Emulex Blog: Market Mantras

The Ironman of Network Convergence

Posted November 12th, 2009 by Shaun Walsh

Screen shot 2009-11-12 at 10.13.10 AMThis week, both Dell‘Oro Group and IT Brand Pulse released their first reports on network convergence market share for Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and Emulex is the leader of the market for the first three quarters of this new market triathlon. Yes, triathlon, not marathon, because you can’t just be good at one event here to win. You must be able to swim, bike and run, or, in the IT world, you have be a leader in IP, iSCSI and FCoE to win this race. Most of you who have met me know that I am hardly a tri-athlete, but that does not mean that Emulex does not compete just as hard as these athletes in our own three-event race in the IT world.

Emulex Is at the Top of the Leader Board

According to the numbers, Emulex leads in both revenue, 60.1%, and ports, 70%, over QLogic, Intel and Brocade in this early phase of the market. As we move into the second phase of the market, we know that, OneConnect, our tri-athlete Universal Converged Network Adapter (UCNA), will outdistance the single-event specialists in IP (Intel/Broadcom) or FCoE (QLogic/Brocade). The reason is simple: OneConnect provides full three-protocol hardware offload for IP, iSCSI and FCoE on a single platform; it provides a pay-as-you-go feature to lower 10GbE deployment costs; and it provides these differentiated features universally for servers with Local Area Network on Motherboard (LOM), mezzanine and adapter form factors. If you look at how IBM has implemented their virtual fabric solutions on Emulex OneConnect, they have built a solution that lowers costs and improves performance and flexibility for IT managers. This is the first of many innovations based on our industry-leading technology and implementations.
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Posted in Competition, Industry, convergence | No Comments

Tickle Me ESG

Posted November 10th, 2009 by Shaun Walsh

Steve Duplessie, in his own unique way, rightfully said we (Emulex) were tickled with the announcements this week from Cisco, VMware, EMC and HP around how convergence and 10Gb Ethernet (10GbE) will be used to connect the next generation of clouds and the data center on the whole (See: http://www.thebiggertruth.com/2009/11/vce-between-the-lines/).

Obviously, it is great to hear major players in the industry talk about the technology and solutions you sell in a positive light, and even better when those solutions are a core foundation of their key initiatives.

To me, the most significant thing about Steve’s blog is his comment, “The world of IT works like this,” if the big guys announce stuff, the rest of the IT world generally follows. However, these announcements are usually the culmination of years of standards work, many generations of development and many startups plowing the new ground to get major players ready to take a stand publicly. This next step into the virtual data center and clouds services is very interesting because it starts with some big fish talking about it first. Yes, they are using lots of building blocks from their construction kits, but it is a new architecture, even if they use many of the same materials.

So, yes, are we tickled! If you look at VCE, HP FlexFabric and IBM Virtual Fabric Solution, they are virtualized, state-less architectures and use networking to reach storage, the cloud and everything else. The cloud is all about delivering the right class of service to every IT need, and the dynamic provisioning tool inherent in 10Gb Enhanced Ethernet-based network convergence is a perfect complement to this solution. Why? It leverages the four core values of the network convergence model:
Screen shot 2009-11-10 at 9.18.27 AM

Enhanced Ethernet-based networking convergence provides support for the core networking, clustering and storage protocols required to deploy the cloud and lower networking costs.

  • 10GbE Virtualized Network Interface Cards (NICs) and Universal Converged Network Adapters (UCNAs) – Deploying networking on virtual machines (VMs) requires the same type of hardware redundancy and network segregation as traditional servers, and the ability to create virtual NICs, iSCSI and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) adapters gives IT managers the flexibility required to deploy separate and redundant connections for Local Area Network (LAN) management, IP networking and storage (NAS, iSCSI and FCoE).
  • Pay-As-You-Go I/O – One of the key value propositions of the cloud is the ability to pay-as-you-go for resources, and Emulex’s UCNAs provide the same business model for networking to these new architectures.
  • Unified Management – Consolidation and dynamic control via unified management of resources for each management domain is provided for applications, LAN and storage with a single security model.

