Ummm, is your switch… Backwards????
When we introduced the Nexus Family as a family of switching products that were purpose-built for the data center we meant this at every conceivable level. Silicon, Systems, Software, Hardware, Power Architecture, even a ‘Form Follows Function’ physical design of our chassis.
At the Partner Summit in Honolulu last week, amidst this thing called VOG (Volcanic Fog) I had someone ask me why the Nexus 5000 looked so different than the 7000 from an aesthetics point of view. I came back to the ‘form follows function’ design methodology. The Nexus 5000 is designed for the data center….
What side of a server are the network ports on- THE BACK
Where does hot air need to exhaust- THE BACK
If we hold these two truths to be self evident (or at least documented somewhere by ASHRAE or a random and cursory check of most server vendors portfolios) then we can infer the following logical statement- “The exhaust and the ports need to be on the back of the LAN Switch” as this will allow shorter and less complex cable runs, simplify operations, and maintain the established airflow models.
Thus we can again infer, that just about every product from every other company, designed for a rack switching deployment is… well….. backwards!
We have a few of those as well, fine for 1 Gigabit, and enabling a transition to 10Gb. But when we purpose-built a product for 10GbE, FCoE, and designed uniquely for data center deployments - it was time to change.
Posted by Douglas Gourlay at 08:19PM PST
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