QLogic Stackable FC Switches Go Mainstream

“Evaluator Group believes that stackable switches offer one of the best solutions for a wide range of SAN environments and that QLogic stands to gain material market share in this space in the coming quarters.”

“We also expect QLogic to continue to further expand upon this strategy as it evolves into more of a data center-class switching company over the next 12-24 months.”

“QLogic stackable FC switches go mainstream—QLogic and HP partner for the Datacenter”

“While there are many examples of stackable Ethernet switches, currently only two switch vendors market a stackable Fibre Channel switch: Cisco and QLogic. The Cisco switch (MDS 9134) supports 4Gbps FC and can only be stacked in pairs for a maximum of 64 FC ports, whereas the QLogic stackable supports 8Gbps FC and can scale to 120 FC ports in a six-unit stack and over 500 ports in multi-stack configurations. The QLogic switch also supports active failover in the event of a failure of one of the switches in the stack.”

“Competing designs that do not have dedicated high-speed ISL uplinks, are forced to utilize several ports in order to obtain the bandwidth needed.  This forces FC SAN network engineers to trade off scalability in order to achieve performance.”

“The stackable switch is also an excellent fit for small to medium-scale virtualized server environments. In these environments, the SAN can be the nexus between all VMs and all shared storage.”

“Transparent Router leverages NPIV to mask interoperability issues between the SN6000 and switches from other vendors (Brocade or Cisco, also known as HP B-series and C-series). Transparent Router specifically allows the SN6000 to be “transparently” connected to other FC fabrics that use HP B-series (Brocade) or C-series (Cisco) switches. This allows sharing of fabric and storage resources without introducing additional management complexity and E_port configuration. It also allows a non-disruptive connection to an existing SAN structure.”

“SSCM is a SAN management application that that does the work of three device managers (i.e. HP arrays, HP HBAs and H-series configuration). It enables an automated FC SAN set-up and configuration for the HP BladeSystem stack, although it is not specific to the stack. In this context, it greatly facilitates the setup, configuration, and management of the blade system storage environment.  Discoverable and manageable elements include server blades, HBAs, Virtual Connect ports, stackable switches, and StorageWorks EVA and P2000 disk arrays. SSCM also includes a Logical Disk Wizard and a Logical Partitioning Wizard for configuring HP EVA and P2000 disk arrays and can be integrated with HP CommandView, the management application for the HP EVA. Functionally, these wizards address daily administrative work such as LUN provisioning, firmware upgrades, and monitoring across the three devices.”
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SN6000: Great News for HP Customers

“QLogic Makes the Most Sense for HP’s Customers”

“At a time when QLogic’s competitors in this space, namely Cisco and Brocade, have shifted focus away from FC edge switching investments, this is great news for HP’s customers.”

“Brocade’s focus is on its director-class products where it should be, and Cisco is busy “boiling the ocean” with its Unified Computing and Unified Communications initiatives.”

“Many people don’t know that QLogic is the original HP Virtual Connect Fibre Channel switch partner and has shipped thousands of embedded Virtual Connect switches over the past 3 years, far more than Brocade, which is a relatively new entrant in this space.”

“HP is currently shipping the third generation QLogic Virtual Connect Fibre Channel Module and, to the best of our knowledge, it is the company’s preferred BladeSystem-to-SAN interconnect.”

“Clearly, QLogic has repeatedly demonstrated that it is serious about supporting Fibre Channel users and its stackable FC edge switch is an innovation that comes at a time when the competition is asleep at the switch. Cisco’s stackable edge switches lack 8GB FC, and Brocade’s 8GB FC switches are non-stackable.”

“We believe HP made the best possible choice for its customers when it chose to expand its OEM relationship with QLogic.”

“Anyone building or buying FC switching gear cannot afford to ignore QLogic-enabled products.”

“QLogic’s razor sharp focus on its product roadmaps and OEM partnerships has provided major vendors such as HP with the data center switching technologies required to build ultrafast, scalable, reliable, soup-to-nuts FC SAN solutions in support of both physical and virtualized environments.”
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QLogic to Gain Cisco FC Switching Revenue

”With QLogic aligning so closely with HP, we predict that HP’s FC edge switching revenue streams once flowing to Cisco will begin to quickly flow to QLogic.”

“In the near future QLogic may very well become HP’s preferred edge switch vendor.”

“QLogic’s 5800/HP’s SN6000 is a unique product in the market place. Brocade, another vendor of FC networking equipment, offers no stackable switches. Cisco’s MDS 9134 is a stackable FC switch with two stackable ports, its user ports, however, only operate at 4Gb. Cisco does not currently offer any stackable FC switches that provide 8Gb user ports. QLogic’s competitors have not offered many new technologies in their edge switching portfolios for a considerable amount of time.”

“For QLogic, this increased partnership creates a huge opportunity to leverage HP’s might and increase its market share in the Fibre Channel switching space, which is forecast to increase from $800M today to over $1B by 2011, according to Dell’Oro Group.”

“With all these strategic machinations, it is easy to get distracted from the fact that QLogic’s 5800V switches have no match in the market place, and this technological advantage was probably a crucial factor in steering HP’s decision to select them.”

“Much has been said lately about Cisco’s move up-market with its Unified Computing System of integrated storage, network, computation, and virtualization solutions. This ingress into HP’s market has certainly not been overlooked by its executives in Palo Alto. At the same time, HP’s acquisition of 3Com of last year, in addition to its pre-existing ProCurve offerings, aims directly at the heart of Cisco’s market. Tensions between these two giants would therefore be anything but surprising.”

