Craft a Converged Data Center Network Strategy

Introduction
10G Ethernet has been available at premium prices for several years and is widely used in high performance
computing environments. Now, with lower prices, data center technical staff is pushing 10G Ethernet for day-
to-day infrastructure. As with all new technologies, there is an optimal time for upgrading. Use this solution set
to understand what needs to be considered when presented with requests for higher speed infrastructure.

Why you should you read this solution set:
To support consolidation, performance, and reliability
objectives, enterprises must plan to evolve from
disparate networks for compute and storage traffic to
a converged data center network infrastructure. This
shift represents a major impact on technology
planning and IT staffing and support.
Many of the next-generation data center networking
solutions proposed by vendors promise convergence
but still leverage proprietary elements. Pursuing any
value-added protocol scheme not yet standardized
introduces the risk of being locked into one specific
vendors portfolio.
This solution set is designed for:
IT leaders that plan, design, and manage data
center infrastructure, specifically networking and
storage environments, and are evaluating
convergence of these traditionally separate areas.
IT leaders in smaller organizations looking to
expand their data center or potentially invest in
virtualized server and storage infrastructure in
the near-to-mid term.
Organizations that are assessing appropriateness
and gauging readiness for building a business
plan to help make the case and plan for a
converged network infrastructure.

This solution set will help you develop and validate a technology roadmap and
strategy for data center and storage networking infrastructure.

Understand Assess Plan/Prepare

 Executive Summary
Understand
With advancing speeds from 10G to 100G and declining costs from $500/port, Ethernet has now emerged
as a viable platform for storage networking, allowing all sizes of enterprises to standardize on the
technology for the data center environment.
Organizations are adopting 10 Gigabit Ethernet to deliver improved performance, availability, and
management, as the technology is key to data center consolidation efforts.

Assess
Priorities such as shared storage and blade server investment, high bandwidth requirements, and
virtualization align with storage and TCP/IP network convergence, however, adoption does not come
without its challenges.
Complexity, planning, and interoperability are all prevalent obstacles to adoption. Enterprises must assess
appropriateness and readiness for their environment.

Plan/Prepare
Enterprises should perform an assessment of storage and network baselines to prepare for
implementation. Since most enterprises lack resources and expertise in this area, third party assistance is
recommended.
Given the current state of the market and the prevalence of proprietary elements, enterprises must ensure
that they develop a data center convergence roadmap that is independent of specific vendors/products.
Prepare for the need to cross-train technical staff (storage, network, server) in order to prepare for the
demands of a new converged data center support model.
 Next Section in Brief

Understand 1
Understand the opportunities
associated with data center
convergence and a migration to
10 Gigabit Ethernet.

This section will help you:

Understand enterprise plans
for 10 Gigabit Ethernet
Assess adoption and implementation
progress.
Identify the most common
business drivers and challenges
that companies face with
respect to data center
convergence.
Make the case for
standardizing storage and data
Prepare/Plan networks on a common
platform.
Network Convergence: 10 Gigabit Ethernet provides one network
infrastructure for TCP/IP network, FC and iSCSI storage traffic
While 10G Ethernet boasts bandwidth increases, it also means that a range of network traffic
(i.e. storage read/write blocks, files, voice, video) can share a single network technology. This
means converging the storage and TCP/IP networks onto a single infrastructure technology,
not a single network.

Fibre Channel over Ethernet iSCSI over Ethernet

 Ethernet has emerged as the most viable long-term technology
for data center storage networks
All sizes of organizations are looking at 10G Ethernet to converge their TCP/IP network and storage infrastructure. An Info-
Tech survey found that while larger organizations were more likely to have already adopted 10G Ethernet, the majority of
small and medium organizations have plans to adopt within 24 months.

10G Ethernet is a logical progression and evolution in the Organizations of all sizes are making the upgrade to 10
continuing saga of Ethernet in the data center. Gigabit Ethernet

Just as 10Mb Ethernet was quickly displaced by 100Mb,

and 100Mb by 1G Ethernet, eventually 1G will give way to

% of Organizations
10G and then 100G as the standard within five years.
As data centers grow and bandwidth requirements
increase, it is logical to expect higher speed networking
technology to become the norm, surpassing Fibre Channel.

10G Ethernet supports iSCSI, NFS, FCoE

Organizations that have implemented iSCSI, NFS, and/or

FCoE in their current environments will experience a
smoother transition to 10G Ethernet.

10G Ethernet delivers performance,

but also eliminates the need to manage separate:
Network equipment and devices Size of Organization
Cabling, documentation
Vendors and service/maintenance contracts Source: Info-Tech Research Group
Storage and network personnel
N = 100

