Unified FabricArchitecture
Integrating datacenter servers, storage and networking
Integrating datacenter servers, storage and networking
FASTER VIRTUAL PROVEN
IP SAN Storage – iSCSI Storage
- "The Importance of Ethernet-based Storage" by BLADE Network Technologies
One trend in the data center that has shown consistent progress is the convergence of switching fabrics. Servers in data centers are typically connected to three different network areas: Storage, TCP/IP and Cluster networking. Because these areas have different requirements, different switching fabrics are typically used: Fibre Channel, Ethernet and InfiniBand. An important aspect of Ethernet’s value proposition is the possibility of using it in all network areas to provide servers with a single connection. Consolidating to an Ethernet fabric greatly reduces the amount of equipment required in the data center and drastically lowers both power consumption and the overall cost of administration.
- "Storage Consolidation for Data Center Efficiency" by blade.org, BLADE Network Technologies, NetApp and Double-Take Software
Economic factors are driving a number of advances in the data center in order to reduce cost and increase overall efficiency. Server virtualization and network consolidation are enabling increases in server and network efficiency, improving ROI, and simplifying data center management. Storage consolidation has also improved manageability by pooling what were previously distributed storage assets. Further advances in storage efficiency through features such as thin provisioning, cloning, and deduplication, are complimenting server virtualization to deliver dramatic improvements in storage asset utilization, rapid deployment of resources, and ease of management. This paper addresses many of the benefits of storage consolidation, new storage virtualization technologies which enable greater storage consolidation, storage connectivity and efficiency, as well as items to consider when planning a storage consolidation project.
- "Converged Enhanced Ethernet: Good for iSCSI SANs" by NetApp and BLADE Network Technologies
This paper reviews new Ethernet features and describes how they improve robustness, management, and performance of iSCSI SANs.
Today, Ethernet is a predominant network choice for interconnecting resources in the data center. It is ubiquitous and well understood by network engineers and developers worldwide, and it has stood the test of time against challengers trying to displace it as the popular option for data center network environments. However, emerging demands by applications require additional capabilities in networking infrastructures, resulting in deployment of multiple, separate, application-specific networks. It is common for enterprise data centers to deploy an Ethernet network for IP SAN traffic, Fibre Channel storage area networks (SANs) for block mode SCSI traffic, and maybe even an InfiniBand fabric for high-performance computing clusters.
The combined capital and operating costs for deployment and management of three distinct network types are high, creating an opportunity for consolidation on a unified fabric. When the three types of networks are evaluated technically, Ethernet has the most promise for meeting most of the requirements of all three network types....
Read the white paper
- "Benefits of High Performance Embedded 10G Ethernet Switching in IBM BladeCenter Environments" by BLADE Network Technologies
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