“Meanwhile, Brocade has been busy increasing its networking portfolio through its acquisition of Foundry, a move that affects the networking interests of both Cisco and HP. QLogic, on the other hand, has minimal product overlap with HP, and therefore, no conflict. On the contrary, it has been a successful HP partner with their entry-level-SAN blade switches, so now the move up into the enterprise range with the SN 6000 switches comes as a logical next step in their business relationship.”

“QLogic continues momentum as its Fibre Channel switches are chosen by HP; move happens as battle lines are drawn between HP and Cisco.”

“…as soon as the number of switches rises to three or more, the advantages of stackable switches start to dominate. From a pure ‘user-port per dollar’ standpoint, as long as these stackable switches can be found for less than an equivalent non-stackable 28-port switch, the choice becomes a no-brainer. Technical considerations…further tip the scale in favor of stackable switches.”

“Stacking provides for a very simple and economical way to scale a SAN. Depending on the installation size and individual unit costs, cost savings compared to non-stackable alternatives can be significant, and the configuration is always simpler. If users expect their connectivity requirements to grow in the future (and who doesn’t?) and want that growth to happen simply and seamlessly (again, who doesn’t?), stacking capabilities must be considered. QLogic/HP’s products are the only stackable 8Gb FC switches available in the market today. Finally, QLogic and HP provide a convenient, easy-to-use software package to simplify SAN management.”

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The new switches contain 20 Fibre Channel ports apiece. The switches can be acquired individually as needed and stacked in groups of six per cluster to scale out a storage area network, which would top out at 120 ports and up to 24 20Gbit/sec interswitch link ports.

The QLogic switches, when sold as part of an HP system, will be branded as HP StorageWorks SN6000 Stackable 8Gb FC switches.

HP's contribution to the package will include BladeSystem Virtual Connect software and choices between StorageWorks Modular Smart Arrays and StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array systems.
The agreement between HP and QLogic will bring hardware to replace the 4Gb Fibre Channel switches Cisco Systems has been supplying HP for several years.

In a related news item also announced Feb. 18, the partnership between HP and Cisco for this and other kinds of data center infrastructure packages will end April 30, 2010, and Cisco said it would not renew the agreement.

Of course, Cisco and HP are too big and entwined at the customer level to split off their relationship completely. Cisco exec Keith Goodwin said Cisco has already pinged HP to start discussions for a new deal in order to maintain SLAs (service-level agreements) with existing Cisco-HP customers, and there are multiple thousands of those.

"We still have a lot of customers that use Cisco [networking], so we expect to continue to service our customers the best way we can," Charles Vallhonrat, product maarketing manager of HP StorageWorks, told eWEEK.

HP also has OEM agreements with 3Com, Brocade and Juniper Networks, so it brings a lot of networking choice to enterprises looking to build or refurbish their data centers.

QLogic, however, is positioning itself as the "hungrier, more motivated FC switch maker," Steve Zivanic, QLogic senior director corporate marketing, told eWEEK.

"Brocade has lost its edge by letting their 'edge' switches languish," Zivanic said.
"Along with Cisco, they're getting complacent in the FC space. They're focusing on the [I/O] director side. Brocade is busy peddling yesteryear's technology in the FC edge switching space."

Storage analyst Dave Vellante of Wikibon said he believes that stackable switches are a significant improvement over non-stackable switches.

"Stackable switches scale to 25 percent higher user port counts, simplify configuration growth and improve inter-switch bandwidth and manageability, "Vellante said. "For CIOs, this means better asset leverage because you have greater granularity at scale."

"What happens if you are sold an 80-port switch, and you really only need 30 ports?" Zivanic said. "If you buy 20 ports at a time, you're that much more flexible. You can add 20 at a time as you need them, and this eliminates the need to always have to reconfigure switches. This makes so much more sense in a lot of ways."

The HP StorageWorks SN6000 is available now. For more information on QLogic switches, go here.
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HP adds QLogic switches; Looks for Storage Rebound

Posted by: Dave Raffo / SearchStorage

It’s no secret that the relationship between Hewlett-Packard and Cisco has deteriorated now that Cisco is selling its own server product, the Unified Computing System (UCS). Like IBM and Dell, HP has been lining up other Fibre Channel and Ethernet switch partners, including a $2.7 billion acquisition of 3COM.

So today’s news that HP is now selling QLogic 8 Gbps 5800V and 5802V stackable switches under the HP brand as the HP SN6000 certainly is no surprise. One Silicon Valley blog directly linked the announcement with a leaked memo from Cisco saying it will drop HP as a certified channel partner in April.

While the rift between Cisco and HP is real, the direct link between QLogic and Cisco here is probably exaggerated a bit. The SN6000 is a FC edge switch, and Cisco doesn't even have an 8 Gbps FC edge switch. Cisco’s bread-and-butter in the FC space is the MDS9000 director, and QLogic doesn't sell director switches. HP’s new QLogic switches are really an alternative to edge switches from Brocade, which HP continues to offer through its long-standing OEM deal.

But the OEM deal opens the door for QLogic – predominantly a FC HBA vendor – as a switch player.

HP StorageWorks product manager Charles Vallhonrat says the QLogic switches have been qualified on all HP storage systems. The 20-port switches can be stacked without requiring dedicated ports for inter-switch links (ISLs), making it easier and less expensive to expand. Vallhonrat says he expects customers who want to start small and grow their SANs will prefer the QLogic switches.

