QLogic FCoE CNAs Certified by Cisco

QLogic Corp. announced that its 8100 Series CNAs have been certified for interoperability for the Cisco Unified Computing System platform (UCS).

QLogic dual-port 10GbE converged network adapters are now available to work with the Cisco UCS, a unified architecture that unites compute, network, storage access, and virtualization resources in a single energy-efficient system using industry-standard technologies.

QLogic’s 8100 Series CNAs combines data and storage networking onto a single, low-profile, energy-efficient design, are also fully certified for use with Cisco Nexus 5000 Series FCoE switches, which are commonly deployed with the Cisco Unified Computing System. The Nexus 5000 Series simplifies data center transformation by unleashing a high-performance, standards-based, Ethernet fabric that consolidates separate LAN, SAN, and server cluster network environments into a single unified fabric.

"Products like the Cisco Unified Computing System, Cisco Nexus 5000 Series and QLogic FCoE CNAs are changing the principles of configuring server and storage infrastructure," said David Vellante, co-founder and chief research advocate, Wikibon. "The common practice of configuring server I/O by application type, where each rack of servers is customized with I/O and communications specific to a workload is no longer viable as server utilization hovers under 10 percent and server heat densities approach the danger zone. The combination of QLogic CNAs, the Cisco UCS platform, Intel-based Nehalem processors and virtualization software has the potential to increase server utilization three to five times over current levels—supporting massive consolidation and efficiency initiatives within IT organizations."

"By using less equipment, less energy and less space, the Cisco Unified Computing System is changing the economics of the data center, reducing capital expenditures by up to 20 percent and operational expenditures by up to 30 percent," said Soni Jiandani, vice president of marketing, Server Access Virtualization Business Group for Cisco. "We are working with industry vendors like QLogic to certify that their solutions are optimized for the Cisco UCS platform to ease the migration to virtualized and cloud computing environments."

"Cisco is driving innovation in the data center with the Cisco UCS platform, a scalable, ‘wire-once’ solution that can be managed as a single system whether it has one or more than 300 servers with thousands of virtual machines," said Amit Vashi, vice president of marketing, Host Solutions Group, QLogic Corp. "Our converged network adapters are built on the same battle-proven QLogic Fibre Channel stack that has over seven million ports deployed and are fully optimized for virtualized environments such as this industry standard platform."