The HP StorageWorks 8/40 SAN Switch is ideal for organizations requiring a flexible solution that is forward and backward compatible and will meet rapidly evolving storage requirements, either as a small “building-block” switch for a departmental fabric or as a high-performance edge switch in larger core-to-edge SAN configurations.

The 8/40 SAN Switch is designed for rapidly growing storage requirements in mission-critical environments-combining 8 Gbit/sec Fiber Channel technology in an efficiently designed 1U package. A fully populated 8/40 SAN Switch with 40 ports enabled features a non-blocking architecture at 8 Gbit/sec full duplex to provide an aggregate bandwidth of 680 Gbit/sec. Inter-Switch Link (ISL) trunking can supply up to 64 Gbit/sec of balanced data throughput to reduce congestion and increase bandwidth. The 8/40 SAN Switch also enables organizations to use 4 Gbit/sec SFPs today and upgrade to 8 Gbit/sec SFPs when required.

The 8/40 SAN Switch provides a reliable foundation for disaster recovery and business continuance by employing enterprise-class availability features such as hot-swappable, redundant, and integrated fan and power supply assemblies. Moreover, hot code load and activation help maximize application uptime with faster system upgrades and maintenance to reduce the dependency on scheduled outages. Combined with a wide range of diagnostic and monitoring functions, these capabilities help provide a highly available SAN environment.