Truth be told, EMC has had a different attitude about IP storage networks than FC SANs. Although we have tested FC SAN technologies for 15+ years, like the rest of the industry, we assumed IP ‘just works’. For the most part that statement is true. Now we have a new perspective. Growth in IP storage technologies is putting old ideas to the test. Traditional shared networks weren’t designed for today’s IP storage workloads.
To help our customers design and deploy high-performance, highly-available and scalable Enterprise Hybrid Clouds, EMC is introducing the new Connectrix VDX-6740B IP Storage Switch. With this introduction, EMC now offers an additional option for customers to enhance their IP storage experience for systems, including EMC’s Data Domain, Isilon, VMAX, VNX and XtremIO.
As customers develop strategies for Enterprise Hybrid Clouds, there is a growing demand for automating multi-tenant environments. The Connectrix VDX-6740B is one of the building blocks that will help bring that vision to life.
To share or not to share.
Sharing network resources is about making sure there’s enough network bandwidth to go around. This is especially true for applications like Media, Video, Big Data, and Backup and Restore, which drive huge amounts of traffic, often “bursty” in nature.
Frequently, the LAN affects the performance of storage, which has a major impact on application response time.
FC SANs have typically been managed by the storage team, who know the needs of storage traffic and SLAs. But IP storage networks are often managed by the network administrators, who may not fully understand the needs of the storage systems.
The Answer is here…
For situations where IP storage traffic has a high priority, then a dedicated IP storage network, built around the Connectrix VDX-6740B is a great solution.
The standard system has up to (48) 10GbE ports and (4) 40GbE ports, so the VDX-6740B scales to a nice size. Multiple systems connect into a self-forming fabric, and are managed as a single switch by Connectrix Manager Converged Network Edition (CMCNE). This simplifies implementation and orchestration.
There are also advanced features that maximize performance, improve availability, and allow automated measurement and reporting. Benchmarks have shown that the dynamic buffer management of the Connectrix VDX-6740B can improve throughput up to 4X over systems without that feature.
The Connectrix VDX-6740B is well designed to help grow IP storage networks today and into the future. Find out more at: http://www.emc.com/storage/connectrix/connectrix.htm