It was 20 years in the past when Cisco began delivery the Cisco MDS 9000 storage networking switches in quantity to clients, following the preliminary launch just a few months earlier than. At the moment, there have been questions on why Cisco had entered the “storage enterprise”. We didn’t see it fairly that approach. Certain, the lexicon was just a little completely different. For instance, we had been now connecting “hosts, HBAs, and LUNs”, not “servers, NICs, and controllers”. However it was nonetheless networking, and our clients seemed to Cisco for assist.

With that goal in thoughts, Cisco has launched quite a few groundbreaking storage networking improvements that leverage our whole information middle networking arsenal together with Nexus switching and administration applied sciences. These improvements have benefited our clients over these final 20 years. I additionally consider they’ve superior the storage networking trade at massive, which we’re a proud member of. Taking a look at 5 examples:

• Segmentation: Launched via digital SANs (VSANs) used to allow larger ranges of safety, virtualization, useful resource utilization and better stability in SAN materials
• Visibility & Intelligence: Enabled via Cisco Silicon and SAN Analytics and Insights offering deep cloth visibility with scalable self-learning capabilities at microsecond granularity (for each SCSI or FC-NVMe move).
• Automation: Leveraging Nexus Dashboard Material Controller RESTful API to assist MDS switch-based NX-API, Python SDK, Ansible modules to simplify cloth deployment and to decrease complexity and prices.
• Congestion Administration: Achieved via a Cisco-unique innovation designed to alleviate SAN congestion with no dependency on hosts or storage. That is additional enhanced via Nexus Dashboard Material Controller Congestion Evaluation capabilities that helps proactively determine and assist clear up cloth stage congestion.
• Funding Safety & Extensibility: Capability to leverage the identical modular MDS chassis via every main cloth expertise evolution (e.g., 16G to 64G migration and adoption of NVMe over FC), thereby eliminating the dreaded and extremely disruptive forklift upgrades. This was a design precept for the MDS modular chassis structure from day 1. Extensibility makes adoption simpler and the infrastructure extra sustainable.

Determine: Cisco MDS 9000 portfolio

An Alternative to Thank Our Prospects & Companions

What has not modified within the final 20 years is our dedication to our storage networking clients in supporting their business-critical mission. Our clients are in a few of the most demanding vertical industries together with monetary companies, authorities, media & leisure, manufacturing, and lots of others. These are environments the place the workloads require highest ranges of efficiency, reliability, and uptime and the place Fibre Channel stays the most well-liked storage networking protocol.

Cisco intends to proceed supporting our current clients and new ones via additional innovation and for years to return. I’m grateful for our go-to-market and expertise companions, lots of whom have been with us for the reason that starting. These companions are crucial as storage clients desire to buy their networking options as totally built-in, examined, and validated packages that additionally embody storage techniques, software program, peripherals, and repair/assist agreements.

Cisco is lucky for our long-standing and enduring storage partnerships which have resulted in lots of buyer successes and compelling joint improvements. I gave our companions a chance to offer their very own views on how this partnership has advanced over these 20 years:

• “By way of our decades-long, valued partnership with Cisco, we’ve served clients’ business-critical information and infrastructure wants,” mentioned Dave Lincoln, Vice President, Networking and Rising Server Options, Dell Applied sciences. “Cisco has introduced innovation to Fibre Channel networking with key MDS options, comparable to digital SANs, complementing Dell’s high-end storage techniques and serving to make buyer information safe and all the time out there.”
• “Over the past 20 years, we’ve seen our partnership develop and broaden to handle the altering wants of our clients and the rising necessities for brand new merchandise, options, companies, and consumption fashions. Collectively, we’ve targeted on co-creating and delivering choices that enable our clients to capitalize on their information from the sting via the cloud and to the core. We stay excited and bullish about what’s subsequent for our partnership and the sorts of outcomes we are able to ship for our clients and for the world over the subsequent 20 years.” Mark Ablett, President, Digital Infrastructure Enterprise Unit, Hitachi Vantara
• “IBM is proud to be Cisco’s solely OEM companion with MDS expertise. Our 20-year historical past of joint improvement with Cisco for FICON and Fibre Channel expertise with MDS has pushed worth at many IBM zSystems, IBM Storage, and Crimson Hat OpenShift clients.  As our joint buyer base grows and we help our clients with information middle modernization, IBM c-type Storage Networking with autonomic path reset functionality, based mostly on Cisco MDS expertise, can be a key a part of the long-term worth IBM Storage delivers.” Sam Werner, VP, Product Administration, IBM Storage
• “Congratulations to Cisco MDS on their twentieth anniversary of delivering state-of-the-art Fibre Channel switches and administrators to the trade. Over the previous 20 years, our longstanding relationship has been outlined by a shared dedication to innovation, interoperability, and a observe report of delivering cutting-edge options to our mutual clients. Marvell® QLogic® 32GFC and 64GFC HBAs with the most recent capabilities of congestion mitigation powered by Digital Lane expertise prolong the Cisco MDS Digital Hyperlink functionality to host and storage techniques. This can be a testomony to the ability of our continued collaboration, and I’m excited for the long run as we proceed to attain success collectively.” Matt Kim, Vice President of Advertising, Server Connectivity Enterprise Unit, Marvell
• “NetApp is happy to congratulate Cisco on MDS’s twentieth anniversary. This milestone marks a protracted and valued partnership that brings finest of sophistication options to the SAN market with MDS and FlexPod united in joint innovation.” Phil Brotherton, VP Options and Alliances, NetApp

Wanting forward

There’s little question that digital data, aka information, has by no means been extra essential for our clients. Information has been described as the whole lot from the “new oil” to the “lifeblood” of contemporary enterprises and the digital economic system. Information is a treasure trove of insights that may assist construct smarter merchandise, ship higher customer support, and outpace opponents. Storage space networks join information and purposes securely and reliably. That operate is extra crucial than ever. So long as that’s the case, anticipate Cisco to proceed innovating within the storage networking area.

Share: