This report reviews the industry initiative to merge LANs and SANs onto one Ethernet-based Unified Fabric. Included will be data from the IT pro survey conducted for this report and our analysis of the data: LANs and networked storage diverged...again. IT professionals view the journey to unified fabrics as a continuum, not a revolution. SMBs are deploying unified fabrics with Ethernet LANs and iSCSI SANs. 10GbE LAN adoption is exploding because it is a huge performance leap forward Right now, FCoE is not a huge performance leap forward for SANs. Large enterprise adoption of FCoE will take off at 40GbE. 40% of organizations surveyed want parallel Ethernet and Fibre Channel networks. The other 60% of IT organizations are at some stage of implementing FCoE. The Who’s Who of vendors are delivering multi-protocol products. The current generation of multi-protocol servers and fabrics makes it easy to mix Ethernet and Fibre Channel storage. IT professionals recognize Cisco as the company which contributed most to 10GbE and convergence. Cisco has the best-in-class architecture for convergence, and the broadest product line.
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services to be delivered directly to the network in a
consistent and even manner, regardless of whether the
application is a standard physical server or a virtual server
workload.
Cisco's Unified Data Center provides a complete architecture
platform for Unified Management, Unified Fabric and Uni-
fied Computing.
Cisco Unified Data Center: The
Platform for Delivering IT as a Service
Cisco Unified Fabric architecture integrates storage and data
networking for transparent convergence, multi-dimensional
scalability and sophisticated intelligence.
Cisco Unified Fabric: Delivers
Transparent Convergence
50.6% of IT professionals surveyed said Cisco is the company which
contributed most to the development of convergence on Ethernet. 50.6%
Cisco Unified Fabric Products
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Cisco Nexus 5000 Switches
Help enable any transport over Ethernet,
including Layer 2 and Layer 3 traffic and
storage traffic, on one common data-
center-class platform.
Cisco Nexus 7000 Switches
Deliver a comprehensive NX-OS feature
set, with high-density 10, 40, and 100
Gigabit Ethernet for the data center and
campus core network.
Cisco Nexus 1000V Soft Switch
Includes VEM, a software switch in the
hypervisor, along with VSM which
manages both networking policies and
QoS for virtual machines.
Cisco Nexus 2000 Fabric Extenders
Provide connectivity for servers, as well
as converged fabric deployments. Cisco
Nexus 5000 and Nexus 7000 Series
Switches act as parent switches.
Cisco Fabric Manager
Included with Cisco MDS 9000 and Cisco
Nexus 5000 Switches for basic switch
configuration and troubleshooting
capabilities.
Cisco Data Center Network Manager
Includes a feature-rich, customizable
dashboard that provides visibility and
control through a single pane of glass to
Cisco Nexus and MDS products.
Cisco Nexus 3000 Switches
Extend the proven innovations of Cisco
Unified Fabric to the High-Frequency
Trading (HFT) market and Big
Data environments.
Cisco MDS 9000 Series Switches
Helps you build highly available, scalable
storage networks with advanced security
and unified management.
Cisco NX-OS
The full-featured, modular, and
scalable operating system is available on
the entire Cisco Data Center switching
portfolio.
52.8% of IT professionals surveyed said Cisco is the company which
contributed most to the development of network virtualization. 52.8%
Just Add Storage
The Bottom Line
The journey to unified fabrics is a continuum which will take many years. Supporting multi-protocol storage
has never been easier among the latest generation of servers and networks which efficiently support parallel
Ethernet and Fibre Channel storage. But support for multi-protocol storage gets even more efficient when IT
organizations merge LANs with either iSCSI or FCoE SANs. Expect the 40% of enterprises not considering
FCoE today, to think again when FCoE storage systems are introduced based on 40GbE.
Related Links
To learn more about the companies, technologies, and products mentioned in this report, visit the following web pages: Cisco Nexus 7000 Series Switches Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Switches Cisco Nexus 3000 Series Switches Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extenders Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Switches Cisco MDS 9000 Series Multilayer Switches Cisco Data Center Network Manager Cisco Fabric Manager IT Brand Pulse
About the Author
Frank Berry is founder and senior analyst for IT Brand Pulse, a trusted source of data and analysis about IT infrastructure, including servers, storage and networking. As former vice president of product marketing and corporate marketing for QLogic, and vice president of worldwide marketing for the automated tape library (ATL) division of Quantum, Mr. Berry has over 30 years experience in the development and marketing of IT infrastructure. If you
have any questions or comments about this report, contact [email protected].
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