"I think it will be driven by customers' growth needs," he said. "They don't have to buy everything up front. We have Brocade customers who want to buy 40 ports or 80 ports to start, and we have a switch for that. If they want to grow as they go along, this [QLogic] is an ideal product for that."

As for the Cisco-HP memo, Vallhonrat said he has knows nothing about that, "but from the storage level, we’re moving forward with Cisco as well as other partners."

HP's new FC switch follows its release of two low-end storage systems earlier this week – the next generation of its entry level MSA and LeftHand iSCSI platforms. But HP had bad news for storage when it reported earnings Wednesday. During an otherwise good quarter, storage sales declined 3% year-over-year and sequentially, including what CEO Mark Hurd called "very mediocre" sales of its midrange EVA systems.

Hurd says HP did well with its LeftHand and direct attached storage, but not its midrange and higher-end systems. But he insists storage is a priority.

"We have our top guys working on it," Hurd said when asked what he's doing to jump start the storage business. "We believe we now have a better lineup than we have had before and we believe we have a team that’s capable of helping us build the answer."

That storage team is now led by Dave Donatelli, who jumped from EMC to HP last year. HP is expected to upgrade the EVA this year, and its XP enterprise storage platform is also due for a refresh. All of which means it's worth keeping a close watch on HP in 2010.
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“The other shoe to drop today was an OEM relationship between QLogic and HP where HP is private labeling QLogic stackable FC switches (which David Floyer wrote about last month). The word is HP is popping Cisco out as second source to Brocade and slotting in QLogic. QLogic? Yup – QLogic; which is very interesting that this adapter company is now in the middle of this rift. Supposedly Cisco wouldn’t agree to a private label deal with HP so HP said “forget-about-it” and brought in QLogic which is nowhere in the FC switch business and overnight got a ticket to the dance.”
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By Chris Mellor / The Register UK
HP is to OEM QLogic's stackable 5800 Fibre Channel switch, which is making QLogic quite excited.

HP will sell an SN6000 product. This is sourced from QLogic's 5800, an 8-port, 8Gbit/s Fibre Channel (FC) base switch, which can have up to five additional switches stacked on it using 10Gbit/s inter-switch links (ISLs). As each switch can have up to 20 ports with 4-port increments, that gives customers a neat way to expand up to 120 ports. This can be done without turning switch activity off when a new switch is fixed into the rack.

Two ISLs can be aggregated to provide 20Gbit/s bandwidth, although this needs a software key. The SN6000 is being offered by HP's StorageWorks division, not by its ProCurve networking operation.

HP has been selling the 820Q switch, a 5800 base unit with the ISL ports turned off.

QLogic is pretty hot under the collar about this OEM agreement, because it reckons HP is the gateway to perhaps 30 per cent of the Fibre Channel switch market in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Henrik Hansen, QLogic's EMEA director said it could see itself taking share from competitors like Brocade and Cisco. Stackability has been the norm with Ethernet switches for some time and he is convinced FC switching will go the same way.

He reckons that HP appreciates QLogic' Simple SAN Connection Manager (SSCM) software. This enables the much simpler and faster provisioning of Fibre Channel fabric resources for virtual servers than with competing switch suppliers with whom, it claims, multiple management interfaces can be involved. This is Hansen's view of course - we haven't heard those of Cisco or Brocade.

We understand that SSCM could get a VMware interface to enable VMware administrators to kick off fabric provisioning automatically when a virtual machine is provisioned.

The SN6000 has transparent routing so that it fits right in with FC directors with that feature. They will simply see the HBAs at the end of the fabric and not the intervening SN6000 edge switch.

HP OEMs FC switches from both Brocade and Cisco but, QLogic says, HP has not had a stackable switch in its product set before. Brocade, it says, does not offer a stackable switch. Cisco does, but only at the slower 4Gbit/s level.

Presumably HP was not excited enough about any Cisco 8Gbit/s stackable switching to take any forthcoming product from Netzilla but, equally, this rebuff for Cisco could be a result of its invasion of the server space with its California servers. Its partnership with EMC and VMware competes with HP on the server, storage and networking fronts.

Some commentators privately think that HP would like to remove Cisco from its product line altogether, although this is not a position publicly adopted by HP.

QLogic sees itself being in a favourable position for HP's favours compared to Brocade as, unlike that company with its Foundry acquisition, QLogic will not be competing for ProCurve/3Com Ethernet business.

However, both Cisco and Brocade provide Director-class switches at the core of the network and Brocade is putting forward a better class of fabric service argument, obtained by linking its HBAs to its switches. They might say having stackable edge switches is no big deal.

Hansen conformed that QLogic is not the supplier of the 20Gbit/s InfiniBand switch in IBM's recently announced SONAS product. The scuttlebut is that Voltaire is the recipient of IBM's InfiniBand largesse there. ®
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HP to Resell QLogic's Enterprise FC Switches
By Dave Simpson / Infostor

February 19, 2010 -- Hewlett Packard and QLogic this week announced that HP will resell QLogic's enterprise-class, stackable, 8Gbps Fibre Channel SAN switches. According to Charles Vallhonrat, product marketing manager in HP's StorageWorks division, HP will continue to resell Fibre Channel switches from Brocade and Cisco.

It should also be noted that HP has for some time resold QLogic's lower-end 8/16-port edge switches under the StorageWorks 8/20q brand. But the new deal marks the first time that HP will be reselling QLogic's enterprise-class switches.

