Emulex Corporation announced that its OneConnect Universal Converged Network Adapter (UCNA) architecture will provide 10Gb/s Ethernet integration into five enterprise-class and high-volume IBM Corp.' server platforms, including the System x3650 M3, x3550 M3, x3850 X5, x3950 X5 and x3690 X5; and three IBM BladeCenter server platforms, including the HS22, HS22V and HX5.

The Emulex Integrated Virtual Fabric Adapter for IBM System x and IBM BladeCenter servers provides the world’s fastest 10Gb/s Ethernet performance according to IT Brand Pulse. In addition to these integrated models, IBM is offering 10Gb/s Ethernet Virtual Fabric Adapters based on Emulex’s single-chip OneConnect UCNA technology as an option card across most of IBM System x and BladeCenter servers.

“IBM’s new line of eX5 server platforms are designed for a range of high-end applications and workload consolidation, enabling clients to maximize memory, minimize cost, and simplify deployment,” said Alex Yost, vice president, IBM System x and BladeCenter. “Leveraging the Integrated Virtual Fabric Adapter from Emulex, clients can further increase the scalability and performance of their IBM BladeCenter and System x servers, which is key for both transaction intensive and virtualized data centers.”

With three IBM specific products, including the Virtual Fabric Adapter for IBM BladeCenter announced in August 2009, Emulex is now offering 10Gb/s Ethernet connectivity across IBM’s rack and blade servers. These products include the Integrated Virtual Fabric Adapter for IBM System x, the optional Virtual Fabric Adapter for IBM System x and the Virtual Fabric Adapter for IBM BladeCenter that is integrated into some models and available as an option in others.

“Emulex is delivering integrated 10Gb/s Ethernet connectivity across a broad spectrum of IBM servers,” said Steve Daheb, chief marketing officer and senior vice president of business development, Emulex. “Emulex and IBM are committed to delivering 10Gb/s Ethernet solutions and share a common vision for network convergence focused on helping IT managers protect their investments, lower operating costs, increase flexibility and improve operations.”

The Emulex OneConnect UCNA is the only single-chip server adapter with full hardware protocol offload support for TCP/IP, iSCSI and FCoE, enabling IT administrators to converge their physical networks, while maintaining their application, server, storage and security administration domains. This allows companies to reduce their costs for adapters, switch ports, cabling, power and cooling without disrupting their current management structure or network segmentation configurations.

In addition, both the Emulex Integrated Virtual Fabric Adapters and standard Virtual Fabric Adapters utilize Emulex’s OneCommand Manager for secure, virtualized, automated and centralized enterprise management for deployment, dynamic provisioning, asset management, virtual I/O services, connectivity management, security, and quality of service for virtualized and converged networking environments.