New features include:
• High-bandwidth SAN for flash storage: The new 48-port, 32Gbps Fibre Channel switching module for the MDS 9700 enables organizations to easily scale with demand.
• Investment protection: The Cisco MDS 9700, first launched in 2013, can now be upgraded to support 32G Fibre Channel using Cisco's easily upgradeable chassis architecture.
• Higher-density director: Up to 768 next-generation 32Gbps Fibre Channel line-rate ports per director to ensure scalability.
• Leading performance: Aggregate full-duplex throughput of 1536Gbps for high-speed 32Gbps storage connectivity for high-performance virtualized servers, all-flash arrays, and Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe).
• Optimized server-to-storage connectivity: Broadcom/Emulex and Cavium/Qlogic 32Gb Fibre Channel host bus adapter (HBA) support on Cisco UCS. To meet SAN scalability requirements, Cisco is collaborating with Broadcom/Emulex and Cavium/Qlogic to offer customers high-bandwidth storage connectivity, providing 32Gb Fibre Channel HBAs with built-in support on Cisco UCS CSeries. These 32Gb HBAs are designed to meet the demands of modern network storage systems that utilize high-performance, low-latency solid-state drives in addition to traditional hard drives.
• Complete visibility with integrated analytics engine. With a high-performance, integrated analytics engine based on hardware built into the Cisco MDS 32G modules, organizations gain complete visibility across the SAN in real time—viewing every exchange, every sequence, and every online packet. Customers can analyze FC exchanges in real time and generate reports based on various metrics, achieving comprehensive and agile monitoring of any potential network performance issues to make better operational decisions.
• Greater efficiency and simplified operations. Cisco MDS storage directors and Cisco UCS C-Series servers now offer support for NVMe over Fibre Channel, facilitating the scalability of flash storage devices for faster application response and optimized scalability.
Multi-protocol flexibility: MDS switches support NVMe and SCSI simultaneously over FC and FCoE.
Easy integration: NVMe support can be enabled on MDS switches by upgrading to NX-OS version 8.x, without requiring hardware changes.
Investment protection: NVMe over fabrics is supported on all current and future generations of MDS switches, including the MDS 9700, 9396S, 9250i, and 9148S.
