LATEST INTELLIGENCE
DATA CENTER HIGH SPEED
MIGRATION: INFRASTRUCTURE
ISSUES, TRENDS, DRIVERS AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
PRESENTED BY
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INTELLIGENTCIO
I
n the data center, speed is everything. The
challenge is to look ahead and know what
you have to be prepared to deliver – in the
immediate future and later on – and chart the most
expedient and flexible course forward. The faster
that available technologies and applicable standards
evolve, the harder that job becomes.
Recent data center trends continue to predict 25 to
35 percent annual growth in data-center traffic and
bandwidth requirements. This demand for more
network capacity can only be supported by a shift
to higher switching speeds, which is precisely what is
now happening in the market. According to Dell’Oro
Group, shipments of 25 Gbps and 100 Gbps ports
increased to more than one million in the first quarter
of 2017. Dell’Oro predicts Ethernet switch revenue
will continue to grow through the end of the decade,
with a large share allocated to 25G and 100G ports.
Migration strategies are evolving as well. The
growing affordability of 100G switch links –
multimode and singlemode – is enabling many
companies to update their switch networks from
10G directly to 100G, skipping 40G altogether.
The shift to 25G lanes is well underway as well, with
25G-lane switches becoming more commonplace.
Meanwhile, the entrance of proprietary and
standards-based PAM-4 modulation has ushered in
the introduction of 50G lane rates. The increasing
popularity of 25G and 50G ports continues to affect
uptake of 40G server attachments.
Looking ahead, lane capacities are expected to
continue doubling, reaching 100G by 2020 and
enabling the next generation of high-speed links for
fabric switches. A number of factors are driving the
surge in data center throughput speeds. n
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