Future Proof SANs with Enhanced Performance, Analytics, and Automation

Cisco introduced the MDS 9700 Switches in 2013 as the foundation for next-generation data centers transitioning to flash storage – now deployed in over 80% of our customer environments. Non-volatile memory express (NVMe) technology played a key role in this rapid adoption as it unleashed the full potential of flash storage through higher performance scales and ultra-low latency.

Today, Cisco is raising the bar for storage networking with new features that further future-proof data centers to support existing and emerging applications. These include:

◈ Investment protection for NVMe and all-Flash arrays: 64G ready director, no forklift upgrade, built for the most demanding storage environments

◈ Actionable visibility and insights: TheIndustry’s first NVMe/FC analytics for deep visibility, built for customer choice and flexibility

◈ Reduced operational complexity: Extending DevOps support for IT automation with new Ansible module, including simplified integration built for advanced SAN automation

Support for 64G Fibre Channel Performance

The high performance, flexibility and reliability of Fibre Channel is now demanding the next-gen performance standards. The 64G capabilities for the MDS 9700 platform helps customers achieve better scale, bandwidth and performance to support business data growth.

And customers can support tomorrow’s mission-critical, data-hungry applications with a new Supervisor and Fabric module available via an in-place upgrade with no downtime.

Analytics for FC-SCSI and NVMe/FC

The introduction of NVMe/FC protocols has introduced a new set of challenges brought forward by the high speed and high performance of all-flash storage devices. Multiple technologies are all vying for the use of high speed Fibre Channel fabrics.

Cisco’s in-line SAN Analytics capability now includes the NVMe/FC protocol, whether customers send SCSI or NVMe over FC. The enhanced visibility is available for all products within the Cisco 32Gbps portfolio, from 8-port all the way up to models, offering 768 ports in a single chassis, and enabling faster troubleshooting of all workloads.

Customers can leverage analytics out-of-the-box for their next-generation storage infrastructure, decreasing costly troubleshooting time for fabric wide issues.

New SAN DevOps Tools Including New Ansible Modules 

Almost 95% of network changes in traditional SANs are performed manually. More than 70% of policy violations in SANs can be attributed to human error, while 75% of OpEx are attributed to network changes and troubleshooting.

Consolidating SAN management reduces the complexity of data center networks, lowers the overall cost of operations, and frees up additional resources. Cisco is introducing Ansible modules to simplify the frequent tasks in storage networks such as VSAN, device-alias, and zoning configuration.

Additional benefits for the Ansible modules include:

◈ OpEx savings: Reduce effort in deploying storage networking infrastructure and provisioning new devices for faster storage allocation to applications

◈ Improved SLA and business agility: Elimination of human-errors in repeated efforts; ability to deploy and provision new switches and storage faster

◈ Faster problem resolution and change management: Integrate changes across multiple products/vendors as a single automated work-flow

◈ Simple integration of multiple vendors: Open-standard technology enables work across multiple vendors with minimal learning curve across different products