Информационное Руководство для Cisco Cisco Nexus 5010 Switch
Customer Case Study
IT Infrastructure Provider Increases Capacity to
Prepare for Growth
Prepare for Growth
The Planet added Nexus 5020 Switches to transition to 10 Gigabit Ethernet.
Challenge
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
THE PLANET
● IT Infrastructure Outsourcer
● Houston, Texas
● 550 employees; 20,000+ customers
● Houston, Texas
● 550 employees; 20,000+ customers
BUSINESS CHALLENGE
● Increase backplane switching capacity within
the datacenter
● Contain costs
● Cost-effectively introduce new services
● Cost-effectively introduce new services
NETWORK SOLUTION
● Deployed Cisco Nexus 5020 Switch for server
connectivity
BUSINESS RESULTS
● Increased backplane switching capacity by
500 percent while maintaining existing cost
structure
structure
● Simplified management and operations
requirements
● Built the foundation to offer innovative
services, such as shared storage
Headquartered in Houston, Texas, The Planet is a
leading provider of on-demand IT infrastructure
solutions, serving more than 20,000 small- and
medium-size business customers worldwide and
hosting 15.2 million web sites. Customers can
choose from a broad array of solutions, including
dedicated servers; dedicated servers with services;
fully managed hosting; and colocation, all backed by
24x7x365 support. The company’s six wholly owned
data centers house more than 56,000 servers.
leading provider of on-demand IT infrastructure
solutions, serving more than 20,000 small- and
medium-size business customers worldwide and
hosting 15.2 million web sites. Customers can
choose from a broad array of solutions, including
dedicated servers; dedicated servers with services;
fully managed hosting; and colocation, all backed by
24x7x365 support. The company’s six wholly owned
data centers house more than 56,000 servers.
The Planet’s business model is based on maximizing
revenue from the data center infrastructure while
minimizing capital and operational expense.
Increasing bandwidth to the top of the rack from
Gigabit Ethernet to 10 Gigabit Ethernet would enable
The Planet to reduce capital expense and also begin
offering new services that require high bandwidth,
such as shared storage.
revenue from the data center infrastructure while
minimizing capital and operational expense.
Increasing bandwidth to the top of the rack from
Gigabit Ethernet to 10 Gigabit Ethernet would enable
The Planet to reduce capital expense and also begin
offering new services that require high bandwidth,
such as shared storage.
“The challenge was finding a way to provide ten times as much bandwidth to the top of the rack
without paying ten times more,” says Will Charnock, director of technology. “If we could do it for no
more than four times our previous cost, we would gain 500 percent more switching capacity without
increasing costs.”
without paying ten times more,” says Will Charnock, director of technology. “If we could do it for no
more than four times our previous cost, we would gain 500 percent more switching capacity without
increasing costs.”
When The Planet began planning a new service called Virtual Rack, the need for 10-Gigabit
Ethernet became urgent. Built for environments with two or more servers, Virtual Rack would
require a higher-capacity switching fabric. Main criteria for the new switch platform included:
Ethernet became urgent. Built for environments with two or more servers, Virtual Rack would
require a higher-capacity switching fabric. Main criteria for the new switch platform included:
●
High port density for 10 Gigabit Ethernet, to minimize rack costs for the new service
●
Simplified and consistent operations that would not increase the workload for The Planet’s
engineers when new servers were added
engineers when new servers were added
●
Support for VLANs, which The Planet uses to segment each customer’s traffic over the
shared infrastructure
shared infrastructure
© 2009 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
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