Copyright 2014© IT Brand Pulse. All rights reserved.Copyright 2014© IT Brand Pulse. All rights reserved. Document # INDUSTRY2014001 v7 July, 2014Document # INDUSTRY2014001 v7 July, 2014

Industry Brief

Gen 5 16Gb Fibre Channel from HP Eases Data Center Traffic Jams

Featured Applications

All Flash Storage Systems

Data Warehousing

Real-Time 4K Video Editing

Replication & Backup

High Performance Computing

Where IT perceptions are reality

Document # INDUSTRY2014001 v7 July, 2014 Page 2 of 8

Gen 5 16Gb Storage Finally Arrives

Joining Networking Infrastructure Which Has Been Available Since 2011 Storage networking vendors led by HP and Emulex announced 16Gb Fibre Channel adapters and switches as early as 2011. Since then, data center managers with I/O-intensive workloads have been future-proofing their SANs in anticipation of Gen 5 16Gb Fibre Channel HDD, SSD, and tape storage systems. Since 2011, data center managers with 16Gb networks have been anxiously waiting to add 16Gb storage to their 16Gb networks. That time has finally arrived. By mid 2014, 16Gb Fibre Channel storage systems became generally available from all leading storage vendors.

Just Another Bump in the Fibre Channel Speed Road Map Fibre Channel storage networking is trusted in the data center for its reliability and performance. Storage architects should rest assured their investment in Gen 5 16Gb Fibre Channel has a safe future. The next generation of faster 32Gb technology is arriving soon in 2015.

Gen 5 Fibre Channel is purpose-built, data center network infrastructure

for storage that provides reliability, scalability and up to 16 Gbps

performance.

Gen 5

Fibre Channel Speed Roadmap — Source: FCIA (Version 1.8)

Product Naming Throughput (MBps)

Line Rate (GBaud)

T11 Spec Technically Completed

Market Availability

1GFC 200 1.0625 1996 1997 2GFC 400 2.125 2000 2001 4GFC 800 4.25 2003 2005 8GFC 1600 8.5 2006 2008

16GFC 3200 14.025 2009 2011 32GFC 6400 28.05 2013 2015

128GFCp 25600 4x28.05 2014 2015 64GFC 12800 TBD 2016 Market Demand

128GFC 25600 TBD 2019 Market Demand 256GFC 51200 TBD 2022 Market Demand 512GFC 102400 TBD 2025 Market Demand

1TFC 204800 TBD 2028 Market Demand

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Gen 5 is Backward Compatible

Expect Better Performance with Gen 5 16Gb Fibre Channel Adapters in 8Gb SANs Independent Test Lab Demartek ran a read-intensive data warehouse

workload with the configuration on the right. For these tests, they ran

the TPC Benchmark™ H (TPC-H), which was used to generate a real-world

workload. This test was run with the Gen 5 HP StoreFabric SN1000E Fibre

Channel HBA running at 16Gb. The test was repeated with the 8Gb HP

StoreFabric 82E Fibre Channel HBA.

The result of the database workload tests using the HP SN1000E 16Gb FC

HBA were higher performance than with 8Gb FC HBAs with the same

server configuration, storage configuration and workload . Workloads

were completed up to 26% faster and with an average reduction in

latency of more than 50%. Testing revealed that 8Gb FC HBAs throttle the performance and cause

applications to run longer than necessary. HP StoreFabric SN1000E 16Gb HBAs enable the doubling of

throughput when needed, alleviating bottlenecks under peak workload scenarios.

TPC-H This TPC Benchmark™ is a decision support benchmark. consisting The

queries and the data populating the database have been chosen to

have broad industry-wide relevance.

26% more bandwidth with 16Gb HBAs vs. 8Gb HBAs in an

8Gb SAN.

50% lower latency with 16Gb HBAs vs. 8Gb HBAs in an 8Gb

SAN.

