The IBM System Storage SAN768B fabric backbone is designed to be the premier platform for consolidation of your data center connectivity, providing high-performance and high-availability data networking. It provides new levels of performance with industry-leading 8 gigabits per second (Gbps) Fibre Channel (FC) technology. It is also the first member of the IBM System Storage b-type family designed to exploit Brocade®’s new Data Center Fabric architecture.
The SAN768B interoperates with other members of the IBM System Storage b-type and m-type families as well as other fabrics.
It can be configured with a wide range of connectivity options, including 10, 8, 4, 2 and 1 gigabits per second (Gbps) Fibre Channel, up to 4 Gbps Fibre Connection (FICON®), and Fibre Channel over Internet Protocol (FCIP).
It is also designed to enable support for emerging high-performance and high-function network protocols, including Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE).
The SAN768B is designed to serve as the basis for transforming existing networks into a unified, high-performance data center fabric connecting applications with their data and virtual servers with virtual storage.
Highlights
Drive new levels of performance with 8 Gbps Fibre Channel (FC) technology
Reduce total cost of ownership (TCO) through consolidation of network resources
Protect existing infrastructure investment while positioning for future technologies
Manage your Infrastructure with greater flexibility and scalability
Unify management framework for consolidated and virtualized resources
Improve energy efficiency by combining higher band-width with reduced power consumption
Common features
Hardware summary
Designed for enterprise and larger-midrange fabrics
Ideal as the “top tier” or core component in a core-to-edge fabric
New 8 Gbps switch hardware
8, 4, 2 and 1 Gbps server and device interfaces with auto-sensing capability
Fabric OS® is common across all current members of the IBM SAN b-type SAN family
Chassis includes two control processor blades and two core module blades plus space for up to eight port blades, dual power supplies with an option for two additional power supplies, and three fan modules in a 14U rack height
Available 8 Gbps 16-port, 32-port and 48-port switch blades
Available 10 Gbps Inter Switch Link (ISL) blades
Available FC routing blade with sixteen 4 Gbps FC ports and two Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) IP ports
Available 8/4/2 Gbps and 4/2/1 Gbps shortwave small-form-factor pluggable (SFPs), 4 Gbps 4 Km and 10 Km longwave SFPs, 10 Gbps XFPs, and GbE optical SFPs for IP connectivity
Full Fabric and Universal Port operation (E_Port, F_Port and FL_Port)
Install in IBM TotalStorage® SAN Cabinet (2109-C36)
