Where IT perceptions are reality Industry Brief Ride the Next Big Wave of Storage Networking Featured Technology Document # INUDSTRY2015006 v6 October 2015 Copyright 2015 IT Brand Pulse. All rights reserved.
Fibre Channel Backgrounder Over $10 Billion Strong Since coming to market at the turn of the millennium, Fibre Channel SANs have earned the trust of data center professionals because of their high bandwidth, low latency and extreme reliability. IT Brand Pulse forecasts that enterprises will continue to invest in proven Fibre Channel technology to the tune of over $10 billion in 2015 and 2016, with the percentage of hybrid HDD/SSD revenue shrinking as 3D NAND flash memory drives a quantum decrease in the cost of all flash arrays. External Fibre Channel Storage Revenue (Billions) The Next Big Wave in Storage Networking The official FCIA Speedmap tells us when the SAN market will encounter speed bumps for FC server and storage ports, as well as Inter-Switch Links (ISLs). It s clear the Speedmap is right on target in predicting general availability of Gen 6 FC, the next big wave of storage networking with 32Gb connectivity for servers and storage, and 128Gb inter-switch links, in 2016. Fibre Channel Throughput (MB/s) T11 Specification Market Availability 16GFC 3,200 2009 2011 32GFC 6,400 2013 2016 64GFC 12,800 2017 2019 128GFC 25,600 2020 Market Demand 256GFC 51,200 2023 Market Demand 512GFC 102,400 2026 Market Demand 1TFC 204,800 2029 Market Demand Document # INDUSTRY2015006 v6, October, 2015 Page 2 of 11
Gen 6 FC Overview Fibre Channel Supercharged for Performance and Scalability According to the Fibre Channel Industry Association, Gen 6 Fibre Channel is designed to address performance, reliability, and scalability requirements for hyper -scale virtualization, SSD storage technology, and new data center architectures. Gen 6 doubles the full-duplex data throughput of 16GFC to 32GFC, and provides a 128GFC option for inter-switch links with seamless backward-compatibility: In addition to faster speeds, key features of Gen 6 Fibre Channel include: Virtualization Scalability: N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) allows an N_Port to be assigned multiple N_Port IDs or FCIDs over a single link, simplifying the deployment of server virtualization. NPIV enables greater scales by reducing the number of switches and domain count. Energy Efficiency: Lower energy consumption is achieved by allowing the Fibre Channel optical connectors to operate in a stand-by mode (or "nap") multiple times each second. Extended Reliability: Forward Error Correction (FEC) improves the reliability of links through the automatic detection and recovery from bit errors that occur in high speed networks. FEC helps minimize or avoid data stream errors that can lead to application performance degradation or outages. Enhanced Security: FC-SP-2 enhances the existing FC-SP model. Non-NULL DH-CHAP with RSA-2048 is mandatory to implement. DH-CHAP is a secret-based authentication and key management protocol that uses the CHAP algorithm (RFC 1994) augmented with an optional Diffie-Hellmann algorithm (RFC 2631). Original SP-SF required only NULL DH-CHAP. Enhanced key management service ensures Fibre Channel s continued compliance with technology standards and government bodies such as the US National Institute of Standards and Technology, and European Union standards. Backward Compatibility: 32GFC supports complete and total backward compatibility to 16GFC and 8GFC networks. Ensuring complete investment protection, Gen 6 FC automatically configures to the fastest supported speed between any two network points, and requiring zero user intervention. Document # INDUSTRY2015006 v6, October, 2015 Page 3 of 11
Anatomy of a Gen 6 FC SAN The anatomy of a Gen 6 Fibre Channel SAN includes host bus adapters (HBAs) in the server, a mesh of switches forming a switch fabric, and chips used on controllers in storage systems. The capabilities of a Gen 6 FC SAN are highlighted by backward compatibility with 8GFC and 16GFC products, and by 128GFC interswitch links which promise to cut down on cable complexity and cost. Gen 6 Fibre Channel Storage Area Network Servers 32GFC Gen 6 HBAs 16GFC 8GFC Fabric Gen 6 Switches 128GFC Storage Gen 6 All Flash Array Document # INDUSTRY2015006 v6, October, 2015 Page 4 of 11