The switches are based on QLogic's 5800V and 5802V series, but will be branded by HP as the "StorageWorks SN6000 Stackable 8Gb FC Switches."

Each switch has 20 8Gbps Fibre Channel ports and four 10Gbps (or, optionally, 20Gbps) Fibre Channel inter-switch links (ISLs) to connect switches. Using dedicated ISLs to stack switches increases the number of available user/device ports by 25%. The switches can be stacked for up to 500 device ports per fabric.

In addition to the 10Gbps/20Gbps ISLs and support for 8Gbps Fibre Channel, a key differentiator (vs. Brocade and Cisco switches) of the SN6000 switches is that they are stackable. Cisco, for example, has stackable 4Gbps Fibre Channel edge switches with 10Gbps ISLs in the HP portfolio, but they currently do not support 8Gbps Fibre Channel or 20Gbps ISLs.

"The QLogic switches have unique value propositions in investment protection," says Vallhonrat, referring to support for 8Gbps Fibre Channel and the high-speed ISL links.

"Traditionally, if you wanted to hook up a number of edge switches you have to use device and user ports as ISLs," he says. "That's complicated, cumbersome and [time-consuming]. With the QLogic switches you just slide in a new switch and hook up to the 10Gbps or 20Gbps ISLs."

HP's SN6000 switches are priced at $10,500 with a single power supply, or $13,500 with dual power supplies.

The HP-QLogic announcement came on the heels of HP's introduction this week of 8Gbps Fibre Channel storage arrays (see "HP refreshes entry-level, LeftHand SANs.")

In a recent report, Wikibon.org analysts concluded that non-stackable switches can be up to 74% more expensive than stackable switches (see "The Total Cost of Ownership of Stackable Switches"). The Wikibon comparison was between QLogic and Brocade switches, and was conducted prior to this week's HP-QLogic announcement.

Also as a result of their expended partnership, HP and QLogic introduced management software – dubbed StorageWorks Simple SAN Connection Manager – that enables management of HP-branded QLogic switches, host bus adapters (HBAs), and HP's StorageWorks EVA/MSA disk arrays.

QLogic officials hope the HP deal will enable them to increase their share of the Fibre Channel switch market, where QLogic is a distant third to the Brocade-Cisco duopoly. The Dell'Oro Group research firm expects the Fibre Channel edge switch market to grow from $818.7 million last year to $944.4 million this year, exceeding $1 billion in 2011.

Meanwhile, in potentially related news, the rumor mill is abuzz about the rift between HP and Cisco. See Kevin Komiega's blog, "Cisco-HP partnership implodes." 
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HP Opts for QLogic for Stackable Switches
Partnership between HP and Cisco looks rockier

By Maxwell Cooter | Techworld UK

Published: 15:37 GMT, 19 February 10

HP has teamed up QLogic for its new range of 8Gbps stackable switches, a pointed snub to Cisco. QLogic has announced that its 5800V and 5802V switches are to be resold by HP under the names HP StorageWorks SN6000 Stackable 8Gb FC Switches.

QLogic claims that the switches ‘ interswitch link (ISL) technology allows customers to reduce total cost by 43 percent.

Henrik Hansen, QLogic's European marketing director said that the switch offered users plenty of options.

 "The switch is an 8Gbit FC but by using interlinking, we can stack up to 6 switches, making a total of 120 ports. In addition, the company have jointly developed management software known as Simple SAN Connection Manager (SSCM), to manage the range of switches from a single management console.”

As to HP's relationship with Cisco, that looks a bit rockier - although Hansen pointed out that Cisco didn't have an 8Gbit stackable,switch, only a 4Gbit version . Last year, Cisco announced its intention to enter the data centre for the first time, causing friction with partners such as HP - looks like the divorce is getting messier.
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Cisco-HP Partnership Implodes
Kevin Komiega / InfoStor

February 19, 2010 -- Months of rumored bad blood between Cisco and HP has finally boiled over as InfoStor has learned that Cisco Systems will not renew its System Integrator contract with HP.

Citing "changes in the IT landscape and the evolving role of the network and the implications to our partnering strategy with HP," Keith Goodwin, senior vice president of Cisco's Worldwide Partner Organization, said Cisco recently notified HP that it will not renew its System Integrator contract when it expires on April 30, 2010, resulting in HP no longer being a Cisco Certified Channel or Global Service Alliance partner.

The statement was made in a video blog posted on Cisco's website late last night and appears to be the result of a flurry of activity sparked by John Furrier's siliconAngle blog yesterday morning.

Upon reading John's blog, I fired off questions to both Cisco and HP. While Cisco did not respond directly to my questions, it's safe to say Goodwin answered them – and then some – in his video missive.

Goodwin went on to say "[Cisco is] taking this action to be transparent to both partners and customers – we will compete with HP for future business."

HP supplied me with a written statement late yesterday. However, in all fairness, they had yet to see Goodwin's blog on Cisco.com.

HP's statement is as follows:

"History has proven that customers and the market demand both co-opetition and collaboration between IT vendors. Most major players compete in one deal, and partner in others to best serve the client's needs. We do not believe it is in the customer's best interest to take a proprietary stance.

We will provide clients with consulting, integration, management and support services for their heterogeneous environments and ensure that our hardware and software platforms are optimized for all leading networking platforms.

Our strategy and platforms will continue to be market driven to create advantage today and into the future for our clients."

So what does this mean for customers?

Goodwin said Cisco has reached out to HP to start discussing a "new agreement that ensures business continuity for existing customers and better reflects the current state of our relationship."