So yes, we are tickled to see how network convergence is being used in the market by our OEM and ecosystem partners. We also think IT managers will see a path forward that protects their current investments.

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Sweet 16Gb: Long Live Fibre Channel

Posted October 30th, 2009 by Shaun Walsh

Screen shot 2009-10-30 at 9.20.55 AMWith all the talk about network convergence this week, you might be thinking that we have forgotten about Fibre Channel. No way! This month, the Fibre Channel Industry Association (FCIA) ratified the 16Gb Fibre Channel standard, and this week, we announced the industry’s first 16Gb design win with our long-time partner, IBM p Series.

Fibre Channel Market Muscle

According to the Dell Oro Group, Fibre Channel will be a $675 million market by 2013, so it is not going anywhere. Why? Installed base and investment protection is a key factor, but it goes beyond that. Fibre Channel is one of the proven cornerstones of the data center, and IT managers will not just abandon a proven solution. Fibre Channel will be a dominant storage interconnect as a standalone transport or encapsulated in FCoE for at least another decade.

The Powers of 2

1, 2, 4, 8 and now 16Gb. Fibre Channel continues to move forward, and yes, 32Gb is on the FCIA roadmap as well. Each generation of Fibre Channel has followed a power of 2 and shows no sign of stopping. Here are some details from the press release: ”The Fibre Channel Industry Association (FCIA) ANSI INCITS T11 committee completed the technical work on the FC-PI-5 for 16Gb/s Fibre Channel (“16GFC”) and voted in early October to send the document out for letter ballot. This milestone marks the technical stability and completeness necessary for vendors to commit to silicon their upcoming designs based upon the FC-PI-5 standard…” This is exactly what IBM and Emulex have done with our announcement this week.

As you would expect, 16Gb Fibre Channel users will experience twice the bandwidth of 8Gb Fibre Channel, and like previous generations of Fibre Channel, 16Gb Fibre Channel will auto-negotiate backward compatibly to 8Gb Fibre Channel and 4Gb Fibre Channel. 16Gb Fibre Channel provides a natural migration path from 8/4Gb Fibre Channel and ensures the end-user full confidence that 8Gb Fibre Channel purchases made today are preserved investments for tomorrow.

16Gb Fibre Channel will provide more virtual ports to improved efficiencies with high-density multi-core CPUs, improve single-root hypervisors support, improve IOPS for solid state disk drives and make way for third-generation PCI Express (PCIe) bus architectures and shared I/O deployments. Additional information on the standardization efforts of 16Gb Fibre Channel is available at the ANSI T11 Web site: www.t11.org.

How Do We Reconcile Support for Fibre Channel and Fibre Channel over Ethernet via Network Convergence?

Fibre Channel and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) are complementary, not competitive. Fibre Channel is a core part of network convergence. By supporting the latest innovations in Fibre Channel, we are enabling network convergence and advancing tools that will help us build better, more flexible and more powerful FCoE implementations for 10GbE and 40GbE in the future.

Yes, Emulex is a strong advocate of network convergence. We see network convergence and FCoE as a market expansion opportunity, not a market replacement. We started this blog by saying Fibre Channel will be a big market for many years to come, and we plan to keep growing in our core Fibre Channel markets.

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Network Convergence Starts with the Right 10GbE NIC/CNA

Posted October 19th, 2009 by Shaun Walsh

thehulkNetwork convergence is changing the lowly Network Interface Card (NIC) into a Converged Network Adapter (CNA) superhero. How is this humble workhorse of the data center becoming such a strategic element with incredible superpowers? Two words: Enhanced Ethernet. Much like getting exposed to the right gamma rays, Ethernet is now imbued with the powers of IP networking –  NAS, ISCSI, RDMA and Fibre Channel in a single wire (or optical cable, as the case may be).

