Cisco Intros SAN Fabric Switch

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO - News) today introduced the Cisco MDS 9100 series of Multilayer Intelligent fabric switches, which offer IT organizations of all sizes a consistent and seamless way to grow their storage area networks (SANs) over time by utilizing the same set of intelligent network services and integrated management tools available across the entire Cisco MDS 9000 Family. This level of manageability and investment protection have not been available previously in the storage networking industry as Fibre Channel fabric switches typically have not taken advantage of the same level of intelligence and high-availability features that director-class switches have.

"Because every switch in the Cisco MDS 9000 Family is built on a common hardware and software architecture, customers can maximize protection of their investment as they grow their SANs from the very low end of this portfolio to the highest-end directors," said Nancy Marrone-Hurley, senior analyst, Enterprise Storage Group. "Customers we speak with would prefer a single vendor for the entire storage infrastructure. Cisco now has a wide breadth of products that will enable customers to scale, while ensuring they will have all of the intelligent features that make the Cisco solutions so attractive."

The Cisco MDS 9100 series are one rack unit (RU)-high, fixed-configuration switches supporting 1 or 2 gigabit/second auto-sensing Fibre Channel connectivity and available in 20 and 40-port models, the Cisco MDS 9120 and Cisco MDS 9140. Customers can use the Cisco MDS 9100 series switches to build and manage small and medium-sized SANs or to provide "edge-to-core" connectivity into larger SANs. Because of their compact size, the Cisco MDS 9100 series switches also offer maximum Fibre Channel port density per rack, which addresses the problem of limited space availability common in many enterprise data centers.

The flexibility of the Cisco MDS 9100 allows customers to deploy the switches in multiple SAN configurations. For example, a small to medium-sized business can use the Cisco MDS 9120 to build their first entry-level SAN as they migrate from a direct-attached to a networked-storage infrastructure. Or larger enterprises can use the Cisco MDS 9120 to meet storage networking requirements of a specific application or business function. Through the Cisco MDS 9140, customers can cost effectively connect a large number of servers and storage devices at the edges of core, enterprise-class SANs. In all these deployment scenarios, customers will be able to take full advantage of the industry-leading scalability, availability, security, and integrated management features available throughout the Cisco MDS 9000 Family.

Cisco MDS 9000 SAN-OS v. 1.2

Every Cisco MDS 9100 switch will ship with the integrated management tools and the intelligent network services already available on the Cisco MDS 9000, such as virtual SANs (VSANs), role-based access control, virtual output queuing, and advanced SAN security and diagnostics. Cisco today added new, significant software features for the Cisco MDS 9000 Family with version 1.2 of its Cisco MDS 9000 operating system, or SAN-OS. Feature highlights include:

Enhanced SAN security: Features including LUN zoning, read-only zones and port security will help SAN administrators ensure tighter security at both the switch and fabric levels. Enhanced administrative management: VSAN access control will allow SAN administrators designate user-management rights to specific VSANs, which helps them tailor roles to better match the organization's needs. Advanced troubleshooting and diagnostics: Remote SPAN (RSPAN) extends the switched port analyzer functionality to multi-switch environments and simplifies Fibre Channel troubleshooting across the entire fabric. Improved investment protection: Legacy switch interoperability mode allows customers to deploy Cisco MDS 9000 switches into fabrics built with a select set of third-party SAN switches without disruption. Pricing and Availability

The Cisco MDS 9100 and the Cisco MDS 9000 SAN-OS v.1.2 are currently being qualified by Cisco original storage manufacturers (OSMs) and other storage subsystem vendors. Pricing and availability through these companies are expected within the next 30 to 60 days. HP is expected to make the Cisco MDS 9100 available to its customers by the end of this month.

Cisco Systems Inc.