ANCRs new switch will be be a step or two ahead of this one:
techweb.com
New McData Switches Leverage Fibre Channel
By Chuck Moozakis
McData Corp. today flips the switch on a new line of products aimed at speeding retrieval of data from storage across high-speed networks.
The company will announce a new line of digital switches that use fibre channel to provide high-speed links from servers to storage devices, as well as from the switch to the storage media itself.
The new line, dubbed the ES-4000 series, are being touted by McData (www.mcdata.com) as the first generation of devices capable of managing the huge volume of information that companies will be transmitting over fibre channel networks.
The new switches will begin shipping in the fourth quarter this year, according to Peter Dougherty, product marketing director at Broomfield, Colo.-based McData.
The ES-4000 switches support up to 32 ports and transmit data at 1 gigabyte per second between ports with a latency rate of less than 2 microseconds, he said.
Dougherty said the ES-4000 product line will reduce the chance of failure by backing up two active 16-port switches with a third unit.
If one switch stops working, the backup is designed to take over immediately.
He said the switches will cost more than $4,000 per port, a figure he said exceeds that of some lower-end fibre channel storage switches. He declined to be more specific, though final pricing will be announced within the next few weeks, he said.
Fibre channel will enable users to transmit data up to 10 kilometers, allowing IT managers to link locations more efficiently within a geographic area.
"Fibre channel will be the interconnect technology of choice and fibre channel switches will play an integral part of how that technology will work," said Dougherty.
McData, a unit of EMC Corp. (www.emc.com), is tackling the fibre channel market as an outgrowth of its switch and controller product lines geared toward IBM's ESCON (enterprise systems connections) protocol. The new product will also feature Web management software, which allows users to monitor their network's storage activities via Internet browsers.
"The Internet gives us a lot of opportunity," according to Dougherty.
"The proliferation of management platforms has created a proliferation of standards and how equipment and data can be managed.
"The Web offers a common presentation layer and gives users the ability to manage their data without having to purchase thousands of dollars of management software." |
