Hands-On Performance Analysis
In theory, 10 Gigabit iSCSI with TOE technology should be significantly faster than 8 Gigabit Fibre Channel.
However, this theory is based heavily upon the concept that the TOE hardware and software layers have
solved the complex issue of TCP/IP/iSCSI overhead and inefficiencies.
In order to see the reality of the performance of these two technologies, hands-on analysis is required
to determine true expectations on the wire.
Performance analysis has become much more complex in recent years. It is no longer just about data
transfer, it also incorporates CPU and power utilization as well as their respective efficiency ratings. Our
analysis will examine maximum bandwidth, maximum database transactions (IOPS), CPU efficiency and
power efficiency.
This comprehensive analysis is critical to today’s SAN customers as the datacenter of today has many
selection criteria to consider beyond raw performance. Below is a listing of our selected performance
metrics and the reasons why they are critical to SAN evaluation