LATEST INTELLIGENCE
DATA CENTRE HIGH SPEED MIGRATION:
INFRASTRUCTURE ISSUES, TRENDS,
DRIVERS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
PRESENTED BY
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I
n the data centre, speed is everything. The
challenge is to look ahead and know what you
have to be prepared to deliver – in the immediate
future and later on – and chart the most expedient
and flexible course forward. The faster that available
technologies and applicable standards evolve, the
harder that job becomes.
Recent data centre trends continue to predict 25
to 35% annual growth in data-centre traffic and
bandwidth requirements. This demand for more
network capacity can only be supported by a shift
to higher switching speeds, which is precisely what is
now happening in the market.
According to Dell’Oro Group, shipments of 25 Gbps
and 100 Gbps ports increased to more than one
million in the first quarter of 2017. Dell’Oro predicts
Ethernet switch revenue will continue to grow through
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INTELLIGENTCIO
the end of the decade, with a large share allocated
to 25G and 100G ports.1 Migration strategies are
evolving as well. The growing affordability of 100G
switch links – multimode and singlemode – is enabling
many companies to update their switch networks from
10G directly to 100G, skipping 40G altogether.
The shift to 25G lanes is well underway as well, with
25G-lane switches becoming more commonplace.
Meanwhile, the entrance of proprietary and
standards-based PAM-4 modulation has ushered in
the introduction of 50G lane rates. The increasing
popularity of 25G and 50G ports continues to affect
uptake of 40G server attachments. Looking ahead,
lane capacities are expected to continue doubling,
reaching 100G by 2020 and enabling the next
generation of high-speed links for fabric switches. A
number of factors are driving the surge in data centre
throughput speeds. n
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