Emulex announces Ethernet Networking and Converged Network Adapters for the Open Compute Project

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 centres built on the OCP model to realise 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 maximises 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 centres that require I/O optimisation for delivering compute power, energy efficiency and scalability."

The Emulex OCm14000-OCP adapters are optimised 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 optimised for next generation applications and new industry standards, such as OpenStack, CloudStack and OpenFlow.
· High-Performance Virtualisation: OCm14000-OCP adapters use highly efficient and scalable hardware offload technology to transfer the overhead of virtual networking, providing up to 50 per cent better CPU utilisation[1] 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, 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 per cent better performance vs. software-only implementations of emerging Overlay Network standards such asNetwork Virtualisation 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.
· Optimised 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 centres optimise 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 CNAs[2] and build upon the proven history of enterprise-class storage reliability at Emulex.

"As we move closer to making the disaggregated data centre 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."