COSTA MESA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Emulex Corporation (NYSE:ELX), the leader in converged networking solutions, today announced the Emulex Connect ArchitectureTM(ECA), a three-year roadmap addressing the connectivity needs for end users and server and storage Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs). In addition, Emulex also announced OEM sampling of the Emulex Engine™ (XE)201 I/O Controller, the industry's first quad-port converged fabric controller unifying Fibre Channel and Ethernet. This was unveiled today during "The Emulex Connect Architecture – Maximizing Networks for Cloud and Virtual Connectivity" live webcast.
The Emulex Connect Architecture encompasses the evolving requirements for cloud and data center connectivity, including I/O virtualization, scalability and management capabilities. The XE201 I/O Controller is designed for next-generation PCI Express (PCIe) 3.0 systems and is the first converged fabric controller capable of offering OEMs the choice of 16Gb/s Fibre Channel or 10Gb/s Ethernet (10GbE) with protocol support for RDMA over Converged Enhanced Ethernet (RoCE), Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and iSCSI, as well as 40Gb/s Ethernet (40GbE) connectivity. The XE201 I/O Controller supports up to four channels of 8Gb/s Fibre Channel, two channels of 16Gb/s Fibre Channel, four ports of 10GbE, one port of 40Gb/s Ethernet (40GbE) and combinations of the above, providing an unprecedented level of flexibility and scalability for today's expanding data centers.
"The XE201 I/O Controller changes the game for our customers, with the ability to run concurrent native Fibre Channel and Ethernet simultaneously, for the first time," said Shaun Walsh, vice president of marketing, Emulex. "It is also the first converged fabric controller that is capable of 16Gb/s Fibre Channel and 40GbE, providing a path forward from today's discrete networking model into full network convergence on a single platform."
The Emulex XE201 I/O Controller will offer the following key benefits:
- vScale™ Workload-based Performance and Scalability: The XE201 I/O Controller delivers twice the bandwidth available with today’s Fibre Channel and Ethernet adapters. The XE201 uses Emulex vScale, featuring an eight-core architecture that supports pooling of resources for dynamic allocation to multiple protocols, enabling scale-out of up to 256 virtual machines (VMs).
- vPath™ Virtual I/O Support: Emerging I/O virtualization standards, including Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV), Virtual Ethernet Port Aggregator (VEPA) and Virtual Ethernet Bridge (VEB), are supported by an internal Ethernet switch, which allows data to be forwarded between collocated VMs while ensuring I/O traffic isolation.
- GreenState™ Power Efficiency: The XE201 enables low power breakthroughs, including GreenState power management, allowing selective dynamic hibernation, advanced thermal and power instrumentation, and a configuration with less than 3 watts per port.
- Emulex vEngine ™ Enables More VMs per CPU: Emulex vEngine's I/O offload support lowers the CPU burden on the host server by 25% and enables 20% more VMs per core.
- OneCommand™ Management Support and Pay-As-You-Go Flexibility: Emulex ensures management simplicity with OneCommand management and VMware vCenter support across all Emulex adapters and an evolutionary, flexible pay-as-you-go model for discrete and converged network environments.
Emulex will be demonstrating this technology at upcoming industry events, such as EMC World and Interop Las Vegas. For more information on the Emulex XE201 I/O Controller, please visit our landing page.
Additional Supporting Quotes:
"The data center of the future is being driven by consolidation, virtualization and adaptive architectures that enable organizations to deliver IT as a service and cloud computing environments," said Bob Laliberte, senior analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group. "The new Emulex XE201 I/O Controller moves the bar forward by offering the choice in I/O connectivity that IT needs to protect existing investments and enable the network to evolve to support the converged architecture of tomorrow - one that requires substantially more I/O throughput to handle increased VM densities being driven by x86 server virtualization adoption and network convergence."
"Our customers are evaluating 16Gb/s Fibre Channel for their Storage Area Network (SAN) environments, given Fibre Channel's inherent reliability, performance and security," said Deidre Wassell, Director Solutions Marketing, EMC Corp. "However, as Ethernet continues to make its way into the data centers of tomorrow, Emulex is giving customers the choice of either Fibre Channel or Ethernet, which will help ensure maximum scalability for years to come."
"As customers continue to leverage virtualization to maximize capacity and scale servers within their SAN environments, there is a need for faster network performance,” said Manlio Vecchiet, director of product management, Microsoft Windows Server. “For Microsoft Hyper-V Server and Microsoft private cloud solutions, network speed is key. Having a 16Gb/s Fibre Channel option as well as a 10GbE option within a product such as the Emulex XE201 addresses this need for customers' I/O connectivity requirements now—and more importantly—far into the future."
