Simplifying the Network with 10 Gigabit Ethernet Unified Networking

White Paper: Simplifying the Network with 10 Gigabit Ethernet Unified Networking
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Simplifying the Network with 10GbE
As IT departments look 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, lower power
and cooling needs, and centralized management. Today’s
servers are based on powerful new processors, including the
Intel
®
Xeon
®
processor 5600 and 7500 series, that support
more virtual machines (VMs) per physical host than ever
before, helping IT realize greater consolidation ratios.
• The latest generation of Intel
®
Xeon
®
processors enables IT
to consolidate servers at a 15:1 ratio,
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delivering power savings
of up to 90 percent
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and a five-month return on investment.
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• New four-socket processors are delivering 20 times the
performance of previous-generation processors.
4
•
Nearly 50 percent of the four-socket servers shipped today
are being used for virtualization.
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Unfortunately, the success achieved by many organizations in
attaining these benefits has been hindered by past practices
for networking virtualized servers. As VM density increases, a
physical server’s networking needs also increase, adding both
cost and complexity. A typical virtualized server contains eight
to ten Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) LAN ports and two dedicated
Storage Area Network (SAN) ports.
As server virtualization continues to grow, 10GbE unified
networking is simplifying server connectivity. Consolidat-
ing the traffic of multiple GbE connections onto a single
10GbE adapter significantly reduces cable and infrastructure
complexity and overall TCO. Enhancements to the Ethernet
standard also enable 10GbE support for both LAN and SAN
traffic, allowing IT to realize further benefits by converging
data and storage infrastructures. Thanks to its ubiquity,
cost-effectiveness, flexibility, and ease of use, Ethernet
has emerged as the unified data center fabric.
Figure 1. Multiple GbE connections in a typical virtualized server
10GbE: The Fabric of Cloud Computing
The growth in server virtualization has helped data center
networks evolve from discrete, siloed infrastructures to more
flexible fabrics with the scalability and agility necessary to
address the needs of new usage models and provide an
excellent foundation for enterprise Cloud Computing.
Over 2.5 billion users will connect to the Internet in the next
five years
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with over 10 billion devices.
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This usage will require
eight times the amount of storage capacity, 16 times the network
capacity, and over 20 times the compute capacity by 2015.
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A new
infrastructure must emerge to power this growth and enable the
most efficient use of resources; this 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 Cloud Computing promises.
With its reduced hardware requirements, fewer points of
management, and broad ecosystem support, 10GbE deliv-
ers the flexible, simplified network infrastructure needed to
support Cloud Computing. These key characteristics make
10GbE the ideal fabric for Cloud infrastructures:
Ubiquity: Ethernet connectivity ships standard on nearly every
server today, and Ethernet infrastructures are a universal data
center component. When 10GbE LAN-on-motherboard (LOM)
connections are integrated in the next generation of servers,
unified LAN and SAN connectivity will be available by default.
Advanced virtualization support: Advanced server virtual-
ization enables dynamic resource allocation and is required
for any Cloud Computing infrastructure. Technologies from
companies such as Intel, VMware, and Microsoft are delivering
line-rate 10GbE throughput and support for platform virtual-
ization enhancements.
Figure 2. Simplified server connectivity using 10GbE