Tuesday, July 16, 2019

10Gbase-T for top-of-rack in 2019?

I've done some research about 10Gbase-T, including searching in this sub, and have found the usual criticisms including slightly higher latency, power consumption and so on. However, all the information I find is several years old and I wonder: Are these criticisms still valid in 2019?

The most recent fact that makes me bring this up is that nearly all the servers we have been purchasing lately (SuperMicro and some Dell) come with 10GBase-T on the motherboard. Most manufacturers DO NOT provide an option for SFP+ ports on the motherboard; if we want those we have to install an add-in card. This is expensive and requires us to use an additional network port for IPMI/BMC.

Another point is the availability of inexpensive 10Gbase-T SFP+ modules. We've purchased one to test and it has performed admirably, even running cooler than we thought it would.

So this begs the question: If there is so much industry pressure against 10Gbase-T, why is it coming standard on servers now? Are there still good reasons to avoid it in 2019?



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