SAN switching — Dell Connectrix
Dedicated SAN network equipment connecting servers and storage over Fibre Channel — from director-class systems handling heavy traffic, through rack-level fixed-port switches, to extension switches for long-distance SAN links. Built on Brocade Fabric OS.
WHY DELL
- Director-class switching up to 62Tbps on Brocade Fabric OS handles large SAN core traffic in a single chassis
- Director, fixed-port and extension models in one line-up let you design the whole SAN architecture — including long-distance DR links — consistently
| Item | ED-DCX8-8B | DS-8820B | MP-7850B |
|---|---|---|---|
| Class | Director | Fixed-port switch | Extension switch |
| Form factor | 14RU | 1RU | 1RU |
| Ports | up to 384 FC | 24 base (up to 56) FC | up to 24 FC + 18 IP |
| Port speed | 128Gbps FC | 128Gbps FC | 64Gbps FC + 100GbE |
| Switching capacity | up to 62Tbps | up to 7.16Tbps | up to 160Gbps |
| Use case | Large SAN core | Mid-range SAN | SAN extension / DR |
Based on Dell published material where internal documentation was unavailable; discontinued models excluded · Source: Dell Connectrix SAN Switches and Directors product pages, dell.com
Ethernet switching — Dell PowerSwitch
Open networking (ONIE/OS10) Ethernet switches covering rack-level leaf/ToR through data centre spine. Third-party NOS support makes them suitable for everything from general server rack access to low-latency AI cluster fabrics.
WHY DELL
- “-ON” (Open Networking) models accept third-party network operating systems alongside OS10 — open networking without vendor lock-in
- The Z9864F-ON delivers 51.2Tbps at under 700ns latency, minimising GPU-to-GPU communication bottlenecks in large AI clusters
| Item | S5248F-ON | S5448F-ON | Z9664F-ON | Z9864F-ON |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Class | Leaf/ToR | Leaf/ToR (high-perf) | Spine | Spine / Super-spine |
| Form factor | 1RU | 1RU | 2RU | 2RU |
| Ports | 48× 25GbE + 4× 100GbE | 48× 100GbE + 8× 400GbE | 64× 400GbE + 2× 10GbE | 64× 800GbE + 2× 10GbE |
| Switching capacity | 4Tbps | 16Tbps | 25.6Tbps | 51.2Tbps |
| Latency | — | — | under 850ns | under 700ns |
| OS | OS10 / third-party NOS | OS10 / third-party NOS | OS10 / third-party NOS | OS10 / third-party NOS |
Based on Dell published material where internal documentation was unavailable; discontinued models excluded · Source: Dell PowerSwitch Data Center Switches / Z-Series product pages, dell.com
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