Working with both IB and 10g, the latency numbers provided by the azure IB setup are in-line with what a 10g kernel-bypass Ethernet setup can do. Ib's main per

Working with both IB and 10g, the latency numbers provided by the azure IB setup are in-line with what a 10g kernel-bypass Ethernet setup can do. Ib's main performance advantage comes from the userspace message processing as opposed to any inherent advantage of IB itself as opposed to ethernet. Kernel bypass Ethernet also doesn't require recompilation or rewriting the networking stack. Plain ol' socket programs in any language can get a boost by enabling kernel bypass. I'd say that IB had the first mover advantage and is now entrenched in HPC, but if it's just HPC, then it remains to be seen if the HPC market is big enough to support IB on its own.