Fiber in Storage environment!!

[Yogesh Vashisht]

Hi all,

I need to know that if my storage environment (within 50mtrs) has 10Gig can i use UTP in place of fibers.

Thats right that fiber have their own advantage of latency , speed, BW etc. but why not UTP ?

Reply will be appreciated.

[Collin Clark]

You can run 10gb over UTP. It requires CAT6a cable and there are distance limitations, but it's possible. If you're at 50m, then you shold be OK (assuming correct cabling).

[Yogesh Vashisht]

Thanks Collin,

can you explain why every Data Center always place Fiber in their storage environment why not UTP as its cost effective  also.

I know the difference  between Fiber and UTP but need solid reason for its widely deployment reasons ?

[Collin Clark]

Back in the day most SAN switches didn't support copper optics. Fiber has always been considered more reliable and since we had I/O going between SAN and hosts, we wanted something fast and reliable, hence fiber. Today we have FCoE and it can certaintly run over copper.