EMC to Offer QLogic's 8Gb Fibre Channel Stackable Switches

In the latest move to expand its global market share in Fibre Channel switches in enterprise-class data centers worldwide, QLogic Corp. (Nasdaq:QLGC) today announced that on April 12 its 5800V Series 8Gb Fibre Channel stackable switches will be available through the EMC® Select program as scalable SAN solutions for a broad range of EMC storage platforms.

The switches will be available worldwide from EMC and its partners and have been qualified through the EMC E-Lab™ with the EMC Symmetrix® V-Max™, Symmetrix DMX™, CLARiiON® CX4 and CLARiiON AX4 networked storage systems and the EMC Celerra® NS line of unified storage systems.

"QLogic is clearly gaining momentum in the Fibre Channel switching sector with the stackable 5800V Series," said Jesse Parker, vice president and general manager, Network Solutions Group, QLogic. "Storage heavyweights like EMC are delivering our unique 8Gb Fibre Channel stackable switch architecture, which provides businesses with the latest in edge switching technology, management simplicity and pay-as-you-grow predictability."

"The combination of EMC's leading 8Gb Fibre Channel storage systems with QLogic 5800V Series 8Gb Fibre Channel stackable switches helps us address our customers' increasing end-to-end I/O bandwidth requirements," said Deirdre Wassell, director, Storage Product Marketing, EMC Corporation. "By offering complete solutions that enable more efficient consolidation, higher levels of service and lower costs, EMC is able to help customers build an information infrastructure capable of meeting the increasing demands of today's bandwidth-intensive environments including large database servers and virtual data centers."‪

QLogic 5800V 8Gb Fibre Channel Series switches incorporate QLogic's unique inter-switch link (ISL) technology, which enables companies to reduce total-cost-of-ownership by up to 43 percent compared to non-stackable alternatives1.

"CTOs should give serious consideration to stackable switches, as we believe they are a more-cost-effective and smarter approach to storage networks," said Dave Vellante, founder and chief research advocate, Wikibon. "Delivering 25 percent higher user port counts when scaling, improved inter-switch bandwidth and simplified manageability, stackable switches empower IT departments to better leverage company assets through greater granularity of scale. QLogic's moves in this space are impressive as the company is evolving its technology to play a more important role in the data center."

The 5800V Series includes dedicated high speed 10Gb Fibre Channel stacking ports, which can be easily upgraded to 20Gb performance. By providing high-performance, dedicated switch-to-switch connectivity through these stacking ISLs, the 5800V Series eliminates cabling sprawl and preserves 8Gb Fibre Channel ports specifically for device connectivity—meaning no user ports are required for connecting switches to each other. By reducing cable and connection costs while enhancing SAN performance, the 5800V Series enables lower capital and operational expenditures.

The stackable design of QLogic 5800V Series Fibre Channel switches offers improved flexibility and eliminates the need to reconfigure switches, leading to better productivity for IT staff and less disruption for users. The design of the 5800V Series, with dedicated stacking ports, enables non-disruptive expansion requiring the IT manager to only add stacking cables between the switches without interrupting application uptime.

As multi-core servers begin to drive higher adoption rates of virtualization, there is a commensurate increase in customer demand for higher bandwidth connectivity options. With 20 dedicated 8Gb Fibre Channel device ports per switch, scalable to over 100 device ports in the fabric, QLogic 5800V Series switches address the needs of server virtualization, massive storage capacities, resource-intensive applications and other sources of unpredictable IT growth.

A wide range of QLogic products are available through EMC Select. In addition to the 5800V Series, QLogic 3810 entry-level 8Gb Fibre Channel switches, 5602 4Gb Fibre Channel stackable switches and the Enterprise Fabric Manager advanced software suite are also now available from EMC. Enterprise Fabric Manager provides IT managers with highly granular control and monitoring of their SAN environments within an affordable license model.