Hello Jugnu…
You are
quite correct that “data
center” is a broad term. One answer is that a data center is where
all the Ethernet
ports end
up, but this is also a broad view.
While we cannot mention company names, think of enterprises that
offer
video-on-demand to a few million
subscribers, powerful search engine services that produce Internet
search
results in
milliseconds, facilities that
process financial transactions, reservation systems, and so on.
Volumes for
100GE are not projected in the
millions, but the value of efficiently handling data for millions of
users
is very,
very valuable and will generate
significant revenue for 100GE equipment vendors.
We well may
have two separate market
segments here, but the market with the sizzle is 100GE.
Onward,
Larry Green
Larry,
What kind of
“data center
operators” are you referring to? “Data center” is a
pretty broad term, often used to refer to things as diverse as data
warehouses,
server farms, telco CO’s, computing clusters, etc. Certainly the
carriers and switch/router manufacturers you have referred to are
asking for
100GE, but at the same time, they have also been admitting that annual
volumes
will be no more than a couple of thousand units, looking out quite a
few years
from now. Many of the companies currently asking for 40GE are more
active
in the server/computing space. It seems to me that we have two
different
market segments here.
Regards,
Jugnu
Folks…
Ixia markets test
equipment for 10GE networks, with ability
to generate packets,
capture packets, analyze
and report performance in graphical
displays.
Over the past few months,
we have had numerous inquiries
regarding availability of test
equipment for 100GE. The
inquiries are coming from
carriers, data center operators,
switch and router
manufacturers. To date, inquires
have called for 100GE solutions,
not 40GE test equipment.
As we discuss
requirements with prospective customers, they
appear to be planning to
LAG up four 10GE links,
if a 10GE link is too slow.
If there’s a significant
market for 40GE, it is very,
very quiet.
Full ahead,
Larry Green
Ixia