Scan IT
Wired & Wireless
High performance server and storage systems need an equally high-performance network infrastructure to support them and ensure there are no bottlenecks that affect data throughput. Whether located within a datacentre or at the edge of the network, connectivity is key to keep systems functioning optimally. The Scan IT networking solutions portfolio includes Ethernet, InfiniBand, wireless and 4G / 5G options to deliver best in class performance - whatever your workloads.
Network Interface Cards
Although only a small component in an overall server build, the Network Interface Card or NIC, can contribute to a huge uplift in performance. Basic server NICs use Ethernet as a protocol and start with throughput speeds of 1Gbps (Gigabits per second), scaling to 40Gbps at the top end.
Regardless of the network speed, a standard NIC is concerned with network communication between users, other servers and storage devices via the network switches. All processing of data is performed either by the CPU(s) and GPU(s) installed in the server, and thus introduces latency as data is transferred around the server. To reduce this latency and scale to greater throughput speeds a Smart NIC is required.
Network Interface Cards
| Name | Protocol | Interfaces | Maximum Speed | Ports | Host Bus | RDMA / RoCE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intel 700 Series | Ethernet | RJ45 / SFP+ / QSFP+ / QSFP28 | 40Gbps | 1 / 2 / 4 | PCIe 3.0 |
No
|
| Intel 500 Series | Ethernet | RJ45 / LC Fibre / SFP28 | 10Gbps | 1 / 2 | PCIe 3.0 |
No
|
| Intel GbE Series | Ethernet | RJ45 / LC Fibre | 1Gbps | 1 / 2 / 4 | PCIe 3.0 |
No
|
To learn more about Ethernet and InfiniBand NIC technologies click here to read our Network Card Buyers Guide. Alternatively speak to our server architects on 01204 474747 or at [email protected].
Smart Network Interface Cards
A Smart NIC, sometimes referred to as an HCA (Host Channel Adapter) when discussing InfiniBand technology, performs all the tasks of a regular NIC but in order to cope with higher throughput speeds a degree of off-loading is required to reduce pressure on other components in the server.
This means the network card itself performs some of the processing tasks, removing the latency usually introduced by the CPU, system memory and operating system (OS). This off-loading is referred to as Remote Memory Direct Access (RDMA) for InfiniBand cards and RDMA over converged Ethernet (RoCE) for Ethernet cards. To cope with software defined applications, it is likely a DPU will offer better performance.
Smart Network Interface Card Specifications
| Name | Protocol | Interfaces | Maximum Speed | Ports | Host Bus | RDMA / RoCE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA ConnectX-7 | Ethernet / InfiniBand | QSFP56 | 400Gbps | 1 / 2 | PCIe 4.0 |
Yes
|
| NVIDIA ConnectX-6 | Ethernet / InfiniBand | QSFP56 | 200Gbps | 1 / 2 | PCIe 4.0 |
Yes
|
| Intel 800 Series | Ethernet | SFP28 / QSFP28 | 100Gbps | 2 / 4 | PCIe 4.0 |
Yes
|
| NVIDIA ConnectX-5 | Ethernet / InfiniBand | SFP28 / QSFP28 | 100Gbps | 1 / 2 | PCIe 3.0 |
Yes
|
| NVIDIA ConnectX-4 | Ethernet / InfiniBand | SFP28 / QSFP28 | 50Gpbs | 1 / 2 | PCIe 3.0 |
Yes
|
To learn more about Ethernet and InfiniBand NIC technologies click here to read our Network Card Buyers Guide. Alternatively speak to our server architects on 01204 474747 or at [email protected].
Data Processing Units
Data Processing Units (DPUs), sometimes also called Infrastructure Processing Units (IPUs), take the Smart NIC approach to the next level. Over and above the advanced off-loading that takes place on a Smart NIC a DPU is designed to be a datacentre infrastructure-on-a-chip - optimised for cloud workloads and high performance computing. It delivers a broad set of accelerated software-defined networking, storage, security, and management services with the ability to offload, accelerate and isolate datacentre infrastructure.
By combining high-speed networking connectivity - usually multiple 100 - 200Gbps interfaces - with its own OS (usually Linux based), an array of processor cores for crypto, management and storage offloads, a DPU offers purpose-built, hardware-acceleration engines with considerable logic programmability. Sitting at the edge of the server, a DPU card empowers agile, secure and high-performance cloud and AI workloads, all while reducing the total cost of ownership and increasing datacentre efficiency.
