I believe it was) came with VLAN's.
Later the Storage Area Networks emerged, and Cisco thought we all needed VSAN's. Some think you do, some think you don't.
The new buzz is the File Area Network, and I started thinking if there might be some way for Cisco (or others) to come up with the necessity for the world to have VFAN's? It would fit right into the Cisco alley.

I myself can't think of any reason we would need VFAN's, as in the VLAN and VSAN world it is all about connectivity. The FAN isn't really about connectivity, but more about the concept of distinguishing the concept of file management.