INFORMATIONWEEK REPORTS
RFI: The New Data Center Network
The New Data Center Network
Network Computing invited 11 major networking vendors to respond to an RFI about designing a next-generation network for a fictional company. Today’s networks are under increasing pressure to support faster speeds and more virtual machines, and to carry both data and storage traffic. In addition, new standards are emerging that will make Ethernet better able to address these requirements. Unless you’ve recently refreshed your network hardware, you’ll likely have to upgrade to bring your network in line with today’s requirements while also being able to support future needs. A network upgrade is an ideal time to evaluate the vendor you have in place. It’s an opportunity to see whether your vendor’s products are a fit with your business requirements or whether another vendor makes more sense.
Enter the RFI. We received responses from eight vendors: Alcatel-Lucent, Arista, Brocade, Extreme, Enterasys, Force10, HP and Juniper. This report provides an overview of the challenges that the network faces, and outlines designs these vendors proposed. While every network is different, the information in this package provides a comprehensive overview of networking products and their capabilities that you can’t find anywhere else. In addition to this article, we’ve also made the complete RFI responses available online at www.informationweek.com/analytics/dc_rfi. (R1981010)
