For data centers, virtualization of network services over an IP fabric, simplifies data center design and management of networks to lower operational expenses, while also capping the cost of expanding available services and dramatically reducing energy consumption. In addition, optical SANs between data centers provide a very high level of disaster recovery and business continuity.
Although Fibre Channel (FC) is predominant in the data center today, the trend towards compute virtualization and 10GigE servers will drive the move to Ethernet as the preferred interconnect for storage. In fact, "2008 and 2009 will be the peak years for FC switch sales thanks to server virtualization and blade servers," according to Richard Villars, vice president, Storage Systems, at IDC.
Brocade's acquisition seems to be confirming these market trends.
Didn't know that Nortel is a player in this space!?
The NYSE has built its ultra-reliable, ultra-scalable Ethernet network on Nortel, while the Vancouver Olympic Committee for the 2010 Games is 100% reliant on Nortel. One financial institution has three data centers running Nortel, supporting over 35,000 PCs, tellers and ATMs, and hundreds of servers. In addition many of the largest global banks rely on Nortel for their inter data center optical SANs, delivered in partnership with storage leaders such as Brocade, EMC and IBM.
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