Abstract .............................................................................................................................................. 2
Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 2
Traditional data center topology ............................................................................................................ 2
Converged fabrics with 10 Gigabit Ethernet ........................................................................................... 3
iSCSI .............................................................................................................................................. 3
Fibre Channel over Ethernet .............................................................................................................. 4
FCoE for convergence in the data center ................................................................................................ 5
Migrating to converged fabrics .......................................................................................................... 5
Data center bridging ........................................................................................................................ 6
Virtualization in converged networks ...................................................................................................... 8
Server virtualization .......................................................................................................................... 8
NIC virtualization ............................................................................................................................. 8
Flex-10 for Virtual Connect ................................................................................................................ 8
Summary ............................................................................................................................................ 9
For more information ............................................................................................................................ 9
Call to action ...................................................................................................................................... 9
Converged fabrics: Emerging technologies
for simplifying data center infrastructure
technology brief
