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Presented by: Emulex and 451 Research

Why I/O Is Strategic for Convergence

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Webcast Housekeeping

1. All attendees will be on mute during the presentation

2. Please submit your questions via the text/chat feature

3. We will do all Q&A at the end of the presentation

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Shaun WalshSVP of marketing and corporate development

Why I/O Is Strategic

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Why I/O Is Strategic?

Building a Virtual Panel of Experts!

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Topics for the Virtual Panel

ServerVirtualization

CloudComputing

NetworkConvergence

BigData

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Why I/O is Strategic for Convergence

Next steps in performance and agility

Company Overview

One company with 3 operating divisions

Syndicated research, advisory, professional services, datacenter certification, and events

Global focus

200+ staff 1,300+ client organizations:

enterprises, vendors, service providers, and investment firms

Organic and growth through acquisition

Digital Infrastructure Focus

Forces at Work

Separate Paths Storage and data networks have been distinct

• Differing requirements▫ Speed▫ Latency▫ Loss

• Different organizations Different growth paths

• Increases in performance

Becoming more alike over time

A Mood to Merge

Storage Advances Fibre Channel speedData Advances iSCSI matures 10 Gb Ethernet

Approaching Parity Converged server platforms Virtualization pressures

An Increasing Sentiment in Storage Networking

Joining the Paths

Shift in sentiment pushed by advantages Virtualization

• Bringing teams together• Configuration flexibility

Operations• Simplifies buy/build• Single interface simplicity• CNA’s offer safety net

Key Convergence Advantages

Area Aspect Advantage

Operations Simplified deployment Reduced cabling costs

  VM mobility Workload agility

  Hybrid cloud enablement Scale and cost flexibility

Technology Standards – DCB, DCBX More deterministic performance

  Virtual NIC advancements Investment protection

  Converged systems Operational simplicity

  FCoE maturity Greater support and management

Technology Aspects

Data network additions are critical to performance Data Center Bridging

• Approaching lossless Ethernet Adapter advancements

• Controls for mixed traffic• Virtualization

FCoE• Managing FC transition

Data Center Bridging

Putting Ethernet into higher gear IEEE standards

• Priority-based Flow Control▫ 802.1Qbb – Flow pausing

• Congestion Notification▫ 802.1Qau – Backpressure for source quench

• Enhanced Transmission Selection▫ 802.1Qaz - Allocates bandwidth, priority

• DCBX – Capabilities Exchange▫ 802.1AB – Negotiates functionality

Adapter Advancements

Controls for greater capacity Offloading

• Minimizing processor burn QoS

• Putting protections in place Virtualization

• Partitioning• SR-IOV

Power consumption• Copper catching up

Fibre Channel over Ethernet - FCoE

Implementations reach maturity Much more than FC encapsulation!

• Replicating FC forwarding and controls Networking gear support

• Fiber Channel Forwarders (FCF)▫ Transitional switches▫ FC ports▫ Routers can have FCF stacks, too

• Extended networks possible Standard updated

• ANSI FC-BB-6• More complex toplogies

Operations Aspects

Working it out Infrastructure shifts

• Gradual transition▫ Per server

• Shared management Virtualization integration

• Designing for workload mobility• Cluster and path planning

Migration Case Study

Typical independent networks Storage and data isolated

First Step Migration

After adding FCoE capable switch Servers connect directly with converged adapters Converged traffic

Next Steps

Planning is key Infrastructure assessment

• Storage• Server• Network

Pilot evaluation• People planning• Application identification• Performance monitoring• Traffic volumes

Production deployment

Questions? Comments?

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