Bob Metcalfe should be proud.  from 3 whole megabits at inception in 1973, ethernet has gone to 10 megabits then 100 and to the desktop is currently sitting at predominantly gigabit speeds.  But in the data center, a push towards 10 gigabit ethernet deployments has been going on since 2002.  One of our favorite products is the Cisco Catalyst 4948, which has two 10 gigabit ports and 48 gigabit ports, allowing for a couple of servers at 10 gigabit or stacking as a core switch in a medium sized organization.

Of course, as an industry addicted to speed, 10 gigabit ethernet simply isn’t going to be enough; 40 gigabit and 100 gigabit ethernet products are already being announced, although primarily in stacking switching fabrics together.  While the standard for 40 gigabit network has not exactly been ratified, we’ve been seeing a number of products coming out onto the market and standardization by the IEEE is expected in 2010 for 40 and possibly 100 gigabit networking.

The barrier from 100 and is expected to take a little less time than the 7 to 8 year window between when 10 gigabit was released and an expected 40/100 gigabit ethernet.  Terabit networking is expected by 2015, which means that those 10, 40 and 100 gigabit interfaces will not be outdated all that quickly, providing a nice return on the investment.

Overall, 10 gigabit and up can be fairly costly (although with a 40 gigabit release, expect 10 gigabit products to come down in price a bit). However, it can increase the performance of a network environment exponentially when used in the proper locations and with a comprehensive strategy in place. 318 has experience with 10+ gigabit networking and can help in devising such a strategy. Feel free to contact us and we will be happy to review options and potential uses for your organization.