A group of server, storage, networking and software companies led by QLogic announce the 2550100 Alliance, an organisation dedicated to bringing solutions based on 25Gb, 50Gb and 100Gb ethernet technology to market.
The alliance consists of 13 companies, including DataCore, Finisar, HDS, Huawei, Lenovo, SuSE, QLogic (of course), X-IO and Zadara. Big industry names, such as Broadcom, Brocade and Cisco, are noticeable in their absence.
“25Gb, 50Gb and 100Gb represents multiple breakthroughs for the Ethernet industry," 25501000 says. "25Gb brings economy to high-performance networking, 100Gb puts Ethernet at parity with InfiniBand, while the underlying chips and protocol stack are designed to meet the needs of both hyperscale and enterprise customers."
According to the alliance 25Gb is the more economical choice of speed between 10 and 40Gb for hyperscale cloud providers. It also predicts 25Gb solution shipments to reach 1 million ports in less than half the time of 10Gb, the current technology of high-performance server connectivity choice.
One can also twin 25Gb adapters to reach 50Gb, making a cheaper and faster option than quadrupling 10Gb adapters to reach 40Gb. Of course, the same can be said for the addition of 50 and 100Gb standards.
2550100 plans to assist hardware and software vendors with early access to 25Gb, 50Gb and 100Gb products, as well as provide channel partners and IT professionals with online and hands-on training.
