KeyLabs Completes Multi-Vendor Fibre Channel Switch Comparison
Results Available Online Comparing 8-Port Switches from Ancor,
BROCADE and Vixel
LINDON, Utah, Oct. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- KeyLabs(TM) Inc., the industry's premier e-commerce testing facility, announced today the results of its multi-vendor Fibre Channel switch comparison test. In the test, KeyLabs conducted product functionality and performance testing on three fibre channel switches currently available from Ancor, BROCADE, and Vixel. KeyLabs performed the test to provide a means for evaluating Fibre Channel switches, which facilitate scalable, reliable storage area networks.
"Our objective in performing this comparison test is to help SAN customers determine the most appropriate framework for their fabric-based storage area networks. Reliability, interoperability, scalability and manageability are crucial requirements for Fibre Channel switches in a fabric environment," commented JD Brisk, President and CEO of KeyLabs. "The KeyLabs test provides hard facts about the performance and reliability of available Fibre Channel switches to help customers make more informed purchasing decisions."
The comparison testing was conducted at KeyLabs' state of the art facility in Lindon, Utah. Three Fibre Channel switches were tested: Ancor GigWorks MKII-8, BROCADE SilkWorm 2400, and Vixel 8100. The testing team comprised five networking experts who created and conducted more than twenty test suites, emphasizing five essential areas of functionality: availability, scalability, migration support, manageability, and usability. KeyLabs evaluated the switch performance and functionality in each of these five areas in an effort to determine the most enterprise-ready Fibre Channel switch.
The testing environment included both private-loop and fabric-aware Fibre Channel hosts. Fibre Channel targets included public and private JBOD and SCSI array storage devices. In addition, KeyLabs deployed eight Finisar Fibre Channel Gigabit frame generators capable of pushing switch ports to their maximum throughput in both half-duplex and full-duplex traffic patterns.
KeyLabs evaluated each switch based on whether it could meet connectivity objectives and usability factors. Results from each test suite were averaged to determine a final score in each of the five testing areas. Based on switch performance in these five defined test areas, KeyLabs' overall assessment of the switches gave the highest rating to the BROCADE SilkWorm 2400 Fibre Channel Switch.
For more information, including a detailed explanation of the results and the criteria used to make the comparison assessments, visit KeyLabs web site at keylabs.com.
About KeyLabs Inc.
The IT industry's premier e-commerce testing facility, KeyLabs Inc., located in Lindon, Utah, provides a full suite of network testing services. The many testing services provided by KeyLabs include e-commerce stress and security testing, SAN testing, performance analysis, scalability analysis, and proof-of-concept testing. KeyLabs provides custom testing services as well as specialized testing software development. In addition, KeyLabs develops and manages industry certification programs for software and hardware vendors, and assists corporations needing to validate technologies in large-scale environments. KeyLabs is a privately owned company. More information can be found at keylabs.com.
Trademarks - KeyLabs(TM) is a trademark of KeyLabs, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
SOURCE KeyLabs, Inc.
CO: KeyLabs, Inc.
ST: Utah
IN: MLM
SU:
10/26/1999 10:00 EDT prnewswire.com
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