Questions to Ask About your 10GbE Data Center

2

The data center has historically been the focal point of technology evolution. Over the past decade, application architectures, servers, and storage have all changed the way services are provisioned and delivered. The foundation of the data center—the network itself—is now experiencing a similar level of change, evolving from the architectures of the past to a more agile and dynamic solution that meets the requirements of today’s applications.

This change is seen with the growth of 10GbE networks at the server access layer. In the data center, 10GbE top-of-rack switches are seeing their biggest growth ever; in the second quarter of 2012, the number of 10GbE ports purchased was about 3.44 million—a growth rate of 13% quarter over quarter.1 This growth increased to 22% in the second quarter of 2013, with purchases reaching 5.19 million ports.2

A number of factors are responsible for this growth: increasingly powerful multicore compute systems; the rapid adoption of server virtualization; and virtualization at the I/O layer as storage and data networks converge. The network is the glue that holds this all together; after all, greater bandwidth is required to accommodate the applications this infrastructure is being built to support.

Chuck Girt, vice president of engineering and operations for OneCommunity, a broadband provider in Northeast Ohio, faces these requirements on a daily basis. “As customers demand more bandwidth and more horsepower, we can meet those needs without having to forklift anything,” says Girt. “We just keep adding to the system.”

1Dell’Oro Group, Ethernet Switch Layer 2+3 Report, 2Q ‘12 2Dell’Oro Group, Ethernet Switch Layer 2+3 Report, 2Q ‘13

Q1 ‘12 Q2 ‘12 Q3 ‘12 Q4 ‘12 Q1 ‘13 Q2 ‘13 Q3 ‘13* Q4 ‘13*

*Forecast

7,000

6,500

6,000

5,500

5,000

4,500

4,000

3,500

3,000

2,500

2,000

1,500

1,000

500

0

10GbE Ports

Source: Dell'Oro Group, Ethernet Switch Layer 2+3 Report, 2Q ‘13

Figure 1: 10GbE port growth

Don’t Know No plans Under investigation,planning in the

near future

Small numberof 10GbE servers

deployed (<50%)

Source: Juniper Networks Server Guy’s guide to Network Fabrics Webcast N=1327

Broad deployment> 50% migrated

to 10GbE

Done.100% migrated

to 10GbE

40%

35%

30%

25%

20%

15%

10%

5%

0%

Figure 2: The state of 10GbE data center migration

“As customers demand more bandwidth and more horsepower, we can meet those needs without having to forklift anything. We just keep adding to the system.”

- Chuck Girt Vice President, Engineering OneCommunity

3

What should one look for when contemplating the leap to a 10GbE data

center? Here are the five most important questions to ask before making

the transition:

1What applications are you hosting? Are they critical to your business? Are they high bandwidth, latency sensitive, or

jitter sensitive (in other words, do they use rich media)? Do you have

a few large-scale applications, or many smaller applications? These

applications—and the user experience characteristics that must

accompany them—will determine how to build the right network for

your data center.

2How virtualized are you? If you’re trying to achieve greater

virtualization density (the number of virtual machines per physical

server), this will have an impact on your network design. What

percentage of your servers is virtualized today, and in what direction

is that trending? Are you trying to achieve even greater economies of

scale by increasing virtualization in your servers? What about virtual

machine mobility—how often and how far are you moving your VMs

on your network?

3What type of storage are you running? The more you

virtualize, the more difficult it becomes to preprovision appropriate

levels of I/O. This makes converged network adapters (CNAs)

important to support convergence all the way to the edge of the

network. If you’re running a Fibre Channel (FC) network, Fibre Channel

over Ethernet (FCoE), or even iSCSI network access server (NAS),

you’ll need to build a network infrastructure capable of handling the

unique characteristics of your storage requirements as well.

4Do you need to support 1GbE? As you build the new 10GbE

data center, you will probably still be running business-critical

applications that use 1GbE and need to communicate with your new

applications. As you expand your data center footprint to meet your

10GbE needs, you have to make sure that it’s easily managed and

works seamlessly with your existing applications. That means the

10GbE network must interoperate with your existing 1GbE network,

existing servers, existing storage devices, and all other existing data

center services.

5Is your network SDN ready? If you’re interested in controlling

your operational expenses and meeting the needs of new

applications, SDN will matter. A modern switch should support

SDN tunnel termination as an L2 gateway and should provide APIs

for integration with management systems. It’s hard to predict what

your needs will be three years from now, but if you can build a

flexible, easy-to-manage, efficient data center network today, you’ll

minimize the risk of having to rip and replace your hardware and

reinvest tomorrow.

10GbE ACCESS IN THE DATA CENTER

Juniper Networks® QFX5100 Switch

For customers who need to handle distributed applications, virtualized workloads, or virtualized networks, the QFX5100 delivers the performance, low latency, and compact form factor required to serve as a universal building block for any data center architecture. For more information, visit

www.juniper.net/us/en/products-services/switching/qfx-series/5100.

Juniper Networks EX4300

Ethernet Switch

For customers looking for a seamless migration to 10GbE, Juniper’s Virtual Chassis technology, available on the EX4300 Ethernet Switch, offers a highly efficient and optimal solution. Virtual Chassis technology allows multiple interconnected switches to operate as a single logical device, simplifying management, while the EX4300 platform supports both 10GbE and 1GbE connections for mixed data center environments. For more information, visit www.juniper.net/us/en/products-services/switching/ex-series/4300.

Juniper Networks Junos® Space

Network Director

For customers who need to manage and synchronize both physical and virtual environments, Junos Space Network Director is a smart, comprehensive, and automated network management tool that lets network administrators visualize, analyze, and control their entire enterprise network—physical and virtual, wired and wireless—through a single pane of glass. For more information, visit www.juniper.net/us/en/products-services/network-management/junos-space-applications/network-director/.

Questions to Ask About your 10GbE Data Center

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