Encryption will be offloaded to the network interface. ASICs on the NICs
will greatly improve encryption and authentication performance.
all well and good, provided that this encryption and authentication
are actually compatible with that specified by higher level protocols
and the authentication actually meets the needs of users.
(if your network interface needs to use and verify users' credentials,
as opposed to the host's credentials, it might be a stretch.)
It won't run over the Internet because of latencies inherent on the
public network.
at least for some storage applications, latency is not as important
as bandwidth. e.g. you can do backups over a high-latency medium
as long as your bandwidth is adequate (though recovery from write
errors gets a bit tricky).
It will run over incredibly fast Packet over SONET Wide Area
Networks--behind firewalls.
I'm sure it will be used behind firewalls in some cases but it's
inappropriate to assume that it will always be used behind firewalls.
Firewalls don't help with the majority of security threats, and
it's less and less the case that network topologies reflect
trust domains.
Keith