QLogic and Brocade to Demo NVMes Over Fabrics With FC

QLogic Corp. and Brocade Communication Systems, Inc. demonstrated the first NVMe over Fabrics solution using FC as the fabric.

The demonstration is based on the draft specification of NVMe over Fabrics under definition by the NVM Express, Inc. organization and the draft FC over NVMe (FC-NVMe) standards under definition by T11. The solution was demonstrated at the Gartner Data Center, Infrastructure & Operations Management Conference in Las Vegas.

NVMe provides a standards-based approach for PCIe SSD access that improves performance by reducing latency and streamlining the command set while providing support for security and data protection. NVMe over Fabrics defines a mechanism to utilize these devices in large scale storage deployments and provides investment protection by allowing the latest in innovations and advances in low latency SSD flash to be used over FC fabrics. This enables the NVMe storage devices to be shared, pooled and managed more effectively. The QLogic and Brocade FC-NVMe proof of concept (POC) is aimed at providing a foundation for lower latency and increased performance, while providing improved fabric integration for flash-based storage.

“Next-generation data intensive workloads are utilizing low latency NVMe flash-based storage to meet ever increasing user demand,” said Vikram Karvat, VP of products, marketing and planning, QLogic. “By combining the lossless, highly deterministic nature of FC with NVMe, FC-NVMe targets the performance, application response time, and scalability needed for next generation data centers, while leveraging existing FC infrastructures. QLogic is pioneering this effort with industry leaders, which in time, will yield significant operational benefits to data center operators and IT managers.“

“The advent of FC-NVMe is critical to the evolution of the data center and Brocade has been at the forefront, being both a key contributor and editor for the T11 FC-NVMe architecture,” said Jack Rondoni, VP of storage networking, Brocade. “As the data center continues to evolve, so does FC-based technology. FC plays a vital role in connecting flash-based devices and FC-NVMe will further strengthen this correlation.“

“The NVM Express organization is pleased to see the first demonstration of NVMe over Fabrics using FC,” said Amber Huffman, president, NVM Express. “We are excited to collaborate with the T11 standards organization to develop a robust standard that works well for FC-based storage environments.“

“FC-NVMe extends the reach of existing FC investments, enabling data centers to continue to leverage the tens of billions of dollars of installed FC equipment,” said Seamus Crehan, president of Crehan Research, Inc. “The popularity of FC connected flash-based storage continues to grow strongly, ensuring the longevity and persistence of FC connectivity in the data center of the future.“