However, given all of these powers, choosing a 10GbE NIC is not as simple as it used to be. Here is a list of things to look for in your next 10GbE NIC or CNA:

    1. Network Convergence-ready 10GbE – And, no, this should not cost extra. Make sure you look for a card that can run all of the network convergence protocols. Also, be sure the base NIC does not carry a tax to support these extra capabilities if they’re not being used.
    2. Field Upgradable Protocols – You should be able to empower your NIC/CNA with additional protocol offloads in the field when and where you need them. Look for a vendor partner that puts your needs first and provides a simple protocol enablement process that lets you implement network convergence on your own timeline.
    3. High Performance with Hardware Acceleration – Do you want to run software iSCSI or have full hardware offload to maximize performance and scalability? You should be able to choose, and not be locked in or pay for things you don’t want. Make sure your NIC/CNA vendor can support both software and hardware protocol implementations, and that you only pay for what you want to use.
    4. Full Hardware Protocol Offload-capable – Do you want to maximize performance, scalability and virtualization on every CPU core? The best way to do this is to pick a NIC/CNA that provides full protocol offload for TCP/IP offload engine (TOE), iSCSI (TOE plus ISCSI encapsulation) and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) (TOE plus Fibre Channel encapsulation). This has been proven to save 20% of available CPU resources that can be reallocated to run more virtual machines per CPU core and improve data center consolidation.
    5. Unified and Integrated Management – In a converged world, management is about integration, integration and integration. Standalone tools can be great, but they need to work upstream with existing frameworks (such as OpenView and Tivoli), server managers (including IBM Director and HP Insight Manager) and base operating system and hypervisor tools. This means that the view of every virtual NIC (VNIC), virtual CNA (VCNA) and virtual Host Bus Adapter (VHBA) is easy to find, configure and support.
    6. Enterprise Reliability – As IT converges on NIC/CNAs to run many classes of I/O, proven enterprise reliability is paramount. Since Fibre Channel is now one of the core protocols in a converged network, having an enterprise-proven Fibre Channel stack with over 7 million host and 60 million target ports is one of the things IT managers should look for in their NIC/CNA choice.

Choosing the right 10GbE infrastructure is a critical decision.  Make sure as you choose your NIC/CNA option that it has the right superpowers to deliver the converged network you are looking for now and in the future.

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The Five W’s of Network Convergence: Who, What, When, Where and Why

Posted October 13th, 2009 by Shaun Walsh

There had seemed to be a lull in the blogosphere and Twitterverse about Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) for a few weeks, and then, just as you would expect it would, traffic cranked back up as the fall tradeshow season roared into high gear. It has been a busy past few weeks trying to answer the classic five W’s (who, what, when, where and why) about FCoE and network convergence.  As we all know, when we have a lack of real data, the speculation can sometimes get wild and wooly.

Here is Emulex’s take on the five W’s:

Who

That is fairly simple, as at this point, the answer would seem to be everyone. Everyone of the major server, storage, operating system (OS), hypervisor and storage vendors have announced support of network convergence in 2009. This includes IBM, HP, Sun, Dell, EMC, Brocade, Cisco (Nexus and UCS), Emulex, QLogic, Intel, Broadcom, Juniper, VMware, Solaris, Microsoft, Red Hat, Novell and more.

This list marks a Who’s Who of the enterprise market. These organizations are creating the tools, systems, solutions and support required for IT managers to begin the process of testing vendor claims and putting pilots into the data center.

What

What is required for network convergence to become a reality? It is the confluence of virtualization, which drives I/O aggregation; Nehalem EX CPUs and chips, which set optimization for 10GbE bandwidths; blade servers leveraging 10GbE for mid-planes; and enhanced Ethernet, which addresses the needs of storage and high-performance computing (HPC) performance on a common physical layer. No one single thing of those listed above would move network convergence from concept to reality, but together, these items will, because it makes economic sense, leverages core IT capabilities and has the right problems to solve at the right time. These key problems are lowering the CAPEX cost of IT, increasing compute density to reduce OPEX (power, cooling, rack space, cabling) and simplifying IT to lower management overhead.

