Unified Networking enables cost-effective connectivity to the LAN and the SAN on the same Ethernet fabric; customers can use NFS, iSCSI, or Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) to carry storage traffic over Ethernet. These solutions simplify the data center by reducing equipment needs and costs
Intel’s Unified Networking solutions are enabled through a combination of standard Intel® Ethernet products along with trusted network protocols integrated in the Operating systems. Thus, Unified Networking is available with our Ethernet switching products, as well as on every Server either through LAN-on-Motherboard (LOM) implementation or via an add-in Network Interface Card (NIC).
Unlike other 10GbE vendors, Intel has delivered high quality Ethernet products for over 30 years and our Unified Networking solutions are built on the same founding principles that made us successful in Ethernet.
1. Open Architecture integrates networking with the server allowing IT managers to reduce complexity and overhead while enabling a flexible and scalable datacenter network.
2. Intelligent offloads lower cost and power while delivering the application performance that customers expect.
3. Proven Ethernet Unified Networking is built on trusted Intel® Ethernet Technology enabling customers to deploy FCoE or iSCSI while maintaining the quality of their traditional Ethernet networks.
iSCSI simplifies SAN connectivity
iSCSI uses Ethernet to carry storage traffic, extending the familiarity and simplicity of Ethernet to storage networking, without the need for SAN-specific adapters or switches. Intel® Ethernet Server Adapters are the easiest, most reliable, and most cost-effective way of connecting servers to iSCSI SANs.
Data Center Bridging delivers lossless Ethernet
Conventional Ethernet does not guarantee successful data delivery, which is not acceptable for SAN traffic. Ethernet enhancements such as data center bridging overcome that limitation with technologies that guarantee lossless delivery.
Open FCoE consolidates LANs and legacy SANs
Intel’s Open FCoE solution enables Intel® Ethernet 10 Gigabit Server products (LOM or NICs) to support Fibre Channel payload encapsulated in Ethernet frames. There is no upgrade charge for Open FCoE. Just as iSCSI, now customers can easily connect to an FCoE network with Intel 10GbE solutions (82599 based).
Additional resources
Learn more about FCoE
Discover the benefits of Fibre Channel over Ethernet implementation for the Linux* operating system
