SANTA CLARA, Calif., Oct. 16, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- (Storage Networking World) -- QLogic (Nasdaq:QLGC), a leading supplier of high performance network infrastructure solutions, continues to deliver on its Adaptive Convergence strategy with its next-generation FlexSuite™ 2600 Series adapters, available now through authorized QLogic channel partners. QLogic® FlexSuite "dual-personality" adapters fit seamlessly into current installations as a 16Gb Fibre Channel adapter today and provide end-user field upgradeability to a 10Gb Ethernet (10GbE)-based converged network adapter (CNA) in the future.
Double the Performance and Flexibility from the Market Leader
FlexSuite adapters feature QLogic I/OFlex technology, a field-configurable upgrade available spring of next year that allows end-users to use the same hardware for 16Gb Fibre Channel or 10GbE server connectivity. Unlike rip-and-replace and pay-as-you go alternatives, QLogic I/OFlex technology provides organizations with a future-proof approach to building highly agile infrastructures, protecting existing Fibre Channel investments and delivering a simplified and cost-effective path to network convergence. Optimized for multitenant and highly virtualized environments, the FlexSuite Fibre Channel adapter personality includes support for advanced features such as virtual Fibre Channel in Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V and priority N_Port ID virtualization (NPIV). The FlexSuite CNA personality provides unique 10GbE bandwidth management features such as NIC Partitioning (NPAR) combined with granular Quality of Service (QoS).
Today's enterprise applications running on Intel® Xeon® processor E5-2600 product family-based servers along with the proliferation of solid state disk (SSD) drives are generating increased I/O bandwidth demand and the FlexSuite™ 2600 Series delivers with multi-protocol hardware offload and full support for PCIe 3.0. FlexSuite provides superior raw performance exceeding 1.2 million input/output operations per second (IOPS) on Fibre Channel networks. Unlike the nearest competitor, FlexSuite's dual port architecture offers complete port-level isolation which provides enterprise-class reliability and balanced, scalable performance across both ports.
With more than eight consecutive years of Fibre Channel adapter revenue market share leadership, QLogic has shipped more than 13 million Fibre Channel and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) adapter ports. QLogic's networking stack includes pervasive support of the leading operating system (OS) platforms and hypervisors including Windows Server with Hyper-V, VMware ESX/ESXi, Red Hat and SUSE Linux (including KVM), Solaris and Citrix XenServer. This long heritage of reliability has built a foundation of trust that keeps customers loyal to the QLogic brand for their heterogeneous OS environments. Based on QLogic's fifth-generation Fibre Channel and third-generation converged networking technologies, the FlexSuite adapter leverages the same, mature QLogic Fibre Channel, iSCSI, Ethernet and FCoE networking stack currently qualified and shipping from all major server and storage OEMs.
Simplified Management in Virtualized Environments
QLogic FlexSuite adapters address the demands of rapidly evolving enterprises and deliver increased agility by providing the versatility to handle any protocol, any host, any storage and any fabric from a single adapter platform. Furthermore, with simplified management through common plug-ins for VMware vCenter Server and Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager, QLogic enables administrators to centrally monitor, manage, update and run diagnostics directly from the virtual machine (VM) server. This simplifies management and administration by using a common tool to manage QLogic hardware and increases efficiency for the IT administrator.
"QLogic continues to deliver solutions that make it easy for our partners and customers to maximize investments in existing networks and migrate seamlessly to next-generation infrastructures at their own pace, including highly virtualized data centers and private cloud environments," said Amit Vashi, vice president of marketing, Host Solutions Group, QLogic. "With the world's largest installed base of Fibre Channel HBAs, QLogic and its FlexSuite adapters represent the next evolution in high performance server-attach delivering unmatched versatility and industry-leading performance."
Industry-leading Five-year Warranty
QLogic offers the industry's only portfolio of Fibre Channel, 10Gb Intelligent Ethernet and converged networking adapters backed by a five-year standard warranty. Raising the bar for reliability in data and storage networking, QLogic helps customers achieve a higher return on their investments with critical data center hardware that is ensured to be operational over a longer lifetime. All QLogic-branded FlexSuite adapters are warrantied for three years at purchase; customers can extend their warranty to five years at no charge simply by registering their adapters.
"Organizations who buy QLogic FlexSuite adapters have the flexibility to satisfy their current requirements for 16Gb Fibre Channel speed, security, efficiency and backward-compatibility with today's predominant 8Gb and 4Gb Fibre Channel networks," said Matt Troka, senior vice president of product and partner management at CDW, a QLogic channel partner. "As they face changing business requirements that may result in the need for 10GbE-based storage or converged networks, companies already have the right adapter in place."
"Windows Server 2012 offers customers breakthrough capabilities in networking technology, and QLogic network solutions are designed to take advantage of these advances," said Sandeep Singhal, general manager, Windows Networking, Microsoft. "QLogic FlexSuite adapters help organizations adopt cloud computing in Windows Server 2012 environments by helping customers power native 16Gb Fibre Channel storage networks or 10Gb Ethernet converged networks from the same hardware."
"We are excited that QLogic FlexSuite supports the latest PCI Express Gen 3 technology innovation," said Jim Pappas, director of technology initiatives, Intel Corporation. "Supporting PCIe Gen 3 enables QLogic FlexSuite adapters to take full advantage of the capabilities of the Intel® Xeon® processor E5-2600 product family, allowing customers increased throughput and reduced latency as a result of the 2x bandwidth provided by PCIe 3.0."
According to Crehan Research, Inc., enterprises continue to rely heavily on Fibre Channel as a trusted storage technology in virtualized server environments. "Adapters that can align with today's Fibre Channel deployments and also deliver a flexible migration path to future I/O convergence options, offer a compelling value proposition," said Seamus Crehan, president of Crehan Research, Inc.
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QLogic – the Ultimate in Performance
QLogic (Nasdaq:QLGC) is a global leader and technology innovator in high performance networking, including adapters, switches and ASICs. Leading OEMs and channel partners worldwide rely on QLogic products for their data, storage and server networking solutions. For more information, visit www.qlogic.com.
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This press release contains statements relating to future results of the company (including certain beliefs and projections regarding business and market trends) that are "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or implied in the forward-looking statements. The company advises readers that these potential risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: unfavorable economic conditions; potential fluctuations in operating results; gross margins that may vary over time; the stock price of the company may be volatile; the company's dependence on the networking markets served; the ability to maintain and gain market or industry acceptance of the company's products; the company's dependence on a small number of customers; the company's ability to compete effectively with other companies; the complexity of the company's products; declining average unit sales prices of comparable products; the company's dependence on sole source and limited source suppliers; the company's dependence on relationships with certain third-party subcontractors and contract manufacturers; the ability to attract and retain key personnel; sales fluctuations arising from customer transitions to new products; seasonal fluctuations and uneven sales patterns in orders from customers; a reduction in sales efforts by current distributors; changes in the company's tax provisions or adverse outcomes resulting from examination of its income tax returns; international economic, currency, regulatory, political and other risks; facilities of the company and its suppliers and customers are located in areas subject to natural disasters; the ability to protect proprietary rights; the ability to satisfactorily resolve any infringement claims; uncertain benefits from strategic business combinations, acquisitions and divestitures; declines in the market value of the company's marketable securities; changes in and compliance with regulations; difficulties in transitioning to smaller geometry process technologies; the use of "open source" software in the company's products; security system risks, data protection breaches and cyber-attacks; and issues related to the upgrade of the company's enterprise resource planning system.
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