Emulex OCe11000 OneConnect UCNAs

Emulex Corporation announced the availability of its OneConnect OCe11000 family of Universal Converged Network Adapters (UCNAs), based on the BladeEngine 3 (BE3) 10Gb/s Ethernet (10GbE) I/O Controller (IOC).

BE3 is a single-chip, dual-port 10GbE IOC that allows network and storage resources to be virtualized into multiple hardware-isolated and protected virtual network and virtual storage interfaces. The OCe11000 UCNA family lowers power consumption, improves data center efficiency, reduces cooling requirements and improves reliability for 10GbE converged connectivity.

"The OneConnect OCe11000 family does more work using fewer resources. Utilizing the new BE3 10GbE IOC, our latest UCNAs reduce power consumption by up to 25% and our implementation of Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) enables IT managers to run more virtual machines (VMs), faster," said Shaun Walsh, vice president of marketing, Emulex. "Emulex was the first to announce and ship its third generation UCNA technology to its OEM customers with over a quarter million ports shipped in the past six months and the channel availability of the OCe11000 UCNAs will help drive the continued adoption of 10GbE and network convergence in the data center."

Enhancements of Emulex OCe11000 UCNAs include:

• Improved VM Performance with SR-IOV Support: SR-IOV, which allows PCIe devices to appear as multiple physical devices, can be used to optimize I/O performance for virtualized servers by allocating unique physical functions to VMs and offloading I/O functions from the hypervisor to host-based IOCs.
• Lower OPEX with Power Savings: Increased integration and reductions in external chip components provide a 25% improvement in power efficiency.
• VMs per CPU with Emulex vEngine Technology: Emulex vEngine technology provides the scalability necessary for virtualized data centers and cloud service providers. Emulex vEngine’s hardware protocol offload support for  Windows Chimney Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI) and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) enable BE-based adapters and Local Area Network on Motherboards (LOMs) to remove the overhead of network and storage traffic from the CPU.
• Next Generation Virtual Networking: The OCe11000 family is designed to support emerging VEPA (Virtual Ethernet Port Aggregator) and VEB (Virtual Ethernet Bridge) standards. With these capabilities, the adapter will function as a Layer 2 hardware switch to offload network based management of VM traffic that is internal or external to the virtualization platform.
• Optimized Networking Performance: Using Class 2 switch capabilities to classify and sort incoming traffic, OneConnect adapters support virtual queue technologies for networking performance.

As with previous generation UCNAs, the OCe11000 leverages the same software stack that has been qualified by nine of the top ten leading server and storage providers. OCe11000 can also be managed with Emulex OneCommand Manager software which is a multi-function 10GbE platform that allows IT managers to allocate bandwidth for network and storage traffic, and to administer multiple protocols from a single, integrated interface.

The convergence of network and storage traffic helps IT organizations keep pace by deploying a new advanced network architecture integrated into servers which is more coherent, flexible, and agile than today’s 10GbE only networks.
Supporting Quotes:

"We share a share a common vision for network convergence with Emulex on making IT more agile, while protecting investments, lowering operating costs and increasing performance," said Deirdre Wassell, Director Solutions Marketing, EMC. "Emulex continues to complement this vision with innovative connectivity solutions such as the latest generation 10GbE adapters."

"The Emulex UNCA family offers simplified management and robust I/O throughput that complements our ‘cloud-ready’ vision of the data center," said Andy Ingram, vice president of product marketing, Fabric and Switching Technologies, Juniper Networks. "Allowing customers to scale at their own pace as opposed to a complete infrastructure overhaul is critical for successful long term growth in the data center. The Juniper Networks EX Series Ethernet Switches support this goal by providing a simplified but highly flexible network architecture."

"Microsoft is committed to delivering a comprehensive set of virtualization solutions that customers and partners can tailor to their unique business needs," said Mike Schutz, senior director of product management at Microsoft Corp. "As IT organizations move to converged infrastructure and migrate to 10GbE, we are pleased to work with partners like Emulex to help customers deploy Microsoft virtualization solutions."  

"As customers continue along the path toward IT as a service, they are building high-performance converged data centers that require networking solutions optimized for virtualization," said Parag Patel, vice president, Global Strategic Alliances, VMware. "Emulex UCNAs complement the VMware vSphere platform in delivering the consolidation, performance, and I/O throughput capabilities our joint customers require."

"One of the most important parts of today’s data center transformation efforts is the aggressive adoption of 10GbE," said Richard Villars, vice president, Storage and IT Executive Strategies, IDC. "Between 2009 and 2014, IDC predicts that shipments of 10GbE adapters like those being announced by Emulex will increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 94.5% as organizations further virtualize their data centers and build private cloud and converged IT infrastructure environments."

"According to Crehan Research, 10GbE connectivity will have a CAGR above 70% over the next five years, with 10GbE connections surpassing 1GbE connections by 2013," said Seamus Crehan, President, Crehan Research, Inc. "Single-chip, dual-port products which reduce power while optimizing  for virtualization are a key enabler of this market transition."