Re: Is it me being thick or this makes no sense
I've worked in data centres where 128gbit FC could have been fully used with ease. Not for an individual server (although we had some using well over 32gbit throughput), but for connection tostorage arrays, tape libraries, VM farms and for interconnects essentially the faster the better.
Yes, arrays and switching can, of course, generate the required throughput using multiple interfaces, but as anybody whose worked on networking can tell you, dealing with the configuration management, pathing, subtle bottlenecks and sheer cabling complexities is a major pain. It is much, much easier to have a few very large paths into your major switching and storage backbones than it is to deal with hundreds of connections. Of course, nobody should expect you average little server to require this (and you probably wouldn't use FC anyway), but there are plenty of places where it is extremely useful. Of course, the ability of storage, and to a lesser extent, switch manufacturers to fully exploit this capacity is a different matter. I saw plenty of storage arrays where the amount of front end throughput theoretically possible bore no resemblance to actual capability.