10G Ethernet, now well established with IEEE Standards is also reaching price points that make it reasonable and economical to install in data centers that are not strictly focused on high performance computing.
This note discusses where and how the enterprise can begin to utilize 10G Ethernet and get the most benefit from the technology. Areas that are discussed include:
- Data Center backbone.
- WAN options.
- Server connectivity to the network infrastructure.
- Impact of consolidation and virtualization on 10G adoption.
- Use of 10G Ethernet for SAN connectivity.
While not all enterprises will need to immediately utilize the ten-fold increase in performance offered by 10G Ethernet, they should evaluate where 10G might benefit the data center operations. Just as 1GbE has largely replaced 100MbE in the data center, 10G will eventually push 1GbE out of the mainstream data center infrastructure.