choosing the right protocol for your storage

© 2017 BROCADE COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS, INC.

Choosing the right protocol for your storage


Big pictureThe bottleneck has moved

Research conducted by Gartner in ‘The Future of Storage Protocols’ shows storage networking investments are becoming a critical top priority due to the adoption of high-throughput, solid-state and flash storage.

The bottleneck is now in the storage network, so which protocol is right for you?

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Impact factorsWhy the storage network needs to change now

The pressure is building on storage networks, from applications, flash storage and big data analytics.

The perfect storm: digital transformation

Always-on business

operations

Flash storage

Always-on business

operations

Hyperscale virtualization

Flash storage

Exponential big data growth


Gartner says:

‘Storage networking investmentsare becoming a critical top priority…IT leaders must revisit and

review their budget plans for storage networking infrastructure, to ensure their ability to meet increasingly performance-sensitive

service levels…’’


The drive for changeThe technical case for upgrading now

It’s not just about catch-up.

There are sound practical reasons for upgrading your storage network.

• Scale services and double or quadruple the number of transactions and/or application performance

• Reduce costs by consolidating network switches, cables, and host-bus adaptors or network interface cards

• Address storage network bottlenecks, as the key challenges move from arrays to the network

• Create a storage network that’s ready for the next generation of solid-state storage and complex, high-speed applications


Gartner says:

‘Identify applications and workloads that can benefit from order-of-magnitude improvements in

memory latencies, throughput and bandwidth…’

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Protocol pokerThe key tasks for storage networks

All storage network protocols have to tick the same key boxes. Your choice will have to be based on additional critical factors, such as management and administration overheads.

InfiniBand FCoE iSCSI NVMe

SMB Fibre Channel PCIe

NFSObject storage

protocols Ethernet-based storage networking


Gartner says:

‘Fibre Channel is a mature low-latency, high-bandwidth, high-throughput protocol… FC is simple to configure and administer,

and has had wide adoption over the past 17 years…’

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Sanity check: It’s time to make your call

Every storage networking protocol has its advantages and disadvantages. Your challenge is to find the one that fits your needs. Gartner’s guidance will help you pick the winner for your organization.


Gartner says:

‘Familiarity, availability of skills, and a mature ecosystem of support and monitoring products make some protocols simpler

to implement, administer and manage than others…’


Common sense: Why Fibre Channel is still the winning choice

• FC is transparent to the applications

• FC has a low footprint and low server requirement

• Upgrade paths are good, with backward support to at least the previous version

30 billion transactions go through Fibre Channel per day

96% of the world’s banks, airlines and retailers run over Fibre Channel


Wise counsel: How Brocade can help

• Brocade Gen 6 Fibre Channel: enhanced operational stability and increased business agility

• Breakthrough 32 Gbps performance accelerates application response time by up to 71%

• Brocade Fabric Vision technology with IO Insight: a consistent, predictable, and highly scalable foundation for next-generation storage, and NVMe

Modern networks for the all-flash data center need more than just higher throughput and lower latency.


Next steps: Read the full Gartner report

Gartner says: ‘Fibre Channel will remain as the data center storage protocol of choice for the next decade…’

Download The Future of Storage Protocols






choosing the right protocol for your storage

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