The Transition to 10 Gigabit Ethernet Unified Networking: Cisco and Intel Lead the Way

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The Transition to 10 Gigabit Ethernet Uniﬁed

Networking: Cisco and Intel Lead the Way

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

In recent years, growth in Ethernet-based storage has surpassed that of

storage-specic fabrics, propelled in large part by the increase in server

virtualization. Unied networking over 10 Gigabit Ethernet in the data

center oers compelling benets for the evolving virtualized data center,

including a simplied infrastructure, lower equipment and power costs,

and greater exibility. Ethernet is the foundation of cloud computing,

and easy and simple access to the SAN will be critical as virtualization

deployments continue to grow and new, on-demand data center

models emerge.

Intel and Cisco are two companies leading the transition to 10 Gigabit

Ethernet unied networking. is document explores the benets of

unied networking and approaches to enabling it and the ways that Intel

and Cisco are helping to bring important consolidation technologies to

enterprise data center customers.

CONTENTS

What You Will Learn ................1

Simplifying the Network

with 10 Gigabit Ethernet ............2

10 Gigabit Ethernet:

The Fabric of Cloud Computing .......2

The Promise of Ethernet Storage......3

Ethernet Enhancements for Storage ... 4

IEEE DCB for Lossless Ethernet ..... 4

FCoE: Enabling End-to-End

Uniﬁed I/O ..................... 4

Introducing the Open

FCoE Architecture .................4

Open FCoE: Momentum

in the Linux* Community . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Native Initiator Success: iSCSI ........ 5

Intel and Cisco: Leading the Way

to a Uniﬁed Fabric .................5

Intel

Ethernet Uniﬁed Networking .... 5

Broad Support Commitment ....... 5

Cost-Effective Efﬁciency ........... 5

Ease of Use ..................... 5

Cisco Uniﬁed Fabric ................ 6

Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Switches .... 6

Rich Feature Sets .................. 6

Investment Protection .............. 6

Conclusion .......................7

Summary of content (8 pages)

PAGE 1
The Transition to 10 Gigabit Ethernet Unified Networking: Cisco and Intel Lead the Way What You Will Learn Contents In recent years, growth in Ethernet-based storage has surpassed that of storage-specific fabrics, propelled in large part by the increase in server virtualization. Unified networking over 10 Gigabit Ethernet in the data center offers compelling benefits for the evolving virtualized data center, including a simplified infrastructure, lower equipment and power costs, and greater flexibility.
PAGE 2
Simplifying the Network with 10 Gigabit Ethernet As IT departments look for ways to reduce costs and improve server efficiency, they are turning increasingly to server virtualization and consolidation. The benefits of virtualization are widely understood: less server hardware to purchase, reduced power and cooling needs, and centralized management.
PAGE 3
enable the most efficient use of resources. This infrastructure is cloud computing. The cloud is an evolution of computing that delivers services over the Internet to consumers and enterprises. Services scale—as needed and only when needed— without user intervention. A highly scalable and efficient cloud architecture is needed to provide both the technical attributes and the extreme resource utilization and efficiency that cloud computing promises.
PAGE 4
To strengthen 10 Gigabit Ethernet as a unified data center fabric, the IEEE has standardized Ethernet enhancements to support storage traffic, including FCoE and iSCSI. These extensions, known collectively as Data Center Bridging, or DCB, enable better traffic prioritization over a single interface and an advanced means for shaping traffic on the network to decrease congestion. In other words, DCB delivers a lossless Ethernet fabric for storage traffic.
PAGE 5
• Ease of use. Because the Open FCoE approach uses standard DCB-capable 10 Gigabit Ethernet adapters that comply with broad, well-known Ethernet standards, IT can use existing knowledge to configure and manage these adapters for FCoE deployments. In fact, IT can standardize on a single product or product family for all LAN and SAN connectivity.
PAGE 6
Figure 5. IT administrators use the same interface for configuring LAN and Fibre Channel SAN traffic. Cisco Unified Fabric Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Switches Cisco Unified Fabric provides a key building block for both traditional and virtualized data centers that helps unify storage and data networking to deliver seamless convergence and scalability with reduced total cost of ownership and faster return on investment.
PAGE 7
native Fibre Channel connection to existing SANs. Fibre Channel and FCoE can exist simultaneously in the Fibre Channel network, providing the most flexibility and allowing customers to continue to use their existing administration and management tools. FCoE is a compelling technology for enabling unified I/O in the data center and will continue to gain traction in the marketplace.
PAGE 8
For More Information www.intel.com/go/unifiednetworking www.cisco.com/go/fcoe 1 Source: Intel estimates as of January 2010. Performance comparison using SPECjbb*2005 business operations per second (bops). Results have been estimated based on internal Intel analysis and are provided for informational purposes only. Any difference in system hardware or software design or configuration may affect actual performance. 2 IDC, “Server Workloads Forecast,” 2009.