The increase in enterprise data storage needs coupled with longer data retention periods (mandated by legislation and compliance regulations) is leading to large growth in storage infrastructure: more backup, complex archive and disaster recovery, and increased requirements for resources, such as space, power, cooling, storage, and personnel. While businesses are trying to reduce their CapEx and OpEx, they are challenged to lower their storage infrastructure investments.  In order to be more responsive in a highly competitive marketplace, organizations are transforming to support the 21st century needs, by being more agile and efficient in delivering centralized applications and services to a geographically distributed customer base. To accomplish these goals, organizations are consolidating data centers, adding virtualization technologies, and leveraging cloud architectures. These initiatives, along with others, are imposing significant strain on storage networks

 Now the question is how do you consolidate and virtualize Storage efficiently and support DC transformation? Is it by enabling FC or FCoE or iSCSI or NAS ?

May be, the answer is - "Multi-protocol Storage"... To provide highest reliability, scalability, and performance, organizations have traditionally deployed Fibre Channel storage networks and some will continue to do so.   FC is still the preferred choice for enterprise (large and small) and market transition from 4/8 G to 16 G is the best proof that FC market is strong and growing. While FC is growing,  Ethernet based Storage solutions ( i.e.FCOE, iSCSI etc) is also gaining mindshare and some of our progressive customers use end to end FCOE  and  other Ethernet based Storage protocols to reap  benefit of convergence.  Cisco solution enables true convergence by combining the power of Ethernet and Fibre Channel (FC) technology.

 If you like to learn how todesign your converged storage networks, please attend the:Design Zone Webinar Series: Next topic -Network Convergence in a Unified Data Center-Register: Sep 10 2013  8:00 AM  PST. This session will help you understand how FCoE technology can be deployed incrementally in the evolving converged data center designs. Learn how to design and deploy real-world converged storage networks with a number of real customer examples

Cisco introduced its next generation Storage Platforms, the MDS 9710 Multilayer Director and MDS 9250i Multiservice Fabric Switch.  The new Cisco MDS 9710 Director establishes a new benchmark for performance -delivering more than three times the bandwidth of any Director in the industry -future-proofing storage connectivity for mission-critical applications, massive amounts of data, Solid State Drives (SSD) and cloud-based environments, while preserving current IT operations and knowledge. Cisco takes the MDS heritage of non-stop, decade of operations to the next level with the MDS 9710 -industry's most reliable storage Director with N+1 fabric, fully redundant components and fault-tolerant architectural design.. Over the years, the Cisco MDS 9000 Family has maintained technology leadership by continuing to deliver exceptional innovation. This next generation MDS is designed to accommodate the next decade of storage networking requirements -please read the ESG paper to learn more about the reliability and performance of the new MDS.

 If you would like to learn how organizations are benefiting from Cisco's next gen Data Center Solutions please read the case studies below.

 Xerox:  http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/collateral/ns340/ns517/ns224/Xerox_external_case_study_final_11_02_12.pdf

 HireRight: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/collateral/ns340/ns517/ns224/hire_right_dccs.pdf

  Salem Health: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/collateral/ns340/ns517/ns224/salem_health_external_case_study.pdf

 Atlanta Technology: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/collateral/ns340/ns517/ns224/atlanta_technology_cisco_approved.pdf

For more info:  www.cisco.com/go/mds

Tony Antony
Cisco DC Products and solutions Marketing
Sr Marketing Manager DC Solutions