XFP was intended for the generation following XPAK or X2. But some OEMs are beginning to consider moving directly to XFP.
Even some systems due to sample aren't locked into an MSA yet. "Some of them are already lined up. Some of them are trying to make their decision on form factor," says Bob Zona, senior product marketing manager for Intel's optical platform division. Things are even more open-ended in the storage networking area, which hasn't reached 10-Gbit/s speeds yet.
Once chips can handle 10-Gbit/s signals, XFP is expected to dominate over the other MSAs, because it's the most compact of them and eventually will be the cheapest as well. That factor is prompting some OEMs to investigate XFP a generation early, even though it currently requires an extra chip to convert the 10-Gbit/s serial feed into 3.125-Gbit/s lanes on the electrical side.
"People realize that, so you might as well start designing for it now," says Steve Joiner, Ignis director of marketing. "We have some people moving directly from 300-pin to XFP."
To realize the benefits of cloud-native software, an application must actually be cloud-native—designed to run in the cloud, interacting with disaggregated cloud services, fully manageable as code—to deliver the expected benefits.
By combining resources and expertise, the AI-Enabled ICT Workforce Consortium will offer a blueprint for how industries can adapt to an AI-dominated future.
IT leaders should heed the guidance of cybersecurity insurance providers who think businesses should prioritize security education, incident preparedness, regular internal audits, and ongoing vulnerability scanning and patching.
