Broadcom/Emulex to Sample NVMe Over FC HBAs

Broadcom Limited announced the availability of the first NVMe over FC HBA solution.

Broadcom is currently sampling this standards-based solution to OEMs on its Emulex Gen 6 HBAs. The NVMe over FC solution delivers 55% lower latency when used with NVMe drives compared to SCSI drives and a 28% performance advantage versus Ethernet solutions.

NVMe over FC builds on the performance improvements delivered by Emulex Gen 6 HBAs, which cuts latency in half versus the previous generation. The combination of Emulex Gen 6 with NVMe over FC delivers an even greater reduction of 75% in latency versus legacy 8Gb FC storage networks.

Emulex NVMe-enabled HBAs meet the newly ratified NVMe over Fabrics (NVMf) standard to ensure interoperability across the eco-system. Broadcom has been a contributor to the NVM Express working group and contributed the FC driver code for the NVMe Fabrics Linux Driver working group. NVMe deployments are expected to ramp quickly in enterprise datacenters with analysts forecasting shipments to grow at a rate of 78%. (2016-2020 CAGR, IDC April, 2016)

FC supports both standard storage arrays and new NVMe over FC arrays on the same fabric. The dual-mode feature provides investment protection by supporting SCSI storage arrays installed in the datacenter and new NVMe storage arrays, concurrently. The solution is also software-defined storage-ready with the availability of an Software Development Kit (SDK) for Emulex HBAs that provides the tools needed to build an NVMe external storage system based on standard server hardware.

NVMe over FC is a fabric solution providing advantages including:

Performance:

• Gen 6 FC at 32Gb delivers 28% faster performance than 25GbE solutions
• Provides consistent performance under heavy workloads due to the robust, credit based flow control, FC fabric
• Provides scale to NVMe storage solutions built on a robust network, scaling beyond a rack to across the enterprise data center

Protection:

• Lossless, robust protocol
• FC’s purpose-built design ensures consistent and reliable data delivery
• Easy and cost effective to implement
• FC switches available support NVMe over FC and require no hardware changes and no new training or expertise

Proven:

• FC is the dominant choice for enterprise workloads
• 90% of  all-flash array deployments use FC
• High performance FC connected storage represents a $100 billion installed base

Emulex NVMe over FC is expected to be broadly deployed with the release of servers based on Intel’s Purley Platform and supporting OS releases.

“NVMe over Fabrics is going to fundamentally change datacenter architectures over the next few years,” said Jeff Hoogenboom, VP and GM, Emulex connectivity division, Broadcom. “FC will play a pivotal role in NVMe deployments because it delivers a superior connectivity solution by providing better performance, lossless and reliable networking with no dropped packets, and it’s incredibly easy to deploy.“

“NVMe will be the next disruptive technology for enterprise storage,” said Jack Rondoni, VP of storage networking, Brocade Communication Systems, Inc. “FC is the obvious choice for NVMe over fabrics since it’s purpose-built for storage, and Gen 6 fabrics will seamlessly integrate with NVMe storage. Brocade and Broadcom are working closely to develop NVMe storage solutions that will raise the bar for application and storage performance.“

“FC is an excellent transport for NVMe over Fabrics because of its strong presence in enterprise datacenters supporting storage systems,” said Dennis Martin, Demartek president. “FC can carry NVMe over Fabrics traffic and standard FC storage traffic over the existing network at the same time, allowing for a relatively simple upgrade.”

“Broadcom has delivered a solution for customers that require high performance, shared storage over a network with NVMe over FC,” said Randy Kerns, senior strategist, Evaluator Group. “The high performance of Gen 6 FC and the very low latency of NVMe complement the transition to flash storage, enabling the use of storage as a memory extension for applications including performance-critical databases. NVMe over Fabric is the gateway to use of solid state storage technology in enterprise environments and other performance critical areas.“

“Sharing storage over a network brings a number of benefits including more efficient use of storage which avoids storage islands and storage arrays providing full featured, mature storage services such as snap shots, backup, replication, thin provisioning, de-duplication, encryption, compression, and more,” said Rupin Mohan, CTO storage networking, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP and marketing chairman of Fibre Channel Industry Association (FCIA). “NVMe over FC provides a low-latency solution for SANs that improves I/O performance.”