Cisco’s Familiar Approach To A Unified Multi-Protocol Storage Network

Cisco’s multi-protocol storage initiative brings all storage protocols into its unified fabric.  Just like the days of multi-protocol routing, IT managers were able to manage the transition to IP networking after routing supported multiple network protocols such as DECnet, AppleTalk, etc.  In short applications that relied upon vendor specific protocols were supported and thus the transition to IP was regulated by how fast the application could support IP.  The same is true in modern data centers; build a unified fabric that is capable of supporting multi-protocol storage and IT business leaders can transition to a single storage protocol over time and gain simplification, lower life cycle cost and faster application deployment.  Rajeev Bhardwaj, Sr. Director of Product Management in the data center group at Cisco Systems is responsible for the MDS, Nexus and load balancing products making him the idea executive to discuss multi-protocol storage networking and the transition toward a converged or unified data center infrastructure.