When

From the Emulex perspective, we have completed some of the major technology and ecosystem development steps over the past few years:

  • 2008 – The year of driving standards and first-generation products, where, as an industry, we completed proof-of-concept products, performed initial technology demonstrations and built value propositions for our customers.
  • 2009 – The year of OEM and ecosystem qualifications, as second-generation products have moved into the mainstream and OEMS are selecting their go-to-market partners and ecosystem partners, who will build turn-key solutions for IT. As this level of work is completed, IT managers can begin to look at implementing projects based on tools, equipment and services from their chosen IT vendors.
  • 2010 – The year of validation, IT pilots and testing. IT managers will be able to put network convergence to the test and see if it really works for them. We obviously expect it will, after which it will become budgeted for the future.
  • 2011-2014 – 2011 will be the first real year of deployment as IT managers replace equipment installed in the 2007-08 timeframe that has been fully amortized. This will mark the beginning of a three- to four-year transition that should set the stage for cloud computing and 40GbE network convergence.

Where

Where will this occur first? The service providers (Web 2.0, financials, telco, IT services, X as a service) will be first, as they need to lower infrastructure costs while also increasing scalability and flexibility in their architectures. For many of these service providers, who provide back-end services related to networking, consolidating on 10GbE with enhanced Ethernet makes simple sense. They can provide easily provisioned bandwidth for each class of networking on a common infrastructure. This isn’t to say that all IT shops can’t benefit from this type of capability, but service providers drive direct savings, profits and revenue from this model and will be the most common early adopters of network convergence.

Why

As we all know, IT vendors are quick to embrace new computing models, while IT professionals tend to be a bit more skeptical for many reasons. Network convergence is going to be driven first by 10GbE, and that transition is tied to the next generations of Nehalem EX servers running extensive server virtualization, which drive 10GbE to the LOM, 10GbE for virtual I/O and create blade servers to native 10GbE on the mid-plane. Clearly this transition has started this year, with HP Virtual Connect, IBM’s Virtual Fabric, EMC and NetApp announcing 10GbE iSCSI and FCoE support. As 10GbE becomes the basis of IT and the capabilities of enhanced Ethernet are added, network convergence will become a natural outcropping of the 10GbE transition. While network convergence is driven by the core of capitalism, it will lower costs, raise revenues, create efficient economies of scale and deliver a competitive advantage for those who implement it ahead of the market.

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Hello Optimism… Remember Me? We Met at VMworld.

Posted September 9th, 2009 by Shaun Walsh

optimism

As most of you know, VMworld was held last week in the city by the bay. It was a great show… but why? This was the first tradeshow event I went to this year that had the technology vibe. No one was talking about the downside of the economy. Instead, they were talking about how to make the future better and more efficient and benefit the world by using fewer resources to do more work.

Making things better has always been a hallmark of the technology business. Our businesses are built on dreams, ideas and cutting-edge intellectual property. To that end, I think they should have changed the theme of this show from “Hello Freedom” to “Hello Optimism.” Optimism is one of the essential elements in the technology business, for without it, as an industry, we cannot drive the global economic engine and make the world a better place.

Signs of this optimism were all over the show, from VMware themselves to end users, vendors to press and analysts. As I have read in many of the blogs that were written as summaries of VMworld, they too felt the optimism. This is not to say that we still don’t have work to do to fulfill the promises of virtualization and network convergence, but it was clear that the ecosystems and momentum around virtualization and network convergence is building, and the market is maturing into usable technology for the data center.

Just prior to VMworld, we joined IBM and BNT in announcing the IBM BladeCenter Virtual Fabric solution for the IBM BladeCenter. This solution helps IT managers deploy virtualization and network convergence together to lower capital costs, lower operational expenses and reduce power and cooling requirements. The Virtual Fabric solution provides the means to deploy Virtual network interface cards (NICs) that can support IP, iSCSI and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) in a 10GbE network that increases performance and provides investment protection by supporting network convergence based on 10Gb-enhanced Ethernet. This type of technology innovation creates optimism about the technology business and reinforces how technology can make the world a better place.

In addition to this product announcement, and demonstration of Universal Converged Network Adapter (UCNA) technology, we announced the second release of the Convergenomics Solutions Guide at VMworld. The book offers IT managers a resource to help them craft their next-generation network strategy and explains how to converge protocols, such as Fibre Channel and iSCSI, onto a 10Gb/s enhanced Ethernet backbone. The latest edition includes new contributions from key ecosystem participants, including BLADE Network Technologies, Brocade, Fulcrum, Juniper Networks, Novell and Oracle, in addition to previous contributions from Cisco, EMC, Panduit, Scalent Systems and VMware. Even before this announcement, we were ramping for version three, as we have had more partners interested in participating.

