McData unveils 256-port, multiprotocol switch

17.01.2005
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Lucas Mearian ist Senior Reporter bei der Schwesterpublikation Computerworld  und schreibt unter anderem über Themen rund um  Windows, Future of Work, Apple und Gesundheits-IT.

McData Corp. Monday will unveil a director-class switch that offers 256 ports, multiple network protocols and hard-partitioning capabilities. Analysts said the switch will allow consolidation of a storage network infrastructure and intelligent routing services.

McData"s Intrepid i10K switch features the DS10000 switch technology that the Broomfield, Colo.-based company gained in its 2003 acquisition of Sanera Systems Inc. The high-end i10K switch can be partitioned into numerous smaller, discrete storage-area networks (SAN) as well as 64 10Gbit/sec. interswitch link ports used to cobble together other switches already operating within an infrastructure.

The 10Gbit/sec. links can also be used to replicate data between data centers for disaster recovery purposes, said Patrick Harr, vice president of director platforms at McData.

Jay Astell, lead network architect at Kforce Inc., a Tampa, Fla.-based staffing firm with more than 70 branch offices across the country, is a user of smaller McData switches. He said his company is moving toward consolidating its storage switch architecture around a high-end offering. "It"s a lot easier to manage a couple of larger devices than a bunch of smaller ones," Astell said. Kforce hasn"t yet decided on a high-end switch.

McData is looking to promote tiered networks through use of the i10K as a backbone switch. For example, companies could use existing McData Intrepid 6000 series directors, which have 64 ports, and low-end 24-port Sphereon switches, all connected into and managed by a single i10K.

The i10K also supports multiple protocols, including iSCSI, Fibre Channel and Ficon connectivity. It offers Layer 2 network switching, or the ability to crack open data packets, read the information inside and route the data.

Storage analyst Arun Taneja said what"s most impressive about the i10K is its ability to "carve out domains that are rock-solid in terms of their separation. The whole idea is that to truly separate them out for different departments or even companies, security has to be rock-solid," said Taneja, founder of Taneja Group Inc. in Hopkinton, Mass.

Service Modules Coming

By the end of the year, McData plans to add service modules using an application-specific integrated circuit chip from San Jose-based Aarohi Communications Inc. That will enable network intelligence functions such as volume management, provisioning, data migration and replication. The modules will also allow the i10K or other McData switches to adopt functionality from other storage vendors and switch manufacturers.

For example, the i10K will be able to use EMC Corp."s Storage Router when it ships later this year to gain virtualization capabilities.

"The nice part about the service modules is they"re going to be compatible with any of their switches, which allows them to put intelligence data services into an existing network," said Nancy Hurley, an analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group Inc. in Milford, Mass.

Hurley said that the i10K is similar to Cisco Systems Inc."s MDS 9500 series switches, "but it goes further. You"d be able to lower your overall cost because you"re using this product to consolidate multiple SANs onto one switch and manage it all from one central (interface)," Hurley said. "They"ll leapfrog Brocade and Cisco with this product."

Harr said the i10K will ship in the next few weeks.

Its price tag will be about 20 percent higher than that of the Intrepid 6140, which costs roughly US$1,747 per port, according to McData.

SIDEBAR

Cisco to Resell EMC"s NAS Devices

Cisco Systems last week said it has expanded its partnership with EMC and will now resell EMC"s network-attached storage devices -- marking the first time Cisco has ventured into the business of selling an enterprise-class storage subsystem.

Cisco plans to offer EMC"s Celerra NS500 and NS700 NAS arrays in combination with its Cisco File Engine appliance. The networking equipment vendor announced the pizza-box-size File Engine last month, saying customers could use it to consolidate management of distributed file and print services within branch offices by moving that function to a central data center. EMC"s NAS devices will be sold as the storage element for backing up file-based data over a WAN, according to Cisco.

John Henze, director of marketing at Cisco"s Caching Services business unit, said File Engine users "would really like an end-to-end solution that covers central storage, as well as one vendor that supports all of that." The integrated offering will be sold and supported by Cisco directly and through its worldwide partner channel. Cisco expects to begin selling the combination at the start of the second quarter, Henze said.

But IDC analyst Brad Nisbet said Cisco likely won"t be overwhelmed by the number of NAS users it has to support. Most large enterprises already have NAS devices and storage-area networks in their data centers, Nisbet said. "And there"s only a certain number of organizations that would benefit from file-level consolidation," he added.

Brocade Communications Systems Inc., which competes against Cisco in the storage switch market, said that it has no interest in selling storage subsystems.

"I think the argument is true that within the data center, people want one throat to choke if something goes wrong," said Brocade product manager Jay Kidd. "But within the NAS world, they already have Network Appliance and Cisco, or EMC and Cisco." Kidd was referring to the fact that both EMC and NAS rival Network Appliance Inc. resell Cisco"s storage switches.