Emulex Corporation (NYSE:ELX), a leader in network connectivity, monitoring and management and a proud member of the Open Compute Project (OCP), today announced it has released its next generation of high performance Ethernet connectivity solutions to the open source community. Now, data centers are able to utilize Emulex 10Gb Ethernet and 40Gb Ethernet (10GbE/40GbE) adapters on OCP based hardware platforms that support global cloud platforms running OpenStack or CloudStack. The new Emulex OneConnect® OCm14000-OCP 10Gb and 40Gb Ethernet (10/40GbE) Network Adapters and 10GbE Converged Network Adapters (CNAs), enable higher virtual machine (VM) densities, support the cloud with Overlay Network offloads, leverage a new RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) based low latency architecture delivering application acceleration, and integrate with next generation software-defined networking (SDN) solutions.

The Emulex OCm14000-OCP adapters are also the first CNAs available for OCP based platforms that feature fully offloaded Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and iSCSI, providing performance and higher server efficiencies that are superior to software initiator-based adapters. This brings the power and flexibility of network convergence to the OCP community and allows data centers built on the OCP model to realize the full performance benefits and cabling and power consumption reductions that come with it.

“We have been working with the OCP community to provide an open, flexible and scalable I/O platform that maximizes server efficiency and scales networking connectivity, while increasing application support in enterprise and hyperscale infrastructures,” said Shaun Walsh, senior vice president of marketing and corporate development, Emulex. “Emulex OCm14000-OCP adapters are ideal for hyperscale and enterprise data centers that require I/O optimization for delivering compute power, energy efficiency and scalability.”

The Emulex OCm14000-OCP adapters are optimized to meet the needs of enterprises and cloud providers who are building an open infrastructure while delivering a powerful set of features and capabilities, including:

  • Open Enablement of Software-defined Networking: The recently introduced Emulex SURF open API provides the tools needed to implement SDN technology that can be optimized for next generation applications and new industry standards, such as OpenStack, CloudStack and OpenFlow.
  • High-Performance Virtualization: OCm14000-OCP adapters use highly efficient and scalable hardware offload technology to transfer the overhead of virtual networking, providing up to 50 percent better CPU utilization1 compared to standard NICs when used for VMware VirtualWire connection, thereby increasing the number of VMs that can be supported per server. In addition, the OCm14000-OCP adapters deliver a fundamental 4x performance increase in small packet network performance,2 which is required to scale transaction-heavy and clustered applications.
  • Rapid, Secure and Scalable Cloud Connectivity: Emulex Virtual Network Exceleration™ (VNeX) offload technology provides up to 70 percent better performance1 vs. software-only implementations of emerging Overlay Network standards such as Network Virtualization using Generic Routing Encapsulation (NVGRE) used by Microsoft Hyper-V Network Virtualization and Virtual Extensible LAN (VXLAN) used in VMware’s NSX. These Overlay Network standards enable virtual and cloud environments to scale beyond the limitations of Layer 2 networks and support seamless migration from anywhere to anywhere.
  • Optimized Application Delivery with Advanced RoCE Architecture: The OCm14000-OCP adapters are based on a low-latency RoCE architecture that help enterprise IT and cloud data centers optimize unstructured and file-based storage environments, which are based on Windows Server SMB Direct and Linux NFS protocols.
  • Increased Block Protocol Performance: The OCm14000-OCP adapters increase total block protocol IOPS by 50 percent over previous generation CNAs2 and build upon the proven history of enterprise-class storage reliability at Emulex.

“As we move closer to making the disaggregated data center a reality, we welcome design contributions that enable us to design and build scalable, more efficient technologies,” said Cole Crawford, executive director of the Open Compute Project Foundation. “By open sourcing its OneConnect family of network adapters through the OCP community, Emulex provides customers with high-performing solutions that can be tailored to their needs.”

Emulex is sampling OCm14000-OCP adapters with leading OCP solution providers. Emulex will be showcasing OCm14000-OCP adapters at Interop Las Vegas in booth #1158 this week.

1. Based on Emulex Implementers Lab blog
2. Based on Emulex Labs testing

Read our Emulex Labs blog on today’s news here.

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About Emulex

Emulex, a leader in network connectivity, monitoring and management, provides hardware and software solutions for global networks that support enterprise, cloud, government and telecommunications. Emulex’s products enable unrivaled end-to-end application visibility, optimization and acceleration. The Company's I/O connectivity offerings, including its line of ultra high-performance Ethernet and Fibre Channel-based connectivity products, have been designed into server and storage solutions from leading OEMs, including Cisco, Dell, EMC, Fujitsu, Hitachi, HP, Huawei, IBM, NetApp and Oracle, and can be found in the data centers of nearly all of the Fortune 1000. Emulex’s monitoring and management solutions, including its portfolio of network visibility and recording products, provide organizations with complete network performance management at speeds up to 100Gb Ethernet. Emulex is headquartered in Costa Mesa, Calif., and has offices and research facilities in North America, Asia and Europe. For more information about Emulex (NYSE:ELX) please visit http://www.Emulex.com.

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