With the release of VMware Infrastructure 3 (VI3), VMware advances virtualization into a new era for the data center. By packaging applications and adding new feature sets, the new VI3 product offers a much more robust virtualization solution causing more businesses than ever to sign-up for the virtualization program. And as virtualization gets rolled out into larger scale deployments, the need for networked storage becomes that much greater. Network storage and server virtualization go hand-in-hand because it helps ease management, offers a consolidated storage solution, and enables virtual machine portability.

By announcing support for VI3 and closely aligning themselves with VMware's solution, companies like QLogic and Emulex hope to gain further traction into the server virtualization market - a market that seems to be growing and expanding at a faster rate each year.

QLogic Corporation announced that its storage networking products support the newly released VMware Infrastructure 3. Optimized for virtualized environments, their QLogic SANblade Pro 2400 Series 4Gb HBAs and SANbox 4Gb switches are a strong complement to VI3. They consolidate direct-attach storage and SANs and simplify ease-of-use through boot-from-SAN capabilities.

"SAN administrators want to deploy common infrastructures," said Greg Schulz, founder and senior analyst, The StorageIO Group. "With storage networking that extends from HBA end-node to fabric switching, QLogic allows SAN administrators to deploy a common storage networking infrastructure with full support for VMware Infrastructure 3. With continued adoption of server virtualization and VMware, the StorageIO group expects to see more server consolidation, which will likely result in the need for more bandwidth and more 4Gb end-to-end installations."

Emulex Corporation also made an announcement that their Emulex LightPulse family of HBAs are fully supported in VI3. Customers deploying VI3 may leverage both 2Gb/s and 4Gb/s HBA support which can help with I/O intensive and mission critical applications. Additionally, boot from SAN capabilities, support for high-availability multi-pathing, as well as VMware VMotion-based workload optimization ensure reliable and efficient deployments ideal for demanding corporate data centers.

"The Emulex HBA architecture is uniquely flexible and features industry-standard APIs to ensure seamless compatibility with VMware Infrastructure 3," said Mike Smith, executive vice president of worldwide marketing at Emulex. "Virtualized systems make sense for many enterprises as a way to maximize server efficiency. With the overwhelming desire for SAN attach capability within server virtualization environments, it is important for Emulex to closely align with VMware to enable end users to continue standardizing on Emulex HBAs throughout their data centers."

To read either company's press release, go here: QLogic and Emulex

Posted by David Marshall on June 28, 2006 05:02 PM