Extreme Networks has added support for Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) protocols in multi-vendor environments. The company recently launched its Extreme Networks “Open Fabric” data center solutions providing increased scale, virtualization, and automation to maximize performance and efficiency.
Extreme Networks also recently completed testing in conjunction with the Fibre Channel Industry Association (FCIA) FCoE Plugfest, held at the University of New Hampshire Interoperability Lab (UNH-IOL). This Plugfest focused on end-to-end tests that included FCoE with multiple FCFs (Fibre Channel Forwarders), Extreme Networks and other vendors Data Center Bridging (DCB) Ethernet switches and high availability configurations. The Plugfest provided an environment where leading Fibre Channel and Ethernet vendors came together to work in partnership on their respective FCoE products to ensure both interoperability and configurability between vendors. A total of 14 companies participated in the testing.
“Broad vendor interoperability testing and acceptance of emerging storage network technologies such as FCoE are critical to the wide scale adoption of converged storage networks,” said David Ginsburg, sr. vice president of strategic marketing for Extreme Networks. “The successful testing of both FCoE and iSCSI with Extreme Networks DCB Ethernet switches in recent months at UNH IOL helps validate our Open Fabric approach.”
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- The Extreme Networks Open Fabric data center architecture incorporates standards-based OpenFlow technology to simplify network provisioning and supports Data Center Bridging (DCB) to provide consolidation of LAN and storage fabrics in the data center, including iSCSI and FCoE. The company said its design goals with this new architecture were to scale for huge switching capacity, support vast number of highly dynamic virtual machines, while leveraging standards-based technologies and existing investments. The Extreme Networks Open Fabric data center solution leverages the ExtremeXOS operating system end-to-end and emphasizes wire-speed switching of Virtual Machines (VMs), intelligence to automate VM mobility through XNV, standards-based, non-blocking high density 10Gbs server connectivity and non-blocking high density 40Gbs fabric interconnect with multi-path forwarding that is also designed to evolve for 100GbE.