{"id":7997,"date":"2012-02-03T15:34:20","date_gmt":"2012-02-03T19:34:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.andysowards.com\/blog\/?p=7997"},"modified":"2023-07-06T21:49:17","modified_gmt":"2023-07-07T01:49:17","slug":"the-future-of-networking-on-10-gigabit-ethernet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.andysowards.com\/blog\/2012\/the-future-of-networking-on-10-gigabit-ethernet\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Gigabit Ethernet & The Future of Networking"},"content":{"rendered":"

The rise of cloud computing is a bit like that of a space shuttle taking off. When the rocket engine and its propellants fire up, the shuttle lifts slowly off the launch pad and then builds momentum until it ultimately streaks into space.<\/p>\n

The Cloud is now in the momentum-building phase and on the verge of quickly soaring to new heights. There are lots of good reasons for the rapid rise of this new approach to computing. Cloud models are widely seen as one of the keys to increasing IT and business agility, making better use of existing infrastructure and cutting costs.<\/p>\n

So how do you launch your cloud? An essential first step is to prepare your network for the unique requirements of services running on a multitenant shared infrastructure. These requirements include IT simplicity, scalability, interoperability and manageability. All of these requirements make the case for unified networking based on 10 gigabit Ethernet (10GbE).<\/p>\n

Unified networking over 10GbE simplifies your network environment. It allows you to unite your network into one type of fabric so you don\u2019t have to maintain and manage different technologies for different types of network traffic. You also gain the ability to run storage traffic over a dedicated SAN if that makes the most sense for your organization.<\/p>\n

Either way, 10GbE gives you a great deal of scalability, enabling you to quickly scale up your networking bandwidth to keep pace with the dynamic demands of cloud applications. This rapid scalability helps you avoid I\/O bottlenecks and meet your service-level agreements.<\/p>\n

While that\u2019s all part of the goodness of 10GbE, it\u2019s important to keep this caveat in mind: Not all 10GbE is the same. You need a solution that scales and, with features like intelligent offloads of targeted processing functions, helps you realize best-in-class performance for your cloud network. Unified networking solutions can be enabled through a combination of standard Intel Ethernet products along with trusted network protocols integrated and enabled in a broad range of operating systems and hypervisors. This approach makes unified networking capabilities available on every server, enabling maximum reuse in heterogeneous environments. Ultimately, this approach to unified networking helps you solve today\u2019s overarching cloud networking challenges and create a launch pad for your private, hybrid or public cloud.<\/p>\n

The urge to purge: Have you had enough of \u201ctoo many\u201d and \u201ctoo much\u201d?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In today\u2019s data center, networks are a story of \u201ctoo many\u201d and \u201ctoo much.\u201d That\u2019s too many fabrics, too many cables, and too much complexity. Unified networking simplifies this story. \u201cToo many\u201d and \u201ctoo much\u201d become \u201cjust right.\u201d Let\u2019s start with the fabrics. It is not uncommon to find an organization that is running three distinctly different networks: a 1GbE management network, a multi-1GbE local area network (LAN), and a iSCSI storage area network (SAN) or Fibre Channel.<\/p>\n

Unified networking enables cost-effective connectivity to the LAN and the SAN on the same Ethernet fabric. Pick your protocols for your storage traffic. You can use iSCSI, NFS, or Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) to carry storage traffic over your converged ethernet line.<\/p>\n

You can still have a dedicated network for storage traffic if that works best for your needs. The only difference: That network runs your storage protocols over 10GbE — the same technology<\/a> used in your LAN.<\/p>\n

When you make this fundamental shift, you can reduce your equipment needs. Convergence of network fabrics allows you to standardize the equipment you use throughout your networking environment — the same cabling, the same NICs, the same switches. You now need just one set of everything, instead of two or three sets.<\/p>\n

In a complementary gain, convergence over 10GbE helps you cut your cable numbers. In a 1GbE world, many virtualized servers have eight to 10 ports, each of which has its own network cable. In a typical deployment, one 10GbE cable could handle all of that traffic. This isn\u2019t a vision of things to come. This world of simplified networking is here today. Better still, this is a world based on open standards. This approach to unified networking increases interoperability with common APIs and open-standard technologies. A few examples of these technologies:<\/p>\n