10GbE delivers large-scale biz app throughput at near wire-speeds

USA: Blade servers equipped with embedded 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) networking can support large-scale business applications at near wire-speeds in consolidated blade server architectures using NetApp Ethernet and IP networked storage.

Members of Blade.org -- BLADE Network Technologies Inc. (BLADE), a leading provider of network switching infrastructure for blade servers; Chelsio Communications (Chelsio), a provider of 10GbE network interface cards for servers and storage; and Network Appliance Inc. (NetApp), a provider of storage and data management solutions -- recently announced the completion of a collaborative study through Blade.org that demonstrated this capability.

The study, conducted on the IBM BladeCenter platform, found that by supporting multiple protocols, workloads and integrated data management across a 10GbE network, customers can protect their investment, lower IT infrastructure costs, prevent datacenter equipment sprawl, and implement consolidation and virtualization without sacrificing flexibility.

"Ethernet has a very good reputation for its stability, flexibility and longevity. Customers expect these same characteristics, in addition to the increased bandwidth that 10 Gigabit Ethernet brings, for their Next Generation Data Centers," said Joel Reich, General Manager for the NetApp SAN and iSCSI Business Unit. "Our intent with this study of 10 Gigabit Ethernet networked storage is to demonstrate the viability and readiness of blade server architectures integrated with scalable storage in order to simulate environments that are 'production-ready."

"The collaborative effort between BLADE and NetApp is indicative of the type of community-driven model that customers expect from the IT industry and, specifically, Blade.org, the industry group driving innovation in blade-based solutions," said Vikram Mehta, President and CEO of BLADE Network Technologies.

"Customers can use the results of our study to improve the performance of their computing, network, and storage infrastructures using blade servers equipped with our embedded 10 Gigabit Ethernet switches, network interface cards from Chelsio, and 10GbE storage subsystems from NetApp. Our solution can simplify fabric topology in today's datacenters without compromising reliability," he added.

"Chelsio's Unified Wire technology on the server side and the filer side of this topology demonstrates the benefits of fabric convergence on Ethernet. Not only can the unmodified storage, clustering, and networking applications be run concurrently, they can do so with higher performance than Fibre Channel and InfiniBand and at no incremental cost to the customer," said Kianoosh Naghshineh, president and CEO of Chelsio. "Additionally, the fact that this convergence is routable will enable a whole new class of applications and usability for the enterprise installations."

The primary focus of the study released by Blade.org, BLADE, Chelsio and NetApp is to demonstrate and validate the throughput potential of 10 Gigabit Ethernet networking in a blade environment with an actual database workload.

The test bed consisted of a three-node Oracle RAC database configured on an IBM BladeCenter with HS21 high density, dual and quad core blades. IBM BladeCenter is the broadest portfolio of blade offerings in the industry, with a common architecture that allows clients to mix and match offerings to suit their specific needs.

Each node had a single 10GbE or 4Gb Fibre Channel path to the NetApp storage system depending on the test configuration. Each node generated database queries typical of read-intensive Decision Support System (DSS) workloads with the goal of maximizing the throughput generated across the respective 10GbE and Fibre Channel interconnects.

The study showed that:

* 10GbE is a viable alternative to Fibre Channel for mission critical workloads.

* 10GbE environments deliver more than 2x greater throughput compared to 4Gb Fibre Channel and 10GbE will outperform 8Gb Fibre Channel technology.

* 10GbE is positioned as a better storage interconnect compared to InfiniBand.

These results prove conclusively that:

* Deploying 10GbE simplifies customers' datacenter fabric, reduces equipment footprint, will dramatically lower power consumption and cooling requirements through consolidation, and reduces Total Cost of Ownership for IT infrastructure.

* Blade server platforms are an ideal way for enterprises, large and small, to consolidate their compute, network, and storage infrastructure without compromising performance, functionality, and availability.

* Blade servers, when combined with storage systems that can support essential data management services, such as boot from SAN, non-disruptive data protection, and secure data archive, allow customers to benefit from the flexibility and increased bandwidth of a "unified wire," all-Ethernet datacenter fabric.

* 10GbE is ready for mission critical, storage intensive applications and offers significant cost benefits when compared to Fibre Channel.