Cisco has announced a number of updates to its product portfolio that expand the range of connectivity options available to data center designers.

According to the company, the all-new MDS 9718 multi-layer storage director has the highest port density in the industry and is one of the first to support the upcoming 32G connectivity standard.

The recently introduced 40G Nexus 5672UP-176G switch is offering Ethernet, Fiber Channel (FC) and Fiber Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) connectivity from a single platform.

Finally, the Unified Computing System (UCS) Fabric Interconnect 6300 Series now includes two new 40G switches and a compatible fabric extender.

Prepared for the future

Cisco MDS 9718 side view
Cisco MDS 9718 side view – Cisco

The MDS 9718 is the first Cisco storage director to support 40G connectivity. The company has nicknamed this appliance ‘the beast’ – likely because it can scale up to a massive 384 line rate 40G FCoE ports and 768 line rate 16G ports.

‘The beast’ also supports 10G and 16G, with 32G line cards expected in the nearest future. It adds support for REST APIs, so the appliance can now be set to publish the output of the API calls, aiding simpler scripting and more effective programming.

“With our network expanded to include 37 branches and more than 700 business outlets across 76 cities in China, our data requirements are rapidly growing, with our current storage capacity exceeding 2.4 PB,“ commented Mr Tan Qifeng, IT manager at the China Guangfa bank.

“The high performing Cisco MDS 9513 Directors have been powering our data centers for the past seven years. We are excited to see Cisco introducing the industry’s highest port density SAN Director MDS 9718 that will help us meet our growing customer demands.”

The new Nexus 5672UP-176G switch supports 24 ports of 8/16G FC, six ports of 40G FCoE and 24 ports of 1/10 Ethernet. It is accompanied by the Nexus 2348UPQ Fabric Extender that enables multiprotocol storage and LAN connectivity.

And finally, the UCS Fabric Interconnect 6300 Series – representing the third generation of the UCS platform - has added two 1U switches for end-to-end 40G connectivity, along with the fully compatible Fabric Extender 2304.