I have been involved in the implementation of a “converged network” PoC (proof of concept) in the lab for the past 2 months. One may ask, “What’s a converged network”?
Up until recently, datacenters are running with both ethernet network and fibre channel network to each server. That’s normally 4 ethernet connections (2 for etherchannel client network, 1 for administration network and 1 for backup) and 2 FC SAN connection – grand total of 6 ports, 2 to 3 ethernet switches and 2 FC SAN switches. Quite a bit of infrastructure that’s needed to support this modern-day datacenter. Cisco’s converged network is aimed to reduce that – 2 Nexus switches and 2 CNA (converged network adapter) to each server instead. The FC SAN connection can fan out at the distribution switch level or at the access switch level. In all, this is a great reduction in the number of switches, adapters and cables. The connection speed at each port is 10Gb; fast enough for FC SAN (4Gb) and a few ethernets!
Currently, our IBM AIX and HP Proliant servers (with appropriate drivers and OS releases) support this. CNA for HP Bladecenter is coming, but not here yet. We will be testing that later when CNA are GA (general availability).
Converged network represents a slightly modified paradigm in how things are in the datacenters of corporate America –not enough to really change things up, but enough to get corporate fiefdoms in a reactionary mode. Questions such as, “which group is responsible for the administration of the switch in terms of access and configuration”, “will there be ‘leakage’ of data from one network to another”, “will the savings be enough to offset the additional administrative overhead”, etc. needed to be answered and fiefdom battles needed to be fought, won, losers vanquished, new procedures and policies written and winners crowned. The final question, really, is, “will the benefit outweighs the hassles?” For a new datacenter or other radical scenarios, the answer may be “yes”. But for the majority, sadly, the answer may be a resounding “no”. Not because of the technology or anything else, it is because of the corporate behemoth is an entity that eschews change.