He also maintained that Cisco will honor existing customer service contracts with HP for their duration.

"Our commitment is clear: we will continue to work with HP wherever our customers expect it and where it makes sense for our business," he said.

A brief history of the HP-Cisco shadow war

Cisco seems to have started this tussle with its entry into the server market in March 2009 with the debut of Cisco's Unified Computing System (UCS), which combines compute, network, storage access, and virtualization resources in a single system based on a new line of blade servers developed by Cisco.

Cisco's move into the server market caused some waves across the industry and left many partners – most notably HP – with a lot of questions.

Cisco added to the UCS platform last October with the launch of UCS rack-mount servers, memory extension technology, and a line of converged network adapters (CNAs).

Subsequently, HP made some big moves of its own. Last November, the company put its own twist on unified computing with the announcement of the HP Converged Infrastructure Architecture and a set of associated services and partner offerings that create a virtualized, on-demand data center.

HP then added to its own arsenal with the $2.7 billion to acquisition of networking vendor 3Com, as HP continued on its path toward data center convergence.

The latest move from HP was yesterday's announcement of a new deal with QLogic, under which HP will is now selling QLogic's 5800V and 5802V Series stackable 8Gbps Fibre Channel switches.

What's your take on this whole mess?
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“HP fortifies line of Fibre Channel switching defenses with QLogic; design win trumps Brocade, Cisco for edge switching.”

“We expect QLogic’s Fibre Channel switching business with HP to be incremental to the company on a go-forward basis, and enable QLogic to take market share from Brocade and Cisco in this space.”

“Cisco does not have a 8Gb Fibre Channel edge stackable switch at HP and Brocade has been more focused on its flagship director products, leaving QLogic—who has been consistently focused on 8Gb stackable Fibre Channel switches—with an opportunity to make serious inroads over the next few years.”

“It appears that the competition has under-invested in their once-strong Fibre Channel edge switch business, and have been caught off guard by QLogic’s rapid progress in this space.”

“This impressive win with the #1 server manufacturer and the #3 storage vendor by revenue signals QLogic’s rapid advances in the rapidly evolving $1 billion Fibre Channel edge switch market.”

“The fact that the #1 server vendor selected QLogic’s edge switches for its Converged Infrastructure strategy because of their scalability and adaptability is significant news.”
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HP resells QLogic edge switches; is Cisco relationship cooling? Cisco is still an HP partner, but some say tensions between the firms may be growing
Lucas Mearian / Computerworld
 
February 18, 2010 ( Computerworld) Hewlett-Packard Co. today disclosed that it has begun selling stackable QLogic Corp.-developed 8Gbit/sec Fibre Channel switches that are targeted for use at remote offices and corporate departments.

The QLogic switches have 20 8Gbit/sec Fibre Channel ports and can be stacked in groups of up to six to create a high-end offering with 120 8Gbit/sec Fibre Channel ports along with up to 24 20Gbit/sec interswitch link ports.

At least one industry observer believes that HP's decision to sign a deal with QLogic indicates that tensions are rising between HP and another key partner, Cisco Systems Inc. Dave Vellante, co-founder and principal contributor to Wikibon.org, an online, Wiki-based community of storage practitioners, consultants and researchers, notes that Cisco recently started competing with systems vendors like HP by coming out with its own server offering.

"HP is taking the high road saying whatever the customer wants they'll deliver. My take is HP is really saying 'screw you, Cisco' behind closed doors," Vellante said.

Additionally, one industry source said that HP's StorageWorks division may have eliminated Cisco Relationship Manager positions. Charles Vallhonrat, product marketing manager for HP's StorageWorks Division, said he did not know if that was true.

"We have a long history of partnering. We've had QLogic switches in the product line for a couple years now. This is adding additional capabilities to our portfolio," Vallhonrat said. "We do still partner with Brocade and Cisco."

Rumors are also circulating on the Web that Cisco no longer counts HP as a certified reseller partner.

Cisco did not reply by presstime to a request for information concerning its relationship with HP.
"This whole thing is very interesting to me because Cisco has grown so large and dominant that it is able to dictate certain terms, but HP is such a powerhouse [that] they're saying - you know what, we're HP and we don't need to bow to anyone," Vellante said.

HP said today it is now reselling QLogic's 5800V and 5802V Series 8Gbit/sec FC switches, which it is branding HP StorageWorks SN6000 Stackable 8Gb FC Switches, as part of its scalable SAN solutions.

The switches can be used with HP server and storage products like HP BladeSystem Virtual Connect, HP StorageWorks Modular Smart Array (MSA) and HP StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array (EVA) systems.

The SN6000 series switches have dedicated 10Gbit/sec interlink switch ports for connecting additional switches and increasing port counts. The 10Gbit/sec port can also be upgraded to 20Gbit/sec.

HP, which also resells switches from Brocade Communications Systems Inc., does not offer Cisco 8Gbit/sec Fibre Channel switches. The computer maker does resell Cisco 4Gbit/sec Fibre Channel switches, including a 24-port non-stackable switch (model 9124) and a 32-port stackable version (model 9134), as part of its C-Series switch line.

"Although Cisco obviously has customers who have responded to the value of stacking, their stacking implementation is far less robust than the SN6000," said QLogic spokesman, Steve Zivanic.

Additionally, Vallhonrat said HP's own Simple SAN Connection Manager software allows storage administrators to manage their HP StorageWorks SN6000 switches, along with host servers and StorageWorks StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array and Modular Smart Array storage systems all through a single interface.