An Info-Tech survey found that size of an organization is *Small organizations were defined as organizations with
not an indicator of success in 10G Ethernet adoption. 250 or fewer FTE; Medium organizations were defined as
All sizes of organizations can be successful. organizations with 251 to 1000 FTE; Large organizations
were defined as organizations with greater than 1000 FTE.
 Ethernet on pace to surpass Fibre Channel speeds within the
next three years
In the past, the lower price and faster speeds of Fibre
Channel provided organizations with an easy decision for
their network protocol.
Ethernet at these speeds will reduce all the other
network fabric usage (i.e. Fibre Channel). Ethernet
is easier to manage, and if there's only one fabric to
However, current 10G Ethernet speeds have already

manage and [it] provides the performance there's
surpassed Fibre Channel and will continue to do so by no point in using other fabrics.
over 6X in the near future - changing the performance - Team Lead, Professional Services
discussion to Ethernet as the next standard.
A larger supply of network administrators trained on
Ethernet makes it an even more attractive alternative to
Fibre Channel as it also presents an opportunity to save on
Transitioning to converged TCP/IP networking

and storage on 10GB was the most rewarding move
we have made in [the] past 2 years.
administration costs. - IT Manager, Business Services

Technology roadmaps indicate that Ethernet will become the next standard.
Past Present Future
Fibre Channel 4G 8G 16G

Ethernet 1G 10G 100G

Info-Tech Insight:
Exception: 10G Ethernet still doesnt match InfiniBand speeds for very high performance computing environments,
however, Infiniband presents a more costly investment.

1G 10G 100G
Ethernet performance continues to improve and costs continue
to decline against Fibre Channel
Although other factors must be considered, 10 Gigabit Ethernet pricing and performance
have made the technology a very compelling option for data centers.

Estimated
Technology Price Per
Port (2010)
Approx.
1G Ethernet
$100
Approx.
10G Ethernet
$500
Approx.
Fibre Channel, 2 Gbps
$500
Approx.
Fibre Channel, 4 Gbps
$1500
Approx.
Fibre Channel, 8 Gbps
$7500

Info-Tech Insight:

Consider the cost of cabling when comparing 10 Gigabit Ethernet to Fibre Channel. The use of RJ45 Category 6 or
Category 6a copper cabling can represent savings as high as 90% in comparison to optical cabling.
 Regardless of what storage technology is operating in the
environment, organizations are moving to 10G Ethernet
While the majority of organizations operating FCoE and NFS/CIFS storage environments have already adopted or are planning to
move to 10G Ethernet within the next 24 months, iSCSI and Fibre Channel environments are also beginning to trend
the same way.
10G Ethernet upgrade plans according to current
Percent of organizations that utilize storage
storage technology
technology
42%
iSCSI 51% 24%
34%
38%
Fibre Channel 57% 33%
29%

Fibre Channel 33%

25% 47%
over Ethernet
20%
38%
NFS/CIFS 33% 40%
22%
Current Environment
N=121
Planning to Adopt Ethernet
Recently Upgraded to Ethernet
No Plans to Upgrade

Explanation
The graph above shows the movement from current storage technologies to the new standard of 10G Ethernet.
For example, currently 57% of organizations operate with Fibre Channel as the storage technology in their environments. Of
the 57%, 38% are planning to adopt Ethernet within the next 24 months, and 33% have already adopted, or are in the
process of adopting 10G Ethernet, while 29% have no plans to upgrade in this group.
 Blade server investment also strengthens the need for
consolidation and standardization on Ethernet
NIC/HBA slots are limited; 10G Blades have emerged as a preferred virtual
Ethernet allows scalability. server platform.
With the very high density of processors
300%
available in a blade environment, vendors
are offering 10G Ethernet switch modules.
By providing multiple 10G outputs from the
blade chassis, the bandwidth needs of the
processors can be met and the total number
of cables between the blade server and the
data center switches can be significantly
reduced.
From a management and maintenance point
of view, this cabling reduction can cut down
on errors when changes are made to the
infrastructure.

As organizations continue their

consolidation efforts, blade server
purchases will continue to grow, thus
increasing demand for the
standardization on 10G Ethernet.
At 36%, the proportion of blade purchasers has
increased significantly since 2006 when Info-Tech found
only 9% intended to acquire blades. In the first half of 2010,
blades also represented the strongest segment of reviving
server sales after the recessionary slowdown.
Adopt 10G Ethernet for improved performance and availability

Adopters of 10G Ethernet experienced improved performance of

Improved applications. In particular, applications that drive bandwidth,
Performance such as multimedia, video, imaging, financial analytics, video
conferencing, animation, and virtualization, benefit from 10G
Median Benefit Score = Ethernets replacement of lower speed links. By aggregating
83% connections between switches and routers, 10G Ethernet provides high
throughput for the servers that connect them.

Improved High Adopters of 10G Ethernet experienced improved high

availability to end users. Organizations that require high speed
Availability remote connectivity will find that 10G Ethernet provides
both local and long distance links for both LAN and WAN
Median Benefit Score connectivity. Again, high bandwidth applications such as
= 83% multimedia, imaging, video etc. will benefit from 10G Ethernet
and its availability.

Improved Network Adopters of 10G Ethernet experienced improved network

management. By converging onto a single network technology for
Management storage and TCP/IP networks, organizations are able to better
manage network traffic. In addition, organizations are able to
Median Benefit Score = better manage the physical aspects of the network top of rack and
83% end of row layouts clean up cabling mess.

Improved Capacity Adopters of 10G Ethernet experienced improved capacity

management. Implementing 10G ports into the environment
Management facilitates growth and enables scalability. By providing 10
times the throughput on a single cable, 10G Ethernet provides
Median Benefit Score high bandwidth with reduced cabling costs and reduced ports
= 67% required on infrastructure switches.
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