SFF-8088 to SFF-8088 (External) in terms of securing cables from external

Primarily used to connect one chassis to another chassis through the use of external cabling, the SFF-8088 has become the most widely used cable interconnect. A SFF-8088 to SFF-8088 (External) is capable of carrying four data lanes (equivelant to an external version of the SFF-8087). One important feature here is the fact that the SFF-8088 cables “lock” into place which is important as an external connection method. The locked cables allow some pressure to be applied to the installed cable without dislodging the cable, possibly causing an entire chassis of drives to go “offline.” This is an important distinction over external connector types like eSATA that are susceptible to being pulled out.Infiniband, what can it not do? For those that do not know Infiniband, it is more or less a high-performance computing fabric developed to achieve high bandwidth and low latencies.
CX4 cabling is used with a SFF-8470 connector to provide a high-performance SAS interconnect. Most newer generation SAS cards have since adopted the SFF-8088 connector, but some legacy products can still be found with the SFF-8470 connector. Interestingly enough, the CX4/ SFF-8470 connectors are also used on cards that provide high-speed data transmission between servers, making Infiniband not an exclusively storage related connector.I was using Infiniband for an Ethernet over Infiniband test in 2010. One thing is certain about these cables, CX4 style cables are expensive! On the other hand, the SFF-8088 to SFF-8088 (External)connectors do tend to be made from very solid metal housings that clip into place. This easily beats eSATA in terms of securing cables from external forces that may have the tendency to dislodge eSATA cables.