To download the latest Convergenomics guide, go to http://www.emulex.com/solutions/convergence/convergence-solution-guide.html

Emulex is optimistic about the network convergence market and the value it can bring to the data center. If the vibe and innovation shown at VMworld are indicative of things to come, the technology business should be optimistic about making the data center and the world better places.

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Top 10 Reasons Server Virtualization is Better With Network Convergence

Posted September 3rd, 2009 by Shaun Walsh

To say that server virtualization has taken the data center by storm is an understatement.  It is already one of the most dramatic technology transitions in the past several decades, and will be a core IT tool well into the next decade. Emulex is just as passionate about the success of network convergence.  We expect network convergence to take the data center by storm over the next decade and become a core technology deployed in the following decade as Ethernet moves from 10Gb/s to 40Gb/s and even 100Gb/s.  In a recent meeting with my sales guys, they asked us for some silver bullet points on how Emulex and network convergence help improve server virtualization.

Here is our list: 

    1. Lower Cost of Connectivity/VM – Network convergence lowers the cost of connectivity by supporting IP and storage on a single wire that consolidates NICs/HBA connectivity, switching, cabling, rack space, power and cooling.  To learn more check out the Convergenomics calculator.
    2. Fast, Simple and Dynamic Provisioning of Bandwidth for each VM – converged networking based on 10GbE has the ability to set bandwidth provisioning for each initiator.  This allows better Quality of Service (QoS) for each VM.

    3. Take Your Pick Storage: IP for NAS, iSCSI or FCoE     – One of the best parts of network convergence is bringing all the storage options into one place.  Now you can configure each VM with the right type of storage for the applications and provisioning tools of enhanced Ethernet to match the workload to the bandwidth.

    4. Unified Management of Network Management     – Don’t you hate learning new user interfaces for multiple tools and then having one tool break the settings on another device? Our unified OneCommand management suite simplifies and integrates IP, storage and the cluster in one easy to use tool.  Now you have less to learn and you can get more done.

    5. VM Mobility in 3 Dimensions (Servers, bandwidth, protocol    ) – Not only can your VM move across physical servers with SAN connectivity, but you can also move the bandwidth up or down to match the increased CPU resources. You can also migrate across protocols as required, with some required data migration, should you choose this route.

    6. 20% More VM/s per CPU with vEngine     – Fewer CPU cycles spent on storage means more available cycles for running VMs.  Emulex’s vEngine CPU off-load technology can reduce the overhead of both networking and storage on the CPU to run more VMs/CPU See: Emulex HBA Performance with Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V.

    7. Faster Deployment of New Servers     – Less is more when it comes to network convergence, having a single 10GbE wire for IP and all of your storage options (NAS, iSCSI, FCoE) makes it faster and simpler to deploy new servers which is one of the key reason for using server virtualization in the first place.

    8. Simplified Security     – Network Convergence also means security convergence now you can set a single policy for all connectivity and simplify the process, lower the costs and help with regularity issues.

    9. Solve the Challenges of Virtualization Aggregation     – According to IDC, the number of virtual machines (VMs) per server is expected to triple with the introduction of Xeon 5500 processors. This means you will need three times the I/O performance, and if you know you are going to need it over the lifecycle of your new computer processing units (CPUs), it will cost less in the end to move to network converge 10GbE now.

    10. Business Continuity and Service Level Agreements     – When it comes to business continuity and Service Level Agreements (SLAs), less time spent moving data is a big win. Moving to 10GbE network convergence reduces back-up and data migration windows, which provides greater availability of business applications, and helps to improve productivity and the organization’s bottom line.

Network Convergence and Server Virtualization are made for each other. And I hope this let makes it easy to see how network convergence will make life easier in the data center.

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The VAR View: What CIOs Should Know about Network Convergence

Posted August 20th, 2009 by Shaun Walsh

It’s a bright and clear summer morning, you have your Starbucks in hand and you are off to your first meeting with a CIO about network convergence. You have heard all of the vendor pitches, built a PowerPoint deck with all of the right talking points… but is it enough? What does a CIO really need to know about network convergence at a strategic level to ensure you are a long-term partner and provider to his or her company?

