Lastly, Ethernet Technology Becomes Affordable for the Masses
It wasn’t long ago that a 10 Gigabit Ethernet switch was a luxury to only the richest companies that could afford them. A 10 GB Ethernet switch was the sleek Lamborghini of connections, used by the jet set Fortune 500 companies. It seemed like there would never be a day when the 10 G Ethernet switch would be shared by the common man. Yet as technology develops, it becomes cheaper. Remember when CD players cost hundreds of dollars and were the top of the line? Today, you can buy a CD player for pretty much the cost of a CD. Likewise, 10GbE technology has come down dramatically so that the rest of us can afford it.
In fact, you can get a 10 Gigabit Ethernet switch these days for less than $500 per port.
This explains why 10G Ethernet technology is quickly becoming the solution for access, distribution and core layers of data center management. As more companies realize the advantages of 10 Gigabit Ethernet capabilities, the price-per port gap shrinks between 10GbE technology and that of alternate network options. Though point technologies such as Myrinet for HPC and Fibre Channel for storage once dominated the industry, 10 Gb Ethernet capabilities unify these technologies with a much more cost effective and space sensitive solution.
You get performance with proven flexibility to meet a business’s changing technological needs at a lower cost advantage. Clusters of commodity servers form the nerve center, brain and spinal column for a company’s IT presence. As technology evolves and costs drop, companies increasingly rely on leveraging HPC for design and simulation, data analysis and other intensive computer applications that are beyond the reach of most IT budgets, especially those of small to mid size companies. Many of these companies are using 10 G Ethernet switches, as recent developments in low latency 10GbE switching allow for space and cost efficient offload cluster and storage protocol from the host processor.
Servers can now fully exploit 10 Gb Ethernet lines, reducing one-hop and end-to-end latency to less than 10 microseconds and CPU utilization for line rate transfers to less than 10 %.
Realize that there is more to be considered in choosing a 10GbE system than just speeds and feeds. Energy efficiency and cooling properties are critical factors that optimizing data center economics. Companies must balance performance with power consumption to meet energy budgets and get the most from their 10 Gigabit Ethernet infrastructure.
As technology evolves, it becomes more cost effective to meet the demand. In this way, technological improvement has a very democratizing effect. Small to mid size companies can more affordably take advantage of today’s 10 G Ethernet technology and remain competitive in their markets.