The StorageWorks SN6000 switches will retail for $10,500 with a single power supply and $13,500 with a dual power supply.

"I think the Fibre Channel switch business needs more competition and because Cisco's at war with so many server vendors, a third supplier like QLogic becomes more viable," Vallente said. "I think this gives QLogic credibility in a market where they don't have a footprint whatsoever."
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Posted by Tom Trainer / Analytico, Inc. on February 18, 2010

Shockwaves In The Fibre Channel Switching Space

Earlier this week I saw an article from the Motley Fool advising investors to be bearish on Brocade (to sell), highlighting the competitive challenges facing the company. Then, this morning I saw the challenges only get worse for Brocade, as HP and QLogic announced an OEM pact for Fibre Channel edge switches.

It seems to me that Brocade is getting hit from multiple angles all at the same time. It doesn't yet appear that their HBA/CNA business is a significant revenue driver as Brocade is still trying to grab traction in the market. The acquisition of Foundry has made them an Ethernet switching competitor to the OEMs they seek to service, and their edge switches just got the smack down from HP and QLogic in this newly announced OEM deal. It seems that while Brocade has been spending a majority of its time making sure its FC Directors ahead of the pack--which they unquestionably are--the focus on its edge switches seems to have been a secondary priority.

Today's news brings 8Gb stackable FC switches to HP enterprise accounts and gives them levels of flexibility and simplicity that were not available with their existing offerings from Brocade and Cisco. In fact, the analysts over at Wikibon performed a detailed analysis of stackable switches vs. non-stackable switches and found that the TCO for non-stackable switches is a massive 74 percent more expensive than for stackable switches. This news doesn't bode well for Brocade, whose 8Gb FC edge switches are non-stackable. It will be interesting to see how Brocade counters this move by QLogic which appears to be designed to expand their market share in Fibre Channel switching. 

While Cisco has a stackable capability with its edge switches, there is no 8Gb FC connectivity option, which currently puts them a generation behind. Cisco will need to step forward quickly with 8GB FC in order to stave off competitive pressure now being applied. While it remains to be seen just how much traction HP and QLogic will gain with this new OEM pact, a few things seem clear at the moment:

Tier 1 vendors will increasingly thin out their technology portfolios in 2010, eliminating or marginalizing those suppliers that pose some form of competitive threat, whether in servers, storage, software, services or networking.

Tier 1 vendors will also focus more on selling products with their own brand name and logo applied. The days are rapidly disappearing when vendors would allow another vendor's brand name to gain traction in their own customers' backyard. If it goes in a Tier One OEM environment, the major supplier is going to have their brand affixed to it, whether they make it or not. Case in point, QLogic's FC stackable switches are branded the HP H-Series SN6000.

Brocade may be facing an uphill battle in 2010, as sectors that it once dominated are now being opened up to more agnostic, hungry competitors eager to gain share and translate this macroeconomic downturn into a business opportunity.

It promised to be an interesting year for OEM deals and vendor alignments. Let's check back in a few months and see how the competitive Fibre Channel switching landscape has further changed.
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"This announcement is well timed; the solution should resonate with end-users as they execute against their top IT priorities in 2010."

 "QLogic understands the opportunity it has to increase its market share for data center switching technologies in general and Fibre Channel switches in particular. This announcement highlights its dedication to improve its position by collaborating with its OEM partners, in this case HP, to deliver innovative solutions to the market at a time when it could really use them. Although not taking a direct approach to the market, its OEM focus could prove to be quite successful as major technology vendors strive to deliver complete end-to-end solutions."

"Changing market dynamics have created opportunities for more competitive solutions. Acquisitions and strategic partnerships among storage switch vendors have opened the door for other entrants. QLogic is taking advantage of these opportunities to expand its position as a legitimate third supplier of data center switching technology."

"HP's Simple SAN Connection Manager—with its integration of QLogic HBAs and switches and HP servers and storage—has enabled HP to create an end-to-end solution for organizations looking to build out virtualized server environments supported by scalable SAN solutions without the cost and complexity normally associated with FC SANs. Organizations of any size should welcome reduced costs, non-disruptive scaling, and the ability to quickly and easily create or augment an environment without having to burden skilled storage architects. HP is definitely on the right track and, based on ESG’s research, should be well positioned to take advantage of growing virtualized server and SAN markets with its QLogic- enabled solutions."

"QLogic has expanded its OEM relationship with HP to include stackable FC switches that are fully integrated with HP Simple SAN Connection Manager. Combine that with HP servers and storage, and HP can now offer highly available, rapidly scalable, end-to-end 8 Gb FC SAN solutions to support physical or virtualized server environments. This should place HP in a very good position to address pressing IT priorities and could help elevate QLogic's standings in the FC switch market."

"The complexity has been removed. Users that need to build networked storage environments to support virtualized server initiatives no longer need to be FC experts. HP, working closely with QLogic, has simplified SAN implementations and management. The technology was proven with a simple starter solution centered on the HP StorageWorks 8/20 FC switch and has now evolved to satisfy larger, more demanding environments. HP claims that, in less than 35 minutes and in only three steps, an HP SAN (with QLogic-powered HBAs and switches) can be configured and made operational without any prior SAN experience. For organizations creating their first FC SAN, this capability should be well received.”

