Is It Time for 10-Gig?

Do you dream of using 10-Gbit/s Ethernet as a universal connectivity fabric? If so, you're in a tiny minority that may need to get more vocal.

Equipment suppliers and service providers aren't in any rush to supply 10 Gbit/s. Indeed, most are simply ignoring such talk. They say 10-Gbit/s Ethernet may surface here and there in isolated data centers, but those projects are restricted to high-performance applications that are mostly local.

"The [10-Gbit/s Ethernet] market for SANs hasn't yet hit its stride, mostly due to the cost of deploying ... infrastructure," writes an EMC spokesperson in an email. EMC will wait to supply 10-Gbit/s technology until it's both affordable and in demand, she states.

And this from an Ethernet service provider: "I've only seen [demand for 10-Gbit/s Ethernet services] a couple of times, and not for distances of more than 1,000 kilometers," says Michael Papell, VP of corporate development at Veroxity Technology Partners, a facilities-based carrier that specializes in custom enterprise networks, including SAN extension solutions.

So where does this leave the small, crowing crowd of 10-Gbit/s Ethernet storage evangelists? It's tough to tell.It's true there's ongoing news about 10-Gbit/s Ethernet components. (See Woven, Chelsio Shows Off, True Believer Plans iWarp Giveaway, NetXen Singles Out 10-Gig, and NetEffect Nails New Funding.) There's a growing roster of adapters available. (See NetEffect Nails New Funding.) Switches from Force10 support 10 Gbit/s. (See Force 10 Fires Up Low Latency Switch.) In the NAS space, BlueArc and NetApp say they're ready to hook up to 10-Gbit/s Ethernet. And there are 10-Gbit/s SANs on the shelves at Nimbus and Xiranet. (See 10-Gig IP SANs Hit Bleeding Edge.)

One of the most energetic of the 10-Gbit/s iSCSI proponents is the Nimbus CEO and founder Tom Isakovich, who says he's not only got numerous customers running 10-Gbit/s systems, but ones replacing Fibre Channel with those systems.

"We currently have several customers running 10GbE Nimbus IP SANs. We will also announce a partnership with Force10 Networks around 10GbE IP SANs in the next week or so," Isakovich states. Nimbus is also set to demo 10-Gbit/s Ethernet linking Nimbus iSCSI systems in Pasadena, Calif., and Geneva, Switzerland, at an upcoming conference at Caltech.

Still, before 10-Gbit/s takes off, experts are clear there are a roster of problems that must be solved. (See How To: Plan an iSCSI SAN.) According to analyst Brad O'Neill of the Taneja Group consultancy, the key will be getting all the parts together to enable end-to-end connectivity. "A lot has to do with what happens at the server level," he suggests. Today, many servers aren't equipped to handle 10-Gbit/s Ethernet, though adapters are available to support the option.

At the same time, O'Neill suggests, there's also competition from InfiniBand, which has solved some of the RDMA (remote direct memory access) issues still to be ironed out for 10-Gbit/s and is readily available for the kinds of high-performance applications that require more horsepower. And that point leads us right back to the issue of when WAN extension services will be more widespread.That could take longer still. In a recently published report from

Heavy Reading, "2006 Survey of Ethernet Service Providers," senior analyst Stan Hubbard reports that among 50 Ethernet service providers surveyed, 24.3 percent offer storage extension among their applications, but 38.8 percent have no plans to add offerings in the future. Further, 44.2 percent of respondents believe there is "little or no" demand for Ethernet-based storage extension services at any data rate.

Bottom line? Progress toward 10-Gbit/s Ethernet for storage networking will only come with the convergence of equipment, services, and demand. When and if that happens is, well, anyone's guess.

We turn again to the pundits: "The fact is that outside of corner cases that have extreme performance needs, 10Gb based storage access has not yet occurred on a wide scale for general purpose deployments yet," writes Greg Schulz of StorageIO in an email. "However, over the next couple of years I would expect that as more servers ship with and are enabled to leverage 10Gb Ethernet ports, we will see more adoption of 10GbE for iSCSI and NAS." He says the operating systems and driver stacks also need to be enabled to use techniques such as iSER to leverage low-latency RDMA capabilities, unlocking the potential of 10-Gbit/s Ethernet for storage traffic.

In any case, you're in for a wait. "There's a pretty compelling argument for a single network with end-to-end connectivity, and a lot of people have become roadkill betting against Ethernet," says Brad O'Neill. "But the fact that everyone's guessing tells me it's a while away."

Mary Jander, Site Editor, Byte and Switch