I don't know if I realized what I got myself into with this series. Heck its was a surprise to have so many people email me directly about it. Please comment freely here on the blog, its much easier to track and hopefully can create a conversation between all of us. I certainly am not 100% committed in any direction with these articles. I am learning quite a bit as I go. I hope to not disappoint anyone.
So if you have chosen your storage architecture, the network fabric may already be 
partially decided for you. Fiber channel has been the traditional way to go with a SAN, yet with iSCSI and even multi-gig copper, fiber channel is no longer the de facto choice. I have a client who (previous to my involvement) chose to go all Cisco on the LAN and then for the SAN to use a Linksys 4 port 10/100 switch. That's not the way I would ever choose but its been working for them for over a year now.
So your choice of network fabric is largely dictated by your storage choice. For the average SMB, NAS may well suffice or simply a Gigabit Ethernet LAN, and gigabit Ethernet SAN. I have also seen a virtual infrastructure with direct attached storage to all the physical hosts and then just gigabit LAN connections for the servers.
Your application usage and the nature of your storage usage should inform your decision on network fabric.
Just be mindful that your storage choice may dictate this choice so consider the architecture of the network and the storage to determine the best configuration.