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Gen 5 Innovation

HP, Brocade and Emulex Collaborate on Troubleshooting 16Gb Cables and Optics The faster the network, the more a network is prone to issues related to cables and optics. In response, HP,

Brocade and Emulex worked together to integrate Brocade’s ClearLink diagnostics technology into HP

StoreFabric Gen 5 FC HBAs from Emulex.

With ClearLink diagnostics, data centers can identify and isolate optics and cable problems much faster – in a

matter of minutes instead of days. For new SAN installations, ClearLink allows administrators to validate that

their SANs can operate under full data loads prior to deploying production applications.

ClearLink diagnostics deliver these capabilities by performing a series of tests on both HP Gen 5 FC switches

and HP StoreFabric Gen 5 FC HBAs . This includes running a series of electrical and optical loopback tests that

can detect problems with the physical cabling and optics that could result in increased error rates and

intermittent problems.

ClearLink enables best practices for deploying or changing the physical ports and cabling within the SAN

infrastructure by allowing administrators to verify end-to-end connectivity and performance prior to moving

to production. These capabilities help IT administrators and architects maximize application uptime and

performance while reducing overall OPEX by allowing them to distinguish between faults due to marginal

cable, optics modules, as well as connector or optics seating.

OneCommand™ Manager

Provides centralized management of Emulex fabric and

network adapters in physical and virtual server

environments.

The ClearLink D_Port test consists of four steps. Watch the video to find out more about how Brocade ClearLink works

with StoreFabric Gen 5 FC HBAs from Emulex.

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Killer App: All Flash Storage

All Flash Arrays Move the Bottleneck Back to the Server or Network

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 4Gb Fibre Channel is

sufficient for most applications — the aggregate throughput of dozens of HDDs won’t use the capacity of a

4Gb 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 5 16Gb

Fibre Channel links are essential components for storage architects who want their server farms to realize

the full potential of their all flash arrays.

NAND Flash

SLC for fastest throughput. MLC for Twice the density of SLC NAND at a

lower cost-per-bit. TLC for higher density in the same space, at a lower

cost than SLC or MLC NAND.

IOPS Performance— All Flash Array vs. All HDD Array

4Gb Fibre Channel SANs have the capacity to support I/O to storage systems handling few thousand IOPS. Gen 5 16Gb Fibre

Channel is needed to exploit the full potential of all flash storage arrays that can handle a million IOPS each.

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Killer App: Data Warehouses

Millions of People Accessing Hundred-Terabyte Databases is a Formula for Gen 5 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.

The Need Today

For the biggest companies in these sectors, these huge

data warehouses range in size from hundreds of

terabytes to petabytes, and the need for 16Gb

bandwidth already exists (watch the video).

The Need Tomorrow

In the industries mentioned above, the need for Gen 5

Fibre Channel is exploding as a completely new class of

data, such as user location, is being captured from

mobile devices.

Farther into the future, the Internet of Everything,

including wearable devices, will create yet another

explosion of new data.

Gen 5 Fibre Channel is a Key Part of the Solution

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 8Gb high performance SANs, the

availability of 16Gb storage now provides data

warehousing storage specialists the head room they

need in the future.

Watch this video to learn about why this storage specialist in a

Fortune 500 insurance company needs Gen 5 16Gb Fibre Channel for

data warehousing.

Businesses with millions of customers rely on large enterprise

servers, loaded with Fibre Channel adapters, to provide the IOPS

and bandwidth needed for simultaneous access to multi-terabyte

databases.

A data warehouse focused on a specific area. The main source of the data is

cleaned, transformed, catalogued and made available for data

mining, online analytical processing, market research and decision support.

Data Mart

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Killer App: Backup & Replication

Deduplication and compression are technologies that can in

some cases drastically reduce the amount of data that needs

to be replicated and backed-up.