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"The first implementation of the QLogic Fibre Channel switching stack in QLogic’s FCoE Switch ASIC: the QLogic Virtual Fabric Extension Module. While QLogic has been delivering single chip ASICs for FCoE CNAs, this announcement extends QLogic’s well proven and tested Fibre Channel stack into FCoE switching environments." "The first fully integrated, internal FCoE switch module for BladeCenter chassis. It eliminates the need for top-of-rack FCoE switches and simplifies wiring, which enables BladeCenter to access Fibre Channel SANs and Ethernet networks over copper and optical media."

"QLogic has been tackling the FCoE market aggressively with its single chip ASIC technology in addition to garnering numerous design wins for its Converged Network Adapters. Building on that success, the company is now enabling FCoE switch technology for IBM blade center environments."

"More attractive entry price points. QLogic claims its internal FCoE switching environment can reduce costs by as much as 2/3 over traditional top-of-rack FCoE switches. The FCoE technology was developed in conjunction with Blade Network Technologies, but QLogic also offers 10 Gb Ethernet pass-through technology at very attractive entry pricing. The technology is currently generally available through IBM."

"Provide IBM with a first to market advantage. The IBM BladeCenter would be the only 100% internal FCoE solution currently available. Leveraging QLogic CNAs and FCoE Switching technology with BladeNetwork Technology Ethernet cards, IBM is able to deliver an internal FCoE switch solution for IBM BladeCenter. The BNT switch acts as the Ethernet LAN portion of the solution and the QLogic Virtual Fabric Extension Module acts as the Fibre Channel Forwarder (FCF) with the FCoE capabilities. The result is less rack space consumed and a more attractive entry point."

"QLogic understands the value of converged networking solutions and has dedicated significant resources to design, develop, and produce innovative FCoE technology. Until now, its efforts have been focused on the converged network adaptor space, but with this announcement QLogic is wading into FCoE switch territory, looking to piggyback on its numerous CNA design wins to help OEMs deliver complete FCoE solutions in compelling form factors. Indeed, by leveraging the QLogic CNA and Virtual Fabric Extension Module, IBM is able to deliver the first "in chassis" FCoE solution: enabling one to provide cost-effective access to both Fibre Channel SANs and converged networks."
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"QLogic has established a lead in CNA reliability, design wins and environmentals, and has the financial strength to solidify its lead. Emulex should be considered if there are specific areas of support that are not available from QLogic, for IO intensive applications with very small (½ K) block sizes and for second sourcing."

"Wikibon has given the edge to QLogic for reliability, and gave particular weight to the fact that QLogic has fewer outstanding reliability issues with vendors."

"Environmentals: QLogic has an impressive lead in this area, with less than 10 watts for the dual-port CNA compared with 50% more for Emulex."

"QLogic has emphatically won most all the design wins to date, including extensive wins at Dell, EMC, HP, IBM and NetApp. As well, Wikibon believes QLogic has the lead at Cisco based on our analysis of early UCS shipments. The Emulex major qualification has been to join QLogic as an FCoE partner on IBM's Blade center (with BLADE networks). A recent (December 2009) Emulex win at Verari turned south when Verari announced a few days later that it is no longer trading. Both QLogic and Emulex have switch certifications with Cisco switch products. Sun has announced a project to deliver an OpenSolaris driver that will enable the availability of TCP/IP networking on a Converged Network Adapter on OpenSolaris systems with the QLogic CNA."
"QLogic has used its financial strength to own it own FCoE ASIC and Ethernet stack IP, which gives it more control over its technology roadmap and feature introduction. Emulex sources its FCoE ASIC and Ethernet stack from privately held ServerEngines."
"QLogic has dominated shipments for the more power and space efficient single chip CNAs which will garner the lion’s share of the business."
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QLogic Wins "Silver" Networking Product of the Year Award
QLogic Corp. 8100 Series Converged Network Adapters

The QLogic Corp. 8100 Series Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) converged network adapter (CNA) uses a single chip set to allow storage administrators to extend server and storage consolidation and virtualization projects by converging Fibre Channel and Ethernet networks. The adapter's architecture integrates five previously disparate components into one ASIC, handles storage and data networking traffic at 10 Gbps, and appears to servers as a dual-port Ethernet network interface card (NIC) and a dual-port Fibre Channel host bus adapter (HBA). The 8100 Series is also specifically designed for multi-core, multiprocessor environments because it generates less heat and consumes one-third the power of existing CNA chip sets. Data storage managers looking ahead to FCoE integration will appreciate the 8100 Series' ability to full hardware offload for protocol processing. One judge commented that QLogic's second-generation PCIe adapter is "one of the best CNAs on the market." The same judge added that the 8100 is "easier to integrate than most because of built-in driver compatibility." And another judge on our panel called it the "standard of HBAs" and "a great idea."

Storage networking equipment

View All Storage Networking Equipment winners

Posted by Tom Trainer / Analytico, Inc. on January 29, 2010

Emulex continues to make desperate marketing moves to try and tout its Universal Converged Network Adapter (UCNA) but fails to demonstrate substantial OEM design wins for the product. The company has shacked up with Blade Network Technology in a confusing alliance around 10GbE and seemingly has announced the same thing - three times: that IBM will use its re-badged NIC, sourced from ServerEngines, for Ethernet connectivity, not FCoE. (Note to Emulex Marketing: There is no need to announce this a fourth time....)