Virtualized Servers More Compute Resources Intel s latest Xeon E5-2600 v3 server processors bring a performance boost of up to 3x over the previous generation Xeon chips. The chips come with up to 18 individual cores and support more DRAM, flash, and faster PCIe than ever before. More Cores More DRAM More Flash Faster PCIe VM Density and I/O Soars The increased compute resources which come with each new generation of processors allow server administrators to host more virtual machines (VMs) and more workloads on each physical server. This in turn creates an aggregation of I/O which results in the need for more I/O bandwidth. Gen 6 Fibre Channel will help storage keep pace with the performance of new Xeon E5-2600 v3 server processors. Workloads per Server Physical & Virtual Workloads Workloads per Server Since 2004, the number of VMs per server (VM density), virtual workloads, workloads per server, and I/O has steadily increased along with the continuous increase in compute resources. Document # INDUSTRY2015006 v6, October, 2015 Page 5 of 11
All Flash Arrays 150x the IOPS of HDD-based Arrays A single tray of 30 HDDs, with each drive rated at 150 IOPS, can muster only 6,000 IOPS. That s why entire racks of disk drives are needed to support enterprise applications. It also explains why 16Gb Fibre Channel is sufficient for most applications the aggregate throughput of dozens of HDDs won t use the capacity of a 16Gb Fibre Channel link. Flash memory and SSDs have changed that. A single tray with 2TB of flash memory can handle 1 million IOPS, over 150x the IOPS capacity of an HDD storage array in the same form-factor. End-to-end Gen 6 32Gb Fibre Channel links are essential components for storage architects who want their server farms to realize the full potential of their all flash arrays. IOPS Performance All Flash Array vs. All HDD Array 16Gb Fibre Channel SANs have the capacity to support I/O to storage systems handling few thousand IOPS. Gen 6 32Gb Fibre Channel is needed to exploit the full potential of all flash storage arrays that can handle millions of IOPS. Document # INDUSTRY2015006 v6, October, 2015 Page 6 of 11
Data Migration Gen 6 FC Closes the Data Migration Window One application of 32GFC in the data center is between data centers, storage arrays, or clouds. During data center consolidation, disaster recovery, and equipment changes, users often have a need to migrate terabytes or even petabytes of data between storage arrays. The time to transfer large blocks of data is often limited by the speed of the links connecting the devices instead of processors or controllers that may limit the throughput during normal processing. According to a recent IT Brand Pulse survey, 21% of installed Fibre Channel SAN ports are at 1Gb or 2Gb, 31% are at 4Gb and 31% are at 8Gb. With Gen 6 Fibre Channel, the connections between HDD or SSD arrays for replication, and between arrays and tape libraries for data migration will be up to 32 times faster. For business, that means the replication and backup windows of vulnerability will be up to 32 times shorter. Typical Enterprise Replication and Backup Environment In a typical large enterprise, data is replicated to disk for fast recovery, and eventually backed-up to tape for cold storage. If either operation disrupts the performance of the network, or represents a window of vulnerability, Gen 6 32Gb Fibre Channel will close that window. Document # INDUSTRY2015006 v6, October, 2015 Page 7 of 11
4K Video Production One of Many High Bandwidth Applications A class of applications that benefit from 32GFC is streaming I/O. A single I/O from these applications can transfer a block of data that is several orders of magnitude larger than blocks in general purpose file systems. A single I/O can take minutes or hours to complete while controllers and drives are sending out sequential reads or writes as fast as they can. An example is real-time editing of 4K video. For the last several years, production and post-production professionals in the movie and TV industry have captured, edited and projected video in 2K resolution (2048 pixels wide by 1080 pixels vertical). The industry is now migrating to faster frame rates and higher resolution 4K video (4096 pixels wide by 2160 pixels vertical). This doubling of the horizontal resolution and vertical resolution, quadruples the amount of digital data created. The result for post-production sound and video editors is their ability to perform real-time editing is bottlenecked by the Fibre Channel SAN infrastructure deployed to support 2K video. Real-time editing of a single stream of uncompressed 4K video requires more than 8Gb/s of SAN bandwidth making 4K video editing a killer app for Gen 6 Fibre Channel SANs with 32Gb/s bandwidth. 4K Quadruples the Amount of Digital Data An upgrade from 8Gb Fibre Channel is required to support real-time editing of 4K video. Document # INDUSTRY2015006 v6, October, 2015 Page 8 of 11
