Why I/O is Strategic for Convergence - with 451 Research

Why I/O Is Strategic
for Convergence

Presented by: Emulex and 451
Research

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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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Why I/O Is Strategic

Shaun Walsh
SVP of marketing and
corporate development

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Why I/O Is Strategic?

Building a Virtual Panel of Experts!

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Topics for the Virtual Panel

Server Cloud Big Network
Virtualization Computing Data Convergence

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Why I/O is Strategic for Convergence

Next steps in performance and agility

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Company Overview

 One company with 3 operating  200+ staff
divisions  1,300+ client organizations:
 Syndicated research, advisory, enterprises, vendors, service
professional services, datacenter providers, and investment firms
certification, and events  Organic and growth through
 Global focus acquisition

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 speed
Data 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

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Editor's Notes