Cisco recently announced their new high capacity datacenter switching platform called the Nexus 7000. To simply say that this switch is high capacity does not come close to describing the capability of this platform.
The chassis holds a maximum of 512 ports using 10Gb/s Ethernet modules, or 768 ports using 1Gb/s Ethernet modules. Throughput can reach over 15Tb/s and when clustered with other Nexus 7000s it can reach 92 Tb/s. The box is also compatible with upcoming 40- and 100Gb/s Ethernet technology when it arrives.
It is hard to conceive of data rates expressed in Terrabytes per second. How can we put these numbers in the proper context? Fortunately, Cisco was kind enough to provide some examples:
- Five million concurrent trans-continental TelePresence collaboration sessions, which would save 6.75 million tons of CO2.
- Transmit the data for all U.S. academic research libraries–estimated at over 2,000 terabytes of data–in 1.07 seconds.
- Copy the entire Wikipedia database in 10 milliseconds.
- Copy the entire searchable Internet in 7.5 Minutes.
- Download all 90,000 Netflix movies in 38.4 seconds.
- Send a high-resolution 2 megapixel photo to everyone on earth in 28 minutes.
- Add a Web server in 9 seconds instead of 90–180 Days.
This platform will no doubt be key for allowing ISPs and Enterprises to provide all types of rich content and media on demand into our homes. ISPs and Enterprises are continuing to build out and expand their infrastructure, but when I think of the capacity of a switch like the Nexus 7000 I wonder whether the current rate of expansion is sufficient. Only time will tell.
I am left with the quote from the movie "Jaws" stuck in my brain. The part when Brody, played by Roy Scheider, first glimpses the true size of power of the great white shark. Stunned, Brody walks to the back of the and says to Quint, the captain played by Robert Shaw, "You're gonna need a bigger boat."
Cisco Nexus 7000 Homepage
Cisco Nexus 7000 Video
0 comments:
Post a Comment