HPE AK858B Director-class Fibre Channel SAN Switch (Blade Option)

Detailed Specifications

The HPE AK858B is a 16-port 8Gb Fibre Channel blade engineered to expand the connectivity of HPE StorageWorks DC SAN Director chassis. It is designed for enterprise data centers that require a scalable, high-performance, and resilient foundation for their Storage Area Networks (SANs). This blade addresses the need for incremental, non-disruptive growth in mission-critical environments, allowing for seamless expansion of fabric connectivity without requiring a complete overhaul of the core infrastructure. This expansion blade integrates directly into the DC SAN Director's architecture, leveraging its high-speed backplane. The 16 non-blocking, auto-sensing ports operate at 2, 4, or 8 Gb/s, providing flexible and high-performance connectivity for an array of storage and server devices. This ensures smooth data flow for demanding applications and virtualized workloads, maintaining operational integrity and performance as the SAN scales in size. Physically, the AK858B is installed into one of the available horizontal or vertical slots of a compatible DC SAN Director chassis, such as the 9U DC04 or the 14U DC SAN Backbone Director. Management is centralized through the director's Control Processor and the broader HPE B-series management software suite, which allows administrators to configure, monitor, and manage the blade's ports as an integrated part of the overall SAN fabric.