The new Sun Storage 7000 Unified Storage product family features 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) networking options as the perfect match to this innovative, standards-based storage system. High performance 10 Gigabit Ethernet switches from Force10 NetworksR, including the company’s S2410 access switches, complete the storage solution, providing a scalable, flexible network architecture for demanding storage environments.

A deliberate focus and adherence to open standards allows Sun and Force10 to deliver the lowest total cost of ownership (TCO) available for this robust storage solution. Customers today are not looking to deploy proprietary solutions, but instead require that vendors allow them to architect for today without getting locked out of future designs. Sun and Force10 understand these benefits and initiate product designs like the 7000 Unified Storage Systems and 10 Gigabit Ethernet switches with a focus on standards to drive down TCO.

Sun’s Unified Storage Systems provide all the benefits of open storage in an easy to use package so organizations can radically simplify their storage deployment and management. Open storage systems combine industry-standard hardware with open-source software, and are supported by a community of thousands who have a passion to create better storage solutions. This powerful combination helps spur innovation and drive better storage economics.

Standards-based 10 Gigabit Ethernet supports block- and file-level storage access. The primary IP/Ethernet Storage Area Network (SAN) protocol is iSCSI, which layers the SCSI block-level protocol over TCP/IP. Network attached storage (NAS) uses file-access protocols, such as network file system (NFS) and common Internet file system (CIFS) to provide file-level access to file servers or file storage appliances on the IP/Ethernet network.

Ethernet networking provides the following benefits:

• Proven Interoperability: From the outset, Ethernet networks have relied on interoperability between the products of multiple vendors of adapters, hubs, switches and routers. Proven multi-vendor interoperability continues to be a major strength of Ethernet through successive generations of higher link speeds, including 10 GbE today and 40 GbE/100 GbE in 2010.

• Ease of Management: Ethernet-based storage can be readily assimilated in the existing Ethernet network management environment without requiring additional management tools or the training necessary for use of special purpose protocols, such as Fibre Channel.

• Ubiquitous Connectivity: Virtually every computer system shipped today comes with Ethernet built in and the overwhelming majority of desktop computers feature a 1 GbE NIC. An increasingly popular option for servers is to incorporate the LAN on the motherboard (LOM), with higher performance servers and blade-based systems beginning to support onboard 10 GbE.

Switch/router features that support 10 GbE IP storage for consolidation and virtualization of storage resources include:

• High-port density, which simplifies the design of data center networks and allows a large number of servers to readily share IP storage resources.

• Non-blocking performance assures line-rate performance can be delivered simultaneously on all switch ports, maximizing storage access performance.

• Resiliency/high availability features, including a high degree of software resiliency and hardware redundancy among critical switch/router subsystems (e.g., route processors, switch fabric modules and power supplies), provide the reliability required for mission-critical storage access.

• Low latency, cut-through switching has become available as a means of reducing network latency within the IP storage portion of an Ethernet switching fabric. Layer 2 cut-through switches feature switching latencies of approximately 300 nanoseconds compared to latencies of several microseconds for typical store and forward switch/routers.

• WAN extensibility of the Ethernet network allows geographically dispersed IP storage to be virtualized into a seamless Ethernet-based storage resource, simplifying data access and data management, including disk-to-disk backups and disaster recovery facilities. Alternately, IP storage requests can be routed over any existing IP MAN or WAN to reach remote storage facilities without requiring additional gateway devices.

The Ethernet and IP storage ecosystems utilize 10 GbE technology to completely remove performance as a barrier for enterprise-level adoption of an IP-based network storage strategy centered on iSCSI and NAS.

More Information

Interested in learning more about unified data center fabric? Register to access an in-depth white paper:

Ethernet: The High Bandwidth Low-Latency Data Center Switching Fabric.

Force10 S2410 access switches

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