OpenStack Clouds Leading Cloud Service Providers Integrating Fibre Channel with Cloud Platforms A massive overhaul of data center technology is being driven by the needs of public and private clouds. Fibre Channel SANs are evolving to provide high performance, reliable storage in the cloud era by incorporating flash memory and through integration with OpenStack, the most popular cloud operating system. Rackspace is an example of a major public cloud Infrastructure-as-a Service (IaaS) provider who has integrated Fibre Channel with OpenStack to provide enterprise-class storage using Fibre Channel SANs. Fibre Channel Integration with OpenStack OpenStack is the cloud operating system used by many hyperscale cloud service providers and is emerging as the leading platform for private clouds. This video on BrightTalk provides enterprise storage technologists with a nice overview of how Fibre Channel block storage is being integrated into OpenStack Rackspace, founded in San Antonio in 1998, is a leader in cloud computing, and provides enterprise-class hybrid cloud infrastructures to a spectrum of large and small businesses. Rackspace customers can run their workloads on a public cloud, private cloud, dedicated servers or a combination of platforms. The Fibre Channel SAN ensures all perform equally well. Storage is one of our most critical components of our solution offerings, said Sean Widige, CTO, Rackspace. We rely on Fibre Channel because it enables us to quickly scale and meet our customers increasing demands. It also allows the customer freedom to utilize any of our service platforms, while ensuring integrity of their data. Fibre Channel Storage in a Rackspace Data Center Document # INDUSTRY2015006 v6, October, 2015 Page 9 of 11
Data Warehousing & Analytics Millions of People Accessing Hundred-Terabyte Databases is a Formula for Gen 6 FC SANs IT professionals in many sectors of the Healthcare, Banking, Retail, Travel, Entertainment, and Insurance industries share one thing in common: the need to provide fast response times to millions of users hitting massive databases (data warehouses) stored in SANs. For the biggest companies in these sectors, these huge data warehouses range in size from hundreds of terabytes to petabytes, and the need for 32GFC bandwidth already exists. In the industries mentioned above, the need for Gen 6 Fibre Channel is exploding as a completely new class of data, such as user location, is being captured from mobile devices. The Internet of Things (IoT), including wearable device and sensor data, will create yet another explosion of new data from an emerging class of analytics applications. The architecture being deployed most to ensure fast response times to millions of users is centered on large enterprise servers loaded with Fibre Channel adapters. With double the I/O capacity of the previous generation of 16Gb high performance SANs, the availability of 32Gb storage provides data warehousing storage specialists the head room they need in the future. Document # INDUSTRY2015006 v6, October, 2015 Page 10 of 11
The Bottom Line Time to Start Planning for the Migration to Gen 6 Fibre Channel The bottom line is this: Fibre Channel SANs will continue to form the backbone of data center storage for many years to come in part because Gen 6 FC enhances the performance, scalability, and security of SANs needed in the cloud era. The availability of servers based on Xeon E5-2600 v3 server processors, and all flash storage are reasons to consider 32GFC for your next storage refresh. Gen 6 FC SANs are speed-matched for the latest servers and storage, and allow storage administrators to save ports and money by consolidating cabling. Related Links FCIA Announces Development of Industry's Fastest Storage Networking Gen 6 Fibre Channel What You Need to Know Official FCIA Speedmap Block Storage in the Open Source Cloud called OpenStack The Fibre Channel IT Brand Pulse About the Author Frank Berry is founder and senior analyst for IT Brand Pulse, a trusted source of data and analysis about IT infrastructure, including servers, storage and networking. As former vice president of product marketing and corporate marketing for QLogic, and vice president of worldwide marketing for the automated tape library (ATL) division of Quantum, Mr. Berry has over 30 years experience in the development and marketing of IT infrastructure. If you have any questions or comments about this report, contact frank.berry@itbrandpulse.com. Document # INDUSTRY2015006 v6, October, 2015 Page 11 of 11