Here are seven key points to hit as part of your CIO meeting:

    1. 10GbE is Moving into the Mainstream – 10GbE is becoming the main backbone in the X5500-based blade servers from IBM, HP, Sun and Dell. Next year, every major server vendor will be leveraging 10GbE with some form of converged NIC, iSCSI and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) interface. This is because the cost of 10GbE is coming down, 10Gb Enhanced Ethernet provides the flexibility to support all key network protocols on a single wire and 10GbE will be the core networking technology for the next decade.

    2. Network Convergence Starts at the Host – Blades servers are very tight on I/O real estate and are the natural leaders for network convergence. Why guess how many IP and Fibre Channel ports you need, when you can load up on 10GbE ports and then just provision the bandwidth to each blade or virtual machine (VM) as required? This networking strategy will also easily change as VMs migrate and I/O needs evolve. In terms of hard dollars, this saves on host bus adapters (HBAs), NICs and hundreds of cables per rack. See our Convergenomics Cost Calculator for more details: http://www.emulex.com/files/tools/FCoE-Calculator.html

    3. Network Convergence Does Require Protocol Bridging/Switching – One thing most vendors dance around is that the first generation of network convergence solutions requires a protocol conversion box (like the Cisco Nexus 5000) to convert Enhanced Ethernet to standard IP and Fibre Channel. The cost of this box is more than offset by the savings in NICs, HBAs and cables. This piece of the solution is vital for protecting the investment data centers have in IP and Fibre Channel gear. Value-added resellers (VARs) need to tackle this issue up front with CIOs. As a rule, CIOs are smart folks, and they will arrive at this observation right away, put it on the table and take care of it out of the gate. These bridges are offered by Cisco, Brocade and Juniper, and IBM recently announced an embedded Enhanced Ethernet switch that fits blade center chassis.

    4. Network Convergence Provides Investment Protection – As CIOs move into their next round of server upgrades, buying connectivity that will last for the full lifecycle of the server makes sense. An early move to network convergence should be an easy decision for them if we (VARs and vendors) communicate the long-term value and investment protection to them. This is also a good time to leverage support from their favorite server, networking and storage vendors, who will all have strong network convergence programs.

    5. Network Convergence was Built for Green Field Data Centers - If this meeting with the CIO is about a new green field opportunity, then the move to network convergence based on 10GbE will not be a “no-brainer.” If this is a green field sales call, don’t go alone; make this a much more compelling story with a team sales call with reps from their favorite server, networking and storage vendors. This single call should make it clear to the CIO that network convergence is real and has strong industry support and a compelling value proposition.

    6. Network Management Is Converging – Up to this point, the lines between IP and Fibre Channel network management were fairly clear. Now, these lines will blur, and this is an issue that needs to be addressed upfront (we will hit this in an upcoming blog ).  CIOs need to look at regulatory, business continuance and security policies and best practices as they move into the network convergence world. For VARs, this is a key new area of professional services they can offer. It will provide more value that being a simple provider of the gear; it will differentiate your offering.

    7. Know Where They Are in Their Hardware Lifecycle Management – Now for the real driver of purchases: does this lower their current operational expenses? Are you speaking to them at a point where they are ready for a hardware refresh? Have the costs of owning, servicing and managing older gear exceeded the cost of the new amortization? Helping the CIO understand this will be a key to making the case for network convergence. If they don’t know, then you can help them do an audit to find out if this will really save them money. In discussions with Emulex’s CIO, Dave Goff, he indicated that, for his team, enhancing business programs is higher on the spending plan than refreshing hardware this year. You have to make sure the CIO knows that doing this will lower his cost and free up resources for other top priorities. I hope this list helps you plan your next CIO session on network convergence. This new market will change the game, not just on networking storage and servers, but will define which VAR has the right strategic partnership with CIOs and not only gets the Purchase Orders for the IT gear, but the coveted services revenues and the long-term partnerships that build long-term relationships.

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