Cisco MDS 9216i Multilayer Fabric Switch -
Questions and Answers

Questions

Answers

First, Cisco does not sell switches directly to the public. Secondly, HP provides added value through the qualification of Cisco switches within the HP fabric environment and HP valued support and services.

The general difference is in the on board ports. Both have a single expansion slot and are compatible with all the MDS 9000 Storage Networking Modules. The MDS 9216A has 16 on board Fibre Channel ports built into the chassis. The MDS 9216i has 14 Fibre Channel ports and 2 Ethernet ports built into the chassis.

Yes

The Cisco MDS 9000 Family provides the industry’s first multilayer intelligent storage solution. Multilayer features include: Multi-protocol Support: Fibre Channel for large data center environments, iSCSI for small/medium business and workgroup SANs and FCIP for remote SAN connectivity. Intelligent Network Services: Innovations such as VSANs, comprehensive security and embedded diagnostics, to provide industry leading SAN scalability, performance, security and manageability. Intelligent Storage Services: An open platform upon which multiple third party storage management applications can be integrated. These applications include network-based virtualization, replication, and data. Integrated Storage Management: An embedded Fabric Manager and integration with HP Storage Area Manager (SAM) and CiscoWorks Resource Manager Essentials (RME). Scalability and Performance: Industry-leading port density (The new MDS 9513 Director can be expanded up 528 1/2/4Gb auto-sensing Fibre Channel ports in a single chassis and up to 1,584 Fibre Channel ports in a single rack), industry-leading performance (The MDS 9513 Director provides 2.4 Terabits per second total internal system bandwidth), and industry-leading high availability features (switch-level and fabric-wide) provide the ability to interconnect discrete SAN islands into an integrated SAN infrastructure. Comprehensive Security: Cisco provides the most extensive set of security features available in the storage networking industry. Emphasis has been placed on secure SAN management at the switch and fabric level to prevent unauthorized access as well as on the implementation of secure switch-to-switch protocols to provide secure remote SAN connectivity. In fact, Cisco has been instrumental in driving a new Fibre Channel security standard, FC-SP, within the T11 standards body.

The MDS 9000 Family offers customers several significant benefits: Lower total cost of ownership (TCO): Improved storage administrator productivity, faster problem resolution and reduced service costs due to integrated storage management and network diagnostics, and better utilization of switch fabric due to high availability, increased performance and comprehensive security. Investment Protection: Common architectural framework and shared modules across Directors and Fabric Switches deliver a smooth growth path and common sparing. Multi-protocol support integrates Fibre Channel, iSCSI and FCIP in one system, meeting current and future storage networking requirements. Interoperability and Innovation: The platform leverages open APIs and standard protocols to create an open platform for hosting third party applications and to enable interoperability in a heterogeneous storage environment.

HP and Cisco share the same product and solution vision of expanding SANs throughout the enterprise, creating cost effective virtual storage pools across multiple different server classes, especially with servers that today use Direct Attached Storage (DAS). This vision requires networking products that can scale while insuring mission critical data integrity, including effective troubleshooting and diagnostic capabilities. Additionally this vision requires an intelligent SAN switch platform that can leverage IP infrastructures for extending the SAN, as well as offering more affordable host connectivity connections for departmental and workgroup applications. And finally this vision requires a platform that can host intelligent storage application services for network based data replication and virtual LUN management. HP and Cisco fundamentally believe that these capabilities offer substantial value to enterprise customers and are working together on delivering these capabilities. The MDS 9000 platform delivers on many of these capabilities today, and will evolve over time as part of the strategic business relationship with HP.

No, Cisco also provides switches to market through other storage product companies such as IBM and EMC. However, HP and Cisco are working closely together in creating unique solutions offerings that offer differentiation from many of HP’s current and future storage competitors. This unique differentiation is a result of a collaborative effort including HP servers, disk and tape storage qualifications and possible future enhancements to the MDS 9000 platform by HP.

OSM is short for Original Storage Manufacturer. This is a term coined by Cisco as a way in which to identify full storage solution suppliers, through which the MDS 9000 will be sold, including HP. Different from an OEM relationship, the Cisco MDS 9000 family will not be re-badged by HP. The “active” component of this OSM approach indicates Cisco’s role in driving end user demand and preference for the product. Cisco will actively participate in creating pull for the MDS 9000 within its customer base and in joint marketing and sales activities with HP. This active participation will significantly help in stimulating demand and driving brand preference. Fulfillment of the MDS products will be through HP storage sales specialists and HP storage business partners.