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When you need to lead

By Mellanox
Tel Aviv, 21 May 2018
Mellanox Technologies.
Mellanox Technologies.

With the exponential growth of data and workflow complexity, the need for faster data speeds and storage has never been more challenging. If you're thinking along the lines of your peers, your company is hoping to upgrade network infrastructure performance and reliability while getting the best return on investment.

So says Gilad Shainer, vice president of marketing at Mellanox Technologies. He contends that by migrating to 25/100 Gigabit Ethernet, companies will get better performance, along with the best data centre return on investment.

"A couple of years ago, analysts predicted that 25GbE sales would grow faster than any previous Ethernet speed. And they did. However, with today's growing demands from the cloud, big data and storage, our message to enterprises is 'Buy the performance, reliability and speed benefits of 25GbE now while future-proofing your network for tomorrow's 100 Gb/E demands', and save money while you're at it."

According to Crehan Research, the average selling price (ASP) of 25G adapter ports is approaching that of the 10G port. With the rapid adoption of 25/100 Gigabit per second Ethernet speeds, you can now build a 25/100G Ethernet infrastructure at about the same cost as a 10/40G infrastructure, while delivering a 2.5X jump."

SN2100 chip cables.
SN2100 chip cables.

For switches, the story is similar as a growing number of companies follow the trend to adopt 25/100G Ethernet switches for storage, artificial intelligence, and cloud infrastructures. The key reasons are apparent: with more interconnect bandwidth, data centre operators can worry less about network bottlenecks and focus on building their mission critical applications.

Shainer says: "40 gigabit Ethernet is a waning technology and is inefficient in terms of switch faceplate utilisation. Contrast this with our open Ethernet, higher density 100G spine switches that can cost-effectively pack more bandwidth per rack. 100G is more cost efficient on a per-gigabit per-second basis."

Source: January 2018 CREHAN Long-range Forecast, Server Class Adapters.
Source: January 2018 CREHAN Long-range Forecast, Server Class Adapters.

Analysts believe 2018 will be the crossing point for the 40G Fixed Ethernet switch port ASP, which is expected to be higher than that of a 100G switch port. The message is that 100G-capable spine switches appear to deliver 2.5X better performance at a lower price point.

According to Shainer, Mellanox's ability to deliver industry-leading 25/100G end-to-end solutions offering advanced accelerations, from RDMA over Converged Ethernet (ROCE) to NVMe over Fabrics, virtual switch offloads, and better cable plant efficiency, explains why it was chosen by the top-tier cloud and Web2.0 data centres Tencent, Baidu and Alibaba.

Data centre.
Data centre.

"Such is also the case of SKA Africa who chose our advanced Ethernet interconnect to build the world's largest radio telescope: a high-capacity L3 multicast network to enable astronomers to monitor the sky in unprecedented detail, thousands of times faster than any other system in existence."

Mellanox is a leading provider of high-performance, end-to-end interconnect solutions, distributed in Africa by value-added distributor, Networks Unlimited and Pinnacle. In January 2018, Mellanox's ConnectX-5 Ethernet adapter was awarded the recipient of the Linley Group 2017 Analysts' Choice Award for Best Networking Chip.

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