Introduction to Storage Networking
The New Datacenter
Speeds and Feeds
Optical Network
User
Speed Doubling every 8-9 months
User
Storage
Capacity Doubling every 12 months
Compute
Power Doubling every 18 months
Average values
Optical network speeds and compute power follow a different growth pattern
than capacity growth:
Optical network speeds and compute power do not really increase every
8-9 months, but rather increase by a factor of ten every 5-7 years. In
effect, this averages to a doubling every 8-9 months.
The importance of this distinction lies in the “leapfrog” effect as each
technology in turn passes the others’ delivery schedules.
Capacity growth tends to be more incremental, and can outpace growth
in network speeds and compute power.