Very rarely we see Microsoft and Google on the same side of the story. Microsoft is joining with Google, Arista, Mellanox and Broadcom to form the 25 Gigabit Ethernet Consortium_to support_an industry-standard, interoperable Ethernet specification that boosts the performance and slashes the interconnect cost per Gbps between the server Network Interface Controller (NIC) and Top-of-Rack (ToR) switch. They also announced the availability of a specification optimized to allow data center networks to run over a 25 or 50 Gigabit per second (Gbps) Ethernet link protocol. Microsoft and Google believes that this new spec will enable the cost-efficient scaling of network bandwidth delivered to server and storage endpoints in next-generation cloud infrastructure, where workloads are expected to surpass the capacity of 10 or 40 Gbps Ethernet links deployed today. The 25 Gigabit Ethernet Consortium is an open organization to all third parties who wish to participate as members_to enable the transmission of Ethernet frames at 25 or 50 Gigabit per second (Gbps) and to promote the standardization_and improvement of the interfaces...

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