Home Interiors & Gifts and Molex Select Emulex HBAs

Emulex Corporation announced that its LightPulse Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapters (HBAs) were selected as the storage area network (SAN) connectivity solution of choice in two end users’ server virtualization projects that utilize EMC networked storage systems. Home Interiors & Gifts, Inc. and Molex Incorporated selected Emulex HBAs based on ease of administration, reliability and customer confidence in support for future evolution of the SAN architecture.

"With the high correlation between server virtualization and networked storage, Emulex continues to provide end users with the connectivity tools and technology they require to efficiently and effectively manage their virtualized server environments," said Mike Smith, executive vice president of worldwide marketing, Emulex. "As companies embark on server virtualization projects, SAN administrators must examine their infrastructure and Emulex has demonstrated its leadership in supporting virtualized server environments."

In Carrolton, Texas, Home Interiors & Gifts is transitioning its Windows server data center to a virtualized environment. While meeting the initial management goals of cost savings through consolidation, the IT group found that deployment flexibility, dynamic allocation of resources and business continuity efficiencies are a major part of the payback equation for the project. As applications are migrated from standalone systems onto VMware ESX servers, the need for external storage can increase dramatically. With migration of applications to Fibre Channel SAN-connected VMware ESX servers, the data was moved to EMC CLARiiON storage arrays in the enterprise SAN. As the virtualization implementation progressed, Home Interiors chose Emulex LightPulse HBAs to leverage the technology’s native VMware support and robust management tools.

"We looked at the capability of the Emulex Fibre Channel HBAs and management tools and saw features that were not available from other suppliers," said Steven Ham, Senior Windows System Administrator at Home Interiors & Gifts. "On the hardware side, there is the native support of VMware. Fibre Channel should just work, and that’s what we see with Emulex HBAs. With the HBA management tools, we get discovery and dynamic configuration capabilities that would otherwise require additional investment in tools running on other SAN components."

Molex Incorporated, a leading provider of interconnect products headquartered in Lisle, Illinois, is addressing the challenges of fulfilling service requirements, while meeting corporate goals for environmental responsibility with a multi-year server virtualization project. As part of the project, Molex evaluated its SAN connectivity requirements and asked Emulex to demonstrate its capabilities in VMware ESX server environments linked via a SAN to EMC storage systems. The company had a goal of transitioning at least half of its systems onto virtual platforms.

"We appreciated the comprehensive and automated HBA management tools provided by Emulex in the native Windows environment and wanted to see if we could count on the same capability within a virtualized server environment," said Andrew Houlne, Infrastructure Project Leader, Molex Americas. "Overall, we were very happy with what we saw. The out-of-the-box performance is solid, and the new capabilities that Emulex is delivering around virtualization are very interesting."

"EMC networked storage paired with Emulex HBAs forms an excellent solution for SAN connectivity in virtualization environments," said Deirdre Wassell, director, storage product marketing, EMC. "We’ve made a strong commitment to help customers implement VMware infrastructures. Our extensive work with Emulex helps us deliver end-to-end solutions that enable our customers to get the most value from their IT investments."