Cisco MDS 9250i Multiservice Fabric Switch for IBM System Storage

The Cisco MDS 9250i Multiservice Fabric Switch for IBM System Storage, the next generation of the flexible Cisco MDS 9200 Series Multiservice Switches, is designed to deliver an optimized platform for deploying high-performance SAN extension solutions, distributed intelligent fabric services, cost-effective multiprotocol connectivity for various SAN environments, and a TCO that meets expectations.

To meet such requirements, the 9710-E01 is designed to deliver:

• SAN consolidation with integrated multiprotocol
• High-density FC switch with 16Gb connectivity
• Intelligent application services engine
• Remote SAN extension with high-performance FCIP
• Hardware-based virtual fabric isolation with virtual SANs (VSANs) and FC routing with Inter-VSAN Routing (IVR)
• Remote SAN extension with high-performance FCIP
• Cost-effective iSCSI connectivity to Ethernet-attached servers

In addition, the new MDS 9700 48-port 10Gb FCoE Switching Module for the Cisco MDS 9710 Multilayer Director (9710-E08) combines both FC and FCoE into a single platform, enabling flexible and agile SAN designs, investment protection, reduced costs, and streamlined data center management and operations. It provides the scalability of 384 10Gb full line-rate FCoE ports in a single chassis.

Key prerequisites
The Cisco MDS 9250i supports multiprotocol connectivity for servers and storage. The 9710-E01 model supports all features and functions listed, and requires Cisco MDS NX-OS 6.2.7, or later.

Planned availability date: June 6, 2014