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Hot Points:
- Lenovo Flex System Interconnect Fabric (SI Fabric) is top-of-the-line software designed to support an enterprise’s network
- Quickly compare the SI Fabric to its Cisco counterpart, UCS
- Flex System enables quality performance and reliability for your infrastructure
For this month’s How We See IT column, we are featuring the Lenovo Flex System Interconnect Fabric software. This innovative technology enables multiple Flex System chassis to be connected to an existing network. Through simple integration methods, you will have the capability to build PODs (points of delivery) for up to 252 nodes. Because this technology requires little management for most data centers, you can easily deploy peak performance speeds for the best user experience.
Features
The Flex System is often compared to Cisco’s UCS architecture due to its similar topology, however, there are a few very important differences. In both Flex Systems and UCS, users have the ability to join multiple chassis together using redundant aggregation devices. The difference between the two is that Flex System uses Lenovo’s RackSwitch G8264CS switches whereas UCS incorporates Fabric Interconnect devices. Both products support FCoE (Fibre Channel over Ethernet) with Ethernet links and have ports that have the ability to function as Fibre Channel ports for upstream SAN attachments. Flex System is supported by two RackSwitch switches that are configured and managed as a single unit. The entire set also operates unitarily, with one single data plane, a single switch configuration model, and a single IP address
Lenovo Flex System Seamlessly Integrates With Your Existing Infrastructure
There are several key capabilities associated with the Flex System SI Fabric that enable efficiency within your data center. SI Fabric supports an automated upgrade of firmware for its switching devices. As the master switch gets updated, it rolls over automatically to the backup, then eventually to all the modules in the extended bays. This prevents any occurrence of the servers going offline for updates. Another benefit of the Flex System, unlike UCS, is all traffic between servers stays within the chassis. The way the Flex System is designed allows for greater uplinks and can handle more bandwidth than the UCS can offer.
What Lenovo Flex System Can Do For Your Business
The Flex System Interconnect SI Fabric is beneficial to business because it simplifies management and has incredible scalability. You’ll have a secure and efficient system in place for your existing architecture that accelerates deployment speeds, while increasing reliability.
Want More Information?
If you are in need of a resilient software solution, Flex System Interconnect SI Fabric is a great addition to your IT infrastructure. Request a quote from CentricsIT. We know you’ll be pleased with our pricing versus the OEM and our competitors. Each and every one of our products distributed by CentricsIT is backed by a Lifetime Warranty, so you can rest assured that our certified team of trained engineers will be there to assist if any problem should ever arise.