Emulex also announced an "exclusive design win" with Verari for FCoE, but then Verari collapsed three days after Emulex's glowing announcement. Now, Emulex is going on about how its UCNA offers "one million IOPs" of performance as compared to Brocade and QLogic. It's a safe bet that the major OEMs have known about UCNA's performance capabilities for at least the past 12 months, so why haven't they awarded any FCoE design wins to the product? Could it be because there is no support agreement in place between ServerEngines and Emulex? Analytico believes that as long as Emulex continues to rely on ServerEngines for its Ethernet stack, the long-term fate of the UCNA is uncertain, particularly with industry sources still indicating that LSI is in discussions to acquire ServerEngines. The threat here is that LSI could decide to be an FCoE supplier themselves and nix Emulex out of the supply loop.

Find me one OEM--besides the remnants of Verari--that stocks UCNA specifically for FCoE. I would love to talk to them and get a feel for how things are going with the UCNA. In my book, any company that claims one million IOPs can be achieved with its product using 512 byte block sizes, when real-world applications like Microsoft Exchange run 4K byte block sizes, has a marketing problem. Focus on what customers can actually use in their production data centers to solve real world problems and don't waste their time with random "one million IOPS" claims. This is typical spin when products are lagging the competition in the marketplace. In 2010, I predict Emulex will indeed find moderate success reselling ServerEngines' NIC cards (as the "UCNA") but will continue to be a straggler in the actual FCoE horse race.
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"Wikibon concludes that the TCO for non-stackable switches is 74% more expensive than for stackable switches. The savings in the first year of the case study cost is $2,440, the Net Present Value (NPV) is $70,739 and the breakeven is immediate. Wikibon strongly recommends that senior IT management and network managers include stackable switches on RFPs."

"Wikibon believes that stackable switches are a significant improvement over non-stackable switches. The initial cost difference for a small configuration is minimal. For a larger configuration stackable switches will usually entail significantly lower costs. Stackable switches offer higher (25%) usable user port counts, easier configuration growth and better inter-switch bandwidth and manageability."

"Action Item: Stackable switches are more efficient and cost effective way of scaling out FC switches. Senior IT management and Network Managers should include stackable switches in their RFPs, and ensure that realistic growth projections are included in the cost analysis."

"At five switches in a full-mesh topology, the stackable switches deliver 25% more usable ports (100 vs. 80). A stacking port has the equivalent of 3 times the bandwidth of an FC port and delivers 50% more inter-switch throughput than 2 FC ports."

The Total Cost of Ownership of Stackable Switches


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"Today, QLogic can claim more OEM design wins for its second generation CNAs than any other vendor and therefore will be the one most commonly seen in server in storage products that support FCoE."

"The 8100 Series is certified by VMware as ESX hardware-compatible at present and is the only second generation CNA so certified. QLogic has established an early lead in the placement of FCoE within the virtualized server space and we expect to see the 8100 Series CNAs offered by all major server vendors in conjunction with virtualized server solutions."

"The QLogic 8100 Series CNAs are based on QLogic’s second generation FCoE ASIC design—dubbed the Network Plus Architecture—a single chip implementation that supports a robust FCoE processing stack. The 8100 series supports full FCoE processing stack offload meaning that no host processor cycles are used to process the FCoE protocol stack. All protocol stack-related processing is performed by the CNA. This should be a critical requirement for virtual servers that typically support an increasing number of virtual machines over time, further taxing processor performance with the addition of each VM."

"We believe that, with general availability of second generation CNAs and growing support for FCoE by array vendors, IT administrators can now build converged networks in concert with virtualized server farms. The CNA is a critical component within a converged data center fabric as the connection through which flows both Ethernet networks and FC-based storage traffic. Therefore, an understanding of how this component functions both now and in the near future within virtualized server environments is also critical to successfully creating a single communications fabric."
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Storage Networking Equipment Finalists: 2009 Products of the Year

Below are the six finalists in the storage networking equipment category in the 2009 Storage magazine and SearchStorage.com Products of the Year competition. They are listed alphabetically.

Brocade Communications Systems Inc.'s DCX-4S Backbone Switch
Brocade's DCX-4S Backbone Switch is a network-edge switch or core application engine for mid-sized environments. It includes four 256 Gbps blade slots for Fibre Channel (FC) or FICON, and up to 192 ports.

Dataram Corp. XcelaSAN
The Dataram XcelaSAN dynamic caching appliance holds 128 GB of dynamic RAM (DRAM) and 360 GB of NAND flash, and applies intelligent caching algorithms to serve the most active block-level data from its solid-state drives.

NetApp Inc. Performance Acceleration Module (PAM) II
NetApp swapped the DRAM with single-level cell (SLC) NAND in the second-generation intelligent read cache Performance Acceleration Module. The company also increased the module size from 16 GB to between 256 GB to 512 GB so the unit can be used as a unified cache with up to 2 TB per controller and 4 TB of total cache.

QLogic Corp. 8100 Series Converged Network Adapters
The QLogic 8100 Series PCI Express (PCIe) converged network adapter (CNA) on a single chip has an integrated Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) Offload Engine and no external components. It's for blade servers and high-density environments that handle data and storage networking traffic at 10 Gbps line speeds.

Storspeed Inc. SP5000 Application-Aware Cache
Storspeed's SP5000 application-aware cache applies administrator-created user and application performance profiles so its real-time traffic inspection engine can automatically identify and accelerate designated user and application traffic.

VirtenSys Inc. VIO 4000 Series I/O Virtualization Switch
The VirtenSys VIO 4000 Series I/O virtualization (IOV) switch consolidates and virtualizes I/O adapters in a top-of-the-rack switch by extending the internal PCIe bus of connected servers, thereby eliminating multiple aggregation switches and reducing cabling, power and cooling needs.
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