Data Centre To Consolidate On Single Network Technology - Ethernet

As the data centre continues to evolve and mature, business-oriented goals are driving the adoption of Ethernet as the single network technology, according to a new Current Analysis advisory report, ‘One Love, One Data Centre, One Network’.

“For there to be truly agile, cost optimised, and efficient data centres, the network must be transitioned to a single technology,” says the report’s author, Steven Schuchart, Current Analysis principal analyst, Data Centre. “That technology is Ethernet. There is significant opportunity to break the old networking paradigms and advocate one network technology for the data centre.”

According to Schuchart, the adoption of Ethernet as the one network technology is part of an overall theme, including green initiatives and virtualisation, for most new data centre priorities – the simplification of IT infrastructure. In the report, he looks at why Ethernet is the natural choice for a single network, including its wide deployment, and the willingness of Ethernet’s vendors to work together to ensure that the technology is compatible, regardless of brand or origin.

Schuchart also examines the strengths and weaknesses of Ethernet’s competition for the data centre: First, Fibre Channel, and how it initially provided the reliable, fast communications data centre storage needed, but now has lost its advantages of speed as well as price both in hardware and personnel costs; then InfiniBand, with its raw and low latency, but lacked the economies of scale needed for enterprise Data Centre applications. The report concludes with vendor and end-user recommendations.

Current Analysis covers the Data Centre in its CurrentCOMPETE service that features advisory reports, event-driven competitive intelligence reports, regularly updated market assessments, and company assessment reports on data centre vendors.