[f-nsp] Brocade (VDX) VS. Cisco (Nexus)

[Nick Hilliard]

On 24/09/2011 14:34, Mohamed A. Monsef wrote:
> I'm studying data center products of different vendors and i see Cisco
> is marketing Nexus family switches as the best switches can support
> virtualization and cloud computing applications in data center However i
> see Brocade has a large portfolio also with multiple success stories but
> no fabric solution is available for now
> what is the best vendor ? 
> if anyone has experience with both vendors i need to hear your opinion
> * some one ansewered me with Brocade VDX so, why i should choose Brocade
> (VDX) over Cisco (Nexus) ???

leaving aside marketing noise for the moment, Cisco have three completely
separate nexus products: N1k, N5k and N7k.  The N1k is a software switch
which integrates into VMware ESX and takes over from the vmware switch
system.  The N5k is a fixed-configuration switch, and the N7k is a large
chassis+blade switch.  Notionally, the three systems run the same software,
although in reality the three nexus development teams use separate code trains.

Last time I tried the N1k software - the only nexus product which "supports
virtualisation and cloud computing applications" in any meaningful way - it
certainly showed promise and looked like it might turn into something
interesting in a couple of years.  Right now, however, nothing could
convince me to run it on a production ESX server.  I was left with the
strong impression that it was alpha quality software, and that it will take
a couple of years before it's manageable enough to run in anger.

Other than that, both the n5k and the vdx support ethernet and fcoe, and
both support cut-thru switching. I guess fcoe is convenient if you want to
run an fcoe SAN, but many SANs use iscsi these days, meaning that you can
run them on regular ethernet switches.  And if your ethernet switch
supports cut-thru, you'll get nice low latency.

I'm curious to know what you mean by "fabric solution".  Is this some
marketing term for ethernet + fcoe on the same box?

Nick