FCoE

October 2, 2013

DATA CENTER

Who’s deploying Multi-Hop FCoE? – Part II

Continuing the blog series (Part-I) on the production deployment designs and the real-world benefits of Multi-Hop FCoE infrastructure, this blog features University of Siegen, based in Germany. Before delving into the details, a bit of background – The University of Siegen is a modern educatio…

September 23, 2013

DATA CENTER

Who’s deploying Multi-Hop FCoE? – Part I

While FCoE technology has been standardized for quite some time now, most FCoE deployments have been upto the access layer of the network.  Multi-hop FCoE deployments are gaining traction increasingly. Many a times, I get asked to share the production deployment designs and the real-world benefits o…

September 12, 2013

DATA CENTER

Storage Distance by Protocol, Part IV: Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)

In the past articles we’ve talked about doing distance extension for SANs, focusing first on building the physical elements that are required, before moving on to how Fibre Channel can be extended using buffer credits. In this article we’re going to talk about how it is best to think of…

September 10, 2013

DATA CENTER

Storage Distance by Protocol, Part III – Fibre Channel

In the previous article we looked at some of the physical characteristics of building a SAN extension. In other words, we looked at the different ways there are to “build the pipe.” We didn’t, however, get the chance to talk about the speed or capacity of the pipes, nor did we talk…

September 9, 2013

DATA CENTER

Storage Distance by Protocol, Part II – Physical Layer

In the last article, we looked at the big picture of what is involved in creating a SAN distance extension. In this article, we’re going to take a slightly closer look at the physical requirements and with luck we’ll be able to clear up some general confusion and misconceptions along the…

September 9, 2013

DATA CENTER

Storage Distance by Protocol – FC, FCoE, and FCIP, Part I

A long time ago I got asked to write about how to use Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) for distance. After all, we were getting the same question over and over: What is the distance limitation for FCoE? Now, the short answer for this can be checking out various data sheets for the Nexus 2000, Nexu…

July 10, 2013

DATA CENTER

#EngineersUnplugged S3|Ep3: FCOE, Fact or Fiction (Part 1)

Welcome to another episode of Engineers Unplugged! This week features Cisco’s Andrew Levin (@AndLevin) discussing the use cases for FCOE with Nexus IS’s Paul Sferratore (@MadItalianATL). This is a detailed and nuanced debate of the pros and cons based on a variety of scenarios from large…

April 24, 2013

DATA CENTER

Introducing MDS 9710 Multilayer Director and MDS 9250i Multiservice Switch – Raising the Bar for Storage Networks

The data center landscape has changed dramatically in several dimensions. Server virtualization is almost a defacto standard with a big increase in VM density. And there is a move towards world of many clouds.  Then there is the massive data growth. Some studies show that data is doubling in every 2…

April 9, 2013

DATA CENTER

Mega Trends are Reshaping Storage Area Networks. But Are You Ready?

The data center landscape has changed dramatically in several dimensions. Server virtualization is almost a defacto in our customers’ data centers with a big increase in VM density. They are also moving towards world of many clouds.  And then there is the massive data growth. Some studies show that…