When we hear about “performance,” we automatically think of hardware. I know that I am making a generalization here, but it’s true in most cases. Hardware is physical; you can touch it, you can “run stuff on it” and see results.
So, my hope in this blog is to broaden your performance horizons. Let’s say you are in the market for a sporty automobile, and you’ve narrowed your choices down to three brands based on their performance specs. Typically, you would not make your final purchase decision purely based on what you’ve read. You want to get into the car and drive it. You’ll notice that the responsiveness of the controls and efficiency in which you operate within the cockpit will help eke out more performance from the vehicle itself. The better these controls are, the more you’ll be able to harness the performance of the automobile.
This analogy can be directly applied to the Fibre Channel and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) Converged Network Adapter (CNA) purchasing process. When purchasing Host Bus Adapters (HBAs) or CNAs, management capabilities are critical considerations.
In fact, the latest published usability test result conducted by Demartek, an independent research firm, found Emulex’s OneCommand Manager adapter management application to be superior to those from QLogic and Brocade. This paper highlighted the importance of having effective and efficient management applications and took into consideration the following areas:
- Installation
- Network topology representation
- Adapter updating process
- Network interface card (NIC) teaming process
- Diagnostics
- Flexibility in modifying adapter attributes
- Management efficiency in virtualized environments
Demartek’s analysis found Emulex OneCommand Manager to be easier to use and more intuitive, and that it automated the execution of various management functions, enabling IT administrators to streamline management and improve time to deployment, both critical factors in dynamic business environments. In addition, Demartek found OneCommand Manager can scale more effectively, helping to address data center growth.
So, back to our car analogy… a performance car with poor management controls will prevent the driver from utilizing the car’s full performance potential. The same is true for Fibre Channel HBAs and FCoE CNAs. If you select a brand that has poor management capabilities, it’ll cost you from a management efficiency perspective, which can lead to slower responsiveness in dynamic business environments.
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