10 Gigabit Ethernet Hits the Enterprise
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A flurry of announcements for enterprise-class switches and server adapters brings 10 gigabit-per-second networking to corporate users.
Vendors Hewlett-Packard Co., Alcatel S.A. and S2io Inc. each announced 10 Gigabit Ethernet products Monday that are aimed squarely at enterprise data centers. The products—stackable switches from HP and Alcatel and a 10 Gig server adapter from S2io—are the latest in a series of announcements of affordable devices in this class. Until these announcements, 10 Gig products supported mainly switch-to-switch connections for large enterprise, campus and carrier networks.
Read more here about the new switches from Foundry.
The S2io adapter is designed to work in servers with PCI-X expansion slots running at 133 MHz. While these adapters will work at the required 10 gigabit per second data rate, their true throughput will be slightly under eight gigabits per second due to limitations of that bus.
According to Zabrowski, newer versions of the adapter are planned for PCI-X version 2.0 and for PCI Express, both of which will support the full 10 gigabit per second throughput.
The new 10 Gigabit Ethernet products are aimed at both port aggregation and clustering. Tony Asaro, senior analyst at the Enterprise Strategy Group in Milford, Mass., said the initial use for most will be primarily in clustering."The proliferation of clustering technology using standards-based communications is critical to having it be widespread throughout the enterprise," Asaro said.
He said the announcement of so many products means that enterprises will start adopting 10 Gigabit Ethernet right away. He said he expects to see it move to midsized enterprises eventually.
Aiding the spread to the enterprise is S2ios support for most major operating systems, including Windows, Linux, Solaris and AIX, among others. "I think this has far-reaching implications," Asaro said. "HP is a significant vendor, and this is a sign that this market has turned the corner."
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Wayne Rash is a Senior Analyst for eWEEK Labs and runs the magazine's Washington Bureau. Prior to joining eWEEK as a Senior Writer on wireless technology, he was a Senior Contributing Editor and previously a Senior Analyst in the InfoWorld Test Center. He was also a reviewer for Federal Computer Week and Information Security Magazine. Previously, he ran the reviews and events departments at CMP's InternetWeek.He is a retired naval officer, a former principal at American Management Systems and a long-time columnist for Byte Magazine. He is a regular contributor to Plane & Pilot Magazine and The Washington Post.
