brochure_c02-6439750 pages

Brochure
Cisco MDS 9000 10-Gbps 8-Port FCoE Module Extends Fibre
Channel over Ethernet to the Data Center Core
Executive Summary
Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) can help you save money, simplify your management, lower your overall power
and cooling requirements, and make your data center more flexible over time. The ability to converge storage and
data networking with a single data center OS to deliver seamless convergence, scalability and network intelligence is
®
now possible with the Cisco MDS 9000 10-Gbps 8-Port FCoE Module, extending these FCoE-based benefits to the
core of your data center.
Introduction
The Cisco MDS 9000 10-Gbps 8-Port FCoE Module (Figure 1) is the industry’s first multihop-capable FCoE module
for the data center core. Now you can extend the benefits of FCoE beyond the access layer to the data center core
with a full line-rate FCoE module for the Cisco MDS 9500 Series Multilayer Directors. The Cisco MDS 9000 10-Gbps
8-Port FCoE Module is part of the Cisco unified fabric, which is a crucial building block for both traditional and
virtualized data centers.
Figure 1.
Cisco MDS 9000 10-Gbps 8-Port FCoE Module
Business Benefits
Enterprises networks are growing rapidly, challenging data centers to manage power, cooling, and space. In
response, enterprises are both building new data centers and looking for ways to extend the life of existing data
centers to get the most from their investments now and in the future.
The Power of Converged Fabric
The data center traditionally handles several types of traffic, each with its own dedicated equipment and capacity.
Over time network capacity needs to be increased, but at different intervals for different types of traffic. This
staggered approach can lead to wasted bandwidth or worse, the difficult decision to increase capacity for some
types of traffic only, at the expense of not being able to afford to increase capacity for other types.
© 2011 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
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