NVMe over TCP (NVMe/TCP)
NVMe/TCP, like NVMe/FC, provides a path to achieving NVMe-oF but it runs over Ethernet and encapsulates NVMe commands and data inside a TCP datagram.
NVMe/TCP enables a larger number of queues and queue paths for data transport compared to iSCSCI resulting in significant increase in throughput and latency reduction.
What makes NVMe/TCP particularly beneficial is that it doesn’t require any special hardware to deploy. Like iSCSI, NVMe/TCP can use ANY Ethernet NICs and switches, making it simpler and less expensive to deploy and maintain. Since it can be deployed on any TCP network, It can be used on-premises or in the cloud. The extreme flexibility makes NVMe/TCP especially attractive for cloud service providers who want to offer a block storage solution. The performance improvements, cloud flexibility, lower TCO and deployment simplicity will increasingly drive iSCSI replacements with NVMe/TCP in the future.
A dual support of both NVMe/FC and NVMe/TCP will allow customers to choose which protocol to deploy in order to best serve their modern SAN infrastructure needs, even to use both concurrently or switch from one to the other freely as they go. It will be a simple and flexible way for enterprises and cloud service providers to optimize performance and reduce cost for their business.
