Juniper Intros Smaller, Faster QFabric for Midsized Data Centers

Juniper Networks introduced a smaller version of its QFabric System aimed at mid-sized data centers.



The QFabric architecture, which was first unveiled in February 2011 and began shipping in September 2011, collapses multilayer data center infrastructure into a single, any-to-any fabric that unifies networking, storage and cloud computing resources. The product set is composed of three components that create a high-performance, low latency fabric. The QF/Node acts as the distributed decision engine of the fabric; the QF/Interconnect is the high speed transport device; and the QF/Director delivers a common window, controlling all devices as one.



The first implementation of QFabric scales to 6,000 network nodes, allowing any network interface within the network to connect to any other interface in a single hop. Juniper achieves this 6,000 port switching fabric by decoupling the line cards on the central fabric and moving them out into the network using dual-homed fiber connections. The entire 6,000 node network is a single switch and can be managed as such.



The new model, called the QFX3000-M QFabric System, a new model is designed for mid-tier data centers, satellite data centers and new 10GbE data center pods as well as space-constrained environments. Specifically, the QFX3000-M leverages a new fixed form-factor interconnect, the Juniper Networks QFX3600-I, which enables scalability from 48 10GbE ports and up to 6,144 10GbE ports using the QFX3000-G QFabric System. The smaller version delivers three microseconds latency, compared with five microseconds for the larger Qfabric.



In addition, Juniper has added enhancements to its EX8200 switches running Virtual Chassis technology, enabling customers for the first time to manage up to four data center cores as a single switch. Each data center core may be up to 80km distant.





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