QLogic has taken a major step forward, announcing its new, third-gen 10GbE converged networking portfolio at a New York event this morning. Code-named 3GCNA, the portfolio features a number of breakthrough technologies, which are based on QLogic’s Network Plus Architecture. The result is the new 8200 Series 10GbE converged network adapters, 3200 Series 10Gbe intelligent Ethernet adapters, and a converged LAN-on-motherload solution.

What QLogic is doing here is addressing the complex requirements of virtualized data centers, which only get more complex from here on out. As cloud servicing spans a number of hardware and software demands, the industry must shift to keep up and anticipate solutions to many of its own evolutionary setbacks. Dealing with a differentiated and virtualized environment, QLogic’s 3GCNA portfolio addresses these requirements with products that are protocol- and OS-agnostic and support exabyte-level scalability.

“The IT business is rapidly shifting toward a services-based environment where capacity is virtual, flexible and acquired on demand. This increases pressures on IT infrastructure management to be more efficient, agile and available for thousands of internal and millions or billions of external users,” said Dave Vellante, president, Wikibon.org. “Third generation CNAs from QLogic provide the vital interconnect technology that enables its OEMs and channel partners to deliver the flexible data center connectivity layer for next generation, service-based applications.”

QLogic is delving into areas that have a great amount of pressure for enterprise growth and development, especially looking towards the future demands regarding virtualized environments. A great deal of flexibility and scalability will be required for datacenters moving forward, and this is one area of opportunity for cloud services to appeal to one client or another.

“Through the use of technologies like FlexLOMTM and having the same same driver for cLOM and CNA, QLogic is well positioned for the flexibility and scalability that is required for data centers today and tomorrow,” notes Wikibon analyst Stu Miniman. There will be continued competitive pressure for design wins and for brand recognition against some big competitors, but if QLogic can continue to focus on both OEM and end-user requirements, there is a lot of growth opportunity.

See here for more analysis and firsthand test notes from Miniman’s perspective.

Some of the precedents QLogic is setting with its new line include the ability to:
— Run offloaded Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), iSCSI and IP
(Ethernet) traffic concurrently
— Perform switch-agnostic, virtual machine (VM)-to-VM communication within
physical machines
— Deploy quad 1GbE and dual 10GbE ports from a single chip, using advanced
FlexLOM(TM) technology

The 3GCNA portfolio is the first instantiation of QLogic’s Adaptive Convergence(TM) strategy. This strategy builds on the success of the company’s recent flex ports introduction and introduces four key, flexible, business-enabling I/O interconnect capabilities:

— ConvergeFlex(TM): Concurrent Protocol Processing Services
— VMflex(TM): Advanced Virtualization Services
— FlexOffload(TM): Multiple Protocol Offload Services
— SecureFlex(TM): Data Security Services