"The new features in the XE201 give customers the flexibility to use both Fibre Channel and Ethernet ports at the same time, or switch between them as needed. This combination in a single adapter allows customers to use Fibre Channel today and transition to 10GbE without having to replace adapters in the servers," said Wim Coekaerts, Oracle's Senior Vice President Linux and Virtualization Engineering. "The XE201 ASIC also implements support for the T10-PI data integrity standard, which combined with the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel for Oracle Linux can improve data reliability."
“Cisco and Emulex help our customers drive LAN/SAN network convergence with high performance, simplified management and investment protection,” said Umesh Mahajan, vice president and general manager of Cisco’s Data Center Switching Technology Group. “By marrying Fibre Channel and Ethernet, we are providing our mutual customers with mix-and-match configurations to meet their needs. Emulex’s technology announcement today advances options for our mutual customers to take advantage of Cisco’s comprehensive, fully interoperable, multihop Unified Fabric. Cisco Unified Fabric supports Fibre Channel, Fibre Channel over Ethernet, NAS, iSCSI, and non-storage LAN traffic – with all switches running the same operating system, Cisco NX-OS, and managed by a single GUI, Cisco Data Center Network Manager. The real Data Center Business Advantage comes from networking not just faster, but smarter.”
"Customers on the journey to cloud computing require scalable, high-performance technologies that leverage the VMware vSphere® cloud infrastructure platform," said Parag Patel, vice president, Global Strategic Alliances, VMware. "The new Emulex XE201 is well-suited for VMware vSphere, designed to deliver higher density and throughput that will accelerate enterprise hybrid cloud deployments for customers."
“Products that can offer multiple protocols -- both current and future generations -- on a single wire, should be of high-value to storage OEMs since these combined connectivity options help eliminate the guesswork about what technology their customers will be using now or in the future," said Seamus Crehan, president, Crehan Research. “Furthermore, on the server side, OEMs will start offering 16Gb/s Fibre Channel with the introduction of Sandy Bridge servers later this year, and this technology should enjoy strong growth starting in 2012."
Resources:
Watch the Emulex XE201 40GbE Demonstration: www.emulex.com/40gbeDemo.html
Watch the Emulex XE201 16Gb/s Fibre Channel Demonstration: www.emulex.com/16gbeDemo.html
Read our Emulex Labs blog: "Taking the Covers Off 16Gb/s Fibre Channel Technology."
Read our Market Mantras blog: "Drivers, Start Your Engines..."
Follow Emulex on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/emulex
About Emulex
Emulex is the leader in converged networking solutions for the data center. Our Emulex Connect Architecture provides a long-term vision that addresses the connectivity needs for end users, and server and storage Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs). Emulex provides a single framework that intelligently connects every server, network and storage device within the data center. Through strategic collaboration and integrated partner solutions, Emulex provides its customers with industry-leading business value, operational flexibility and strategic advantage. Emulex is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE:ELX) and has corporate headquarters in Costa Mesa, California. News releases and other information about Emulex Corporation are available at www.emulex.com.
Emulex Safe Harbor Statement
“Safe Harbor” Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: With the exception of historical information, the statements set forth above include forward-looking statements that involve risk and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements include, among other matters, statements concerning Emulex’s acquisition of ServerEngines Corporation, including anticipated benefits expected from the acquisition, expected impact on Emulex’s results of operations and financial condition, and expected market opportunities; Emulex’s business outlook, as well as expectations of other future events and future performance. Emulex wishes to caution readers that a number of significant factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Those factors include among others, the anticipated benefits of the combined companies may not be achieved, the combined operations may not be successfully integrated in a timely manner, if at all, and other risks inherent in acquisitions of businesses, including unanticipated costs and expenditures, potential changes in relationships with strategic partners, potential contractual or intellectual property issues, and potential accounting charges and write-downs; as well as changes in economic and industry conditions and the effects of ongoing global economic uncertainty, changes in end user demand for technology solutions; the effect of any actual or potential unsolicited offers to acquire Emulex; Emulex’s dependence on a limited number of customers and the effects of the loss of, or decrease or delays in orders by, any such customers, or the failure of such customers to make payments; the emergence of new or stronger competitors as a result of consolidation movements in the market; the rapidly changing nature of technology, evolving industry standards and frequent introductions of new products and enhancements by competitors; the effect of rapid migration of customers towards newer, lower cost product platforms; slower than expected growth of the storage networking market or the failure of Emulex’s Original Equipment Manufacturer (“OEM”) customers to successfully incorporate Emulex products into their systems; delays in product development; the highly competitive nature of the markets for Emulex’s products; Emulex’s ability to gain market acceptance for its products; any inadequacy of Emulex’s intellectual property protection or the potential for third-party claims of infringement; Emulex’s ability to attract and retain skilled personnel; and Emulex’s reliance on third-party suppliers. These and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements are also discussed in Emulex’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its recent filings on Forms 8-K, 10-K and 10-Q. Statements in this release are based on current expectations and, except as required by law, Emulex undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements for any reason. All trademarks, trade names, service marks, and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies.