Simplifying the Network with 10 Gigabit Ethernet Unified Networking

White Paper: Simplifying the Network with 10 Gigabit Ethernet Unified Networking
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Unified networking: A 10GbE unified fabric simplifies the
network infrastructure by consolidating LAN and SAN traffic.
Recent Ethernet enhancements ensure quality of service (QoS)
for critical traffic.
Intel and EMC are companies leading the shift to 10GbE-based
unified networking in the data center. The latest Intel
®
Ethernet
10 Gigabit controllers and server adapters include virtualization
optimizations and advanced unified networking features, includ-
ing optimizations for lossless Ethernet, intelligent, hardware-
based acceleration for Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and
iSCSI, and support for Open FCoE, which is discussed later in
this paper.
EMC provides services to plan, design, implement, and maintain
Ethernet-based solutions. In addition, EMC Select* includes a
complete line of 10GbE switching products from Brocade
and Cisco.
These solutions simplify network connectivity for today’s
virtualized servers and lay the foundation for the next-
generation data center.
The Promise of Ethernet Storage
New usage models and the explosive growth of data in their
organizations have forced IT administrators to deal with compli-
cated technical and business challenges. Today, most IT depart-
ments deploy separate LAN and storage networks, with storage
often divided between network attached storage (NAS) for
file-based applications and SAN (Fibre Channel and iSCSI) for
block-based applications. The goal of unified networking is to
allow a single-fabric infrastructure, based on 10GbE, to carry
all of these disparate traffic types.
Ethernet has served as a unified data center fabric for years,
supporting LAN, NAS, NFS, common Internet file system (CIFS),
and iSCSI SAN traffic. With recent Ethernet enhancements and
the ratification of the FCoE specification, Data Center Bridging
(DCB)-based Ethernet adapters can now facilitate connecting
servers to Fibre Channel (FC) SANs. Extending Ethernet’s ubiq-
uity and wide familiarity to FC SAN traffic will help to accelerate
the move to 10GbE-based I/O consolidation in virtualized data
centers, reduce costs, and improve simplification and agility.
Given its flexibility and long history, it is not surprising that
Ethernet storage is the fastest growing segment of the storage
systems market. The industry research firm IDC estimates that the
worldwide Ethernet-based storage systems (NAS and iSCSI SAN)
market grew at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of
approximately 23 percent between 2005 and 2009.
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iSCSI storage
shipments, in particular, experienced the highest growth rates
(70 percent) during 2005-2009, driven by broad iSCSI adoption
in Windows,* virtual server, and blade server environments.
Industry analysts project continued gains in the Ethernet storage
market share due to increasing deployment of “Ethernet only”
data centers (which use a unified 10GbE infrastructure for all data
and storage traffic ), the emergence of Cloud Computing, and
as FCoE solutions enter the mainstream.
Figure 3. Actual unit shipments for Ethernet and Fibre Channel storage (IDC, 2009)
250,000
200,000
150,000
100,000
300,000
50,000
0
Ethernet vs. Fibre Channel
Target Unit Shipments
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
Calendar Year
2007 2008 2009
FC
Ethernet
(iSCSI & NAS)