Gen 5 Closes the Disk-to-Disk Replication and Disk-to-Tape Backup Window

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 5 Fibre Channel, the connections between disk storage systems for

replication, and between disk storage systems and tape libraries for backup, will be up to 16 times faster. For

business, that means the replication and backup windows of vulnerability and disruption will be up to 16

times shorter.

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 5

16Gb Fibre Channel will close that window.

Typical Enterprise Replication and Backup Environment

De-dup & Compression

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Killer App: Real Time 4K Editing

Do the Math: 16Gb Mandatory for Real-Time Editing

The state of the art for HDTV for many years has been 1080P which offers 2K resolution (1920 pixels x 1080 pixels = 2,073,600 pixels). Without factoring in frame rates and other considerations, real-time editing of 2 million pixels every second requires a 2Gb Fibre Channel SAN. With 4x the number of pixels, 4K real-time editing of 4K video requires over 8Gb per second for a single stream. Gen 5 Fibre Channel technology is required for any SAN expected to support real-time editing of 4K video. In fact, the storage system will require a dedicated link for each video editing, color correction or sound editing server working with 4K digital video in real-time.

4K video ix 4x the resolution because it is double the resolution of 2K video on the vertical and horizontal axis. Watch a

post production engineer talk about why Gen5 Fibre Channel is needed for real-time editing of 4K video.

4K Resolution

The HDTV 1080P format delivers 2K resolution, with a horizontal

resolution of 1920 pixels, and a vertical resolution of 1080 pixels.

4K doubles resolution on both axis for a 4x increase in pixels.

Real-time editing

with video in 4K

resolution will

saturate an 8Gb

Fibre Channel.

Multiple editors

with 4K streams

need multiple

16Gb links in

order to work

simultaneously.

Real-time editing

with video in 2K

resolution

requires only 2Gb

of Fibre Channel

bandwidth.

Multiple editors

with 2K streams

can be working

simultaneously

with a single 8Gb

SAN link.

Document # INDUSTRY2014001 v7 July, 2014 Page 9 of 8

Killer App: HPC

HPC Applications Move Petabytes of Data In CERN Switzerland, the Large Hadron Collider

(LHC) Project pumps out over 20 petabytes of data

each year to primary and secondary sites around

the world. There the data is stored on tape using

the open-source Encore tape library application.

When researchers need access to the data, the

open-source dCache application is used to bring

the data from tape to disk.

The time needed to transfer these massive data

sets from tape to a researcher can take hours, days

or even weeks (watch video).

Even if state-of-the art 8Gb Fibre Channel is being used, Gen 5 16Gb Fibre Channel will cut the time required

to move Enstore and dCache data in half.

Click the video link to hear why Gen 5 16Gb Fibre Channel would be a

welcome addition to the Dcache HPC application environment.

dCache and Enstore HPC Environment

dCache dCache is designed as a front-end for a set of Hierarchical Storage

Managers (HSMs), Enstore, EuroGate and DESY.

Document # INDUSTRY2014001 v7 July, 2014 Page 10 of

Resources

Related Links FCIA Fibre Channel Speed Road Map

HP StoreFabrics SN1100E 16Gb Fibre Channel Host Bust Adapters

HP SN1000E 16GFC Data Sheet

Demartek Evaluation Report - HP StoreFabric SN1000E 16Gb Fibre Channel HBA

Emulex I/O for HP Server and Storage Connectivity

HP LPe1605 Dual Channel Gen 5 (16GFC) Fibre Channel Mezzanine Adapter data sheet

SQl Server Test report— Gen 5 Fibre Channel HBA Performance Benefits

VMware vSphere® 5.1 over 16 Gigabit Fibre Channel White paper

ESG Lab Validation Report Emulex LPe16000 Series 16GFC HBAs

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 data center infrastructure, including servers, storage, networking,

operating platforms and applications. 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 ex-

perience in the development and marketing of IT infrastructure. If you have any ques-

tions or comments about this report, contact frank.berry@itbrandpulse.com.