Twitter
Blogs
RSS Feed
Slideshare
LinkedIn
Facebook
YouTube
Google+Press Contact: Robin Austin, Director, Public Relations, 714-885-3462
Enterprise Strategy Group Lab Review Validates Emulex LightPulse Virtual HBAs as the Keystone of Server Virtualization Technology
Emulex LightPulse Virtual HBA Technology Enables the Creation of Multiple Virtual Ports and is Optimized for Mixed Virtualized Server Workloads
EMC WORLD - ORLANDO, Fla., May 21, 2007 - Emulex Corporation (NYSE:ELX) today announced the results of a lab review by Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG), an analyst firm specializing in the testing and analysis of specific storage-related products, which evaluated Emulex LightPulse® Host Bus Adapters (HBAs) within virtualized server environments. The ESG Lab report found that Emulex HBAs are optimized for the mixed workloads typically found in multiple virtual machine environments. Emulex LightPulse Virtual HBA technology is supported on Emulex's family of 4Gb/s HBAs and incorporates support for two important industry-standards: N-Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) and Virtual Fabric. Emulex helped pioneer the development and adoption of NPIV and continues to champion its broad deployment.
"ESG's independent review emphasizes the robust advantages that Emulex 4Gb/s LightPulse HBAs offer customers as the industry continues to adopt virtualized server environments," said Mike Smith, executive vice president of worldwide marketing for Emulex. "These lab findings further validate the unique value that our LightPulse Virtual HBA technology brings to our customers, including the key building blocks to fully realize the benefits of server virtualization deployed in a SAN environment and extend the value of fabric virtualization."
Key findings in the ESG Lab review include:
- Mixed Workload Performance:
- Virtual HBA Technology allows virtual machines with different I/O workloads to co-exist without impacting each others I/O performance. This mixed workload performance enhancement is crucial in consolidated, virtual environments where multiple virtual machines and applications are all accessing storage through the same set of physical HBAs. Emulex LightPulse Virtual HBA technology provides best-in-class interleaving of Fibre Channel (FC) data transfers at the frame level, which results in more efficient, reliable data transfer and improved performance. Frame-level multiplexing is important particularly for large payloads that are intermixed with performance sensitive transactional workloads.
- NPIV Support:
- ESG recognized that Emulex had a leading role in the development and adoption of NPIV and was the first to market with industry standard NPIV support. NPIV is a key feature of Emulex LightPulse Virtual HBA technology, which supports industry standard NPIV, enables each FC HBA to register multiple 'virtual ports' within the fabric. LightPulse Virtual HBA technology allows administrators to manage storage on behalf of the virtual machine in much the same way they manage storage attached to physical machines, leveraging familiar best practices and existing SAN management tools further reducing cost and complexity.
- As server virtualization vendors, including VMware, Microsoft and Xen, bring industry standard NPIV support to market in cooperation with Emulex, ESG Lab believes that IT managers implementing server and storage consolidation plans should consider Emulex as the keystone of an emerging grid-enabled architecture.
- Virtual Fabric Support:
- ESG also recognized in the report that the reliability and ease of use of Emulex's Virtual HBA technology is simplified by the support of the Virtual Fabric industry standard. This standard provides the ability to split up or segment a SAN into many logical SANs, each with its own set of fabric services providing improved fabric security, manageability and efficiency.
"ESG found that Emulex HBAs are an excellent choice for applications being deployed within a virtualized server environment," said Brian Garrett, technical director of ESG Lab. "With industry leading NPIV support and an architecture optimized for mixed virtualized server workloads, Emulex enables IT administrators to maintain the same SAN best practices on virtualized servers as on traditional hardware-based servers."
The full Enterprise Strategy Group Lab Review evaluation results can by viewed at www.emulex.com/white/hba/esg_server_virt.pdf.
About Emulex
Emulex Corporation creates enterprise-class products that intelligently connect storage, servers and networks. The world's leading server and storage providers rely on Emulex's award-winning HBAs, intelligent storage platforms and embedded storage products, including switches, bridges, routers and I/O controllers, to build reliable, scalable and high-performance storage and server solutions. 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. The company wishes to caution readers that a number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Those factors include the rapidly changing nature of technology, evolving industry standards and frequent introductions of new products and enhancements by competitors; fluctuation in the growth of Fibre Channel and IP markets; changes in economic conditions or changes in end user demand for technology solutions; fluctuations or delays in customer orders; the highly competitive nature of the markets for Emulex's products; Emulex's ability to gain market acceptance for its products; the company's ability to attract and retain skilled personnel; the company's reliance on third-party suppliers. These and other factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements are also discussed in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its recent filings on Forms 8-K, 10-K and 10-Q. All trademarks, trade names, service marks, and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies.
