IBM SAN40B-4 vs IBM SAN48B-5 comparison

The IBM System Storage SAN40B-4 SAN fabric switch provides 24, 32 or 40 active ports and is designed for high performance with 8 Gbps link speeds and backward compatibility to support links running at 4, 2 and 1 Gbps link speeds. High availability features make it suitable for use as a core switch in midrange environments or as an edge-switch in enterprise environments where a wide range of storage area network (SAN) infrastructure simplification and business continuity configurations are possible.

The IBM System Storage SAN48B-5 switch is designed to meet the demands of hyper-scale private or hybrid cloud storage environments by delivering Gen 5 Fibre Channel technology and capabilities with 16 Gbps performance that support highly virtualized environments. To enable greater flexibility and investment protection, SAN48B-5 is configurable up to 48 ports and supports speeds up to 16 Gbps in a designed 1U package.