Networking
Hardware Accelerated Applications:
• vSwitch/vRouter, NAT, load balancer, NFV
• RoCE, Zero Touch RoCE
• GPUDirect
• SDN acceleration powered by NVIDIA
• ASAP - Accelerated Switching and Packet Processing
• Overlay network offloads including VXLAN
Storage
Hardware Accelerated Applications:
• NVMe over fabrics (NVMe-oF), elastic storage virtualisation
• Hyper converged infrastructure (HCI), encryption, data integrity, compression, data deduplication
• NVIDIA GPUDirect
• Elastic block storage enabled by BlueField
• SNAP storage virtualisation
• Compression and decompression acceleration
• NVMe-oF acceleration
• VirtIO-blk acceleration
Security
Hardware Accelerated Applications:
• Next-Generation firewall, IDS / IPS, root of trust, micro- segmentation, DDOS prevention
• Hardened isolation layer
• Hardware root of trust
• IPsec/TLS and AES-XTS encryption acceleration
• Connection tracking for stateful firewall and IDS / IPS
• Regular expression (RegEx) matching processor
Data Processing Unit Specifications
| Name | Protocol | Interfaces | Maximum Speed | Memory | Host Bus | RDMA / RoCE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA Bluefield-3 | Ethernet | QSFP56 | 2x 200GbE / 1x 400GbE | 16GB | PCIe 5.0 |
Yes
|
| NVIDIA Bluefield-3 | Ethernet | QSFP56 | 2x 200GbE / 1x 400GbE | 16GB | PCIe 5.0 |
Yes
|
| NVIDIA Bluefield-3 | InfiniBand | QSFP56 | 2x 200Gb HDR / 1x 400Gb NDR | 16GB | PCIe 5.0 |
Yes
|
| NVIDIA Bluefield-3 | InfiniBand | QSFP56 | 2x 200Gb HDR / 1x 400Gb NDR | 16GB | PCIe 5.0 |
Yes
|
| NVIDIA Bluefield-2 | Ethernet | QSFP56 | 2x 100GbE / 1x 200GbE | 16GB | PCIe 4.0 |
Yes
|
| NVIDIA Bluefield-2 | Ethernet | QSFP56 | 2x 100GbE / 1x 200GbE | 16GB | PCIe 4.0 |
Yes
|
| NVIDIA Bluefield-2 | InfiniBand | QSFP56 | 2x 100Gb EDR / 1x 200Gb HDR | 16GB | PCIe 4.0 |
Yes
|
| NVIDIA Bluefield-2 | InfiniBand | QSFP56 | 2x 100Gb EDR / 1x 200Gb HDR | 16GB | PCIe 4.0 |
Yes
|
Speak to our server architects on 01204 474747 or at [email protected].
Network Switches
Network switches create the interconnects from the NICs, Smart NICs or DPUs within servers to each other and also allow server access for all the users on the network from their respective desktop PCs, laptops or workstations. Depending on where switches are deployed within the network, this influences the speed required and communication protocol best suited.
SME networks are usually adequate with network speeds of between 1Gbps to 10Gbps, whereas 25-50Gbps speeds are necessitated for large file transfers such as video media and the highest speeds over 100Gbps enable deep learning & AI, HPC, datacentre, cloud computing and storage applications to operate at maximum functionality at any scale. For up to 10Gbps manufacturers such as Netgear and D-Link offer many options, however for the speeds above this NVIDIA Networking (formerly Mellanox) is the brand of choice.
High Performance Network Switch Specifications
| Name | Protocol | Interfaces | Maximum Speed | Maximum Ports | Data Throughput |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA ConnectX-7 SN4000 | Ethernet | QSFP56 / QSFP-DD | 400Gbps | 128 | 25.6Tb/s |
| NVIDIA ConnectX-6 SN3000 | Ethernet | SFP28 / QSFP28 / QSFP56 | 200Gbps | 128 | 12.8Tb/s |
| NVIDIA ConnectX-5 SN2000 | Ethernet | SFP28 / QSFP28D | 100Gbps | 64 | 6.4Tb/s |
| NVIDIA ConnectX-7 QM9700 | InfiniBand | QSFP56 | 400Gbps | 64 | 51.2Tb/s |
| NVIDIA ConnectX-6 QM8700 | InfiniBand | QSFP56 | 200Gbps | 40 | 16Tb/s |
| NVIDIA ConnectX-5 SB7800 | InfiniBand | QSFP28 | 100Gbps | 32 | 7.2Tb/s |
To learn more about Ethernet, InfiniBand and advanced switch technologies click here to read our Network Switch Buyers Guide. Alternatively speak to our network architects on 01204 474747 or at [email protected].
Wireless Networking
Wireless network connectivity seems to be the norm these days, but when used to support critical elements of your business, it must also be reliable, consistent and fast. To guarantee this performance businesses are turning increasingly to managed solutions whereby the various access points that cover any given area are controlled by either a master wireless access point (WAP) or an external controller, thus enabling greater control. Benefits of a solution like this include improved seamless hand-off as users roam between access points, better load balancing of user access across the wireless network and enhanced security - increasing the ability to monitor and detect rogue users - either with non-compliant devices or unauthorised access.
Ubiquiti Networks provides a variety of high-performance managed wireless networking technology solutions for small offices, medium size business all the way up to enterprises, offering an outstanding price to performance ratio.
Wireless Access Point Specifications
| Unifi WAP Name | Wireless Protocol | Ports | Maximum Antennas |
|---|---|---|---|
| nanoHD | 802.11ac Wave2 | 1x GbE (PoE+) | 2.4GHz / 5GHz MIMO |
| In-wall HD | 802.11ac Wave2 | 5x 1GbE (PoE+) | 2.4GHz / 5GHz MIMO |
| FlexHD | 802.11ac Wave2 | 1x GbE (PoE+) | 2.4GHz / 5GHz MIMO |
| BaseStation XG | 802.11ac Wave2 | 1x GbE (PoE+) | 5GHz MIMO |
To learn more about wireless technologies click here to read our Wireless Buyers Guide. Alternatively speak to our network architects on 01204 474747 or at [email protected].
Airtime & Connectivity Services
To complement our range of business hardware and software portfolio Scan has added a comprehensive range of airtime connectivity offerings to deliver a complete end-to-end solution for your organisation. Including cellular, leased line and wide area network (WAN) options, we believe we can address all your business requirements.
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Professional Services
As your network infrastructure grows and evolves, our team of professional services consultants are on hand to help with advice, network design or health checks, installation and configuration.
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New Network Infrastructure? Check your UPS!
It is vital to ensure that any new infrastructure equipment remains protected from power failures or surges by a UPS.
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