CANNES, France, Feb. 26, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- VMworld Europe -- Emulex Corporation (NYSE:ELX) today announced the integration of its Host Bus Adapter (HBA) management architecture that integrates with VMware ESX Server 3i, the industry's first embedded, ultra-thin hypervisor for virtualized server environments.
Emulex's advanced HBA management capabilities integrated with the VMware ESX Server 3i platform will enable customers to seamlessly configure and manage HBAs deployed in VMware ESX 3i-based servers from the same central management point used to manage HBAs across the data center.
"The close collaboration with VMware has enabled Emulex to develop and demonstrate an excellent level of device management integration with VMware ESX Server 3i," said Mike Smith, executive vice president of worldwide marketing, Emulex. "Our ongoing innovation with respect to the integration of virtualized servers and SANs continues to provide our end user customers with the robust tools for open and secure management."
Following the announcement of Emulex's HBA management suite for VMware ESX Server 3.5 at VMworld 2007 last September, Emulex is providing enhanced functionality for HBA management in VMware ESX Server 3i to deliver simple, centralized management of virtualized servers connecting to SANs. The integration of Emulex HBA management within VMware ESX Server 3i enables remote and local management, boot from SAN enablement, driver configuration, firmware updates, and other advanced management capabilities.
The VMware ESX Server 3i hypervisor is based on VMware's market-leading virtualization technology used by more than 100,000 customers. It's the industry's smallest hypervisor (32MB), making it the most secure and reliable and the only OS-independent virtualization platform available. VMware ESX Server 3i, embedded in server systems, delivers full-featured single-server consolidation with fast and easy deployment -- the first virtual machine can operate within minutes of booting a server -- and the assurance of pre-configured and optimized hardware configurations. VMware ESX Server 3i is fully compatible with the award-winning VMware datacenter virtualization and management solutions, supporting flagship capabilities such as live migration and automatic virtual machine load balancing, as well as with VMware desktop virtualization and management solutions.
For use with Emulex's LightPulse(r) family of HBAs, the new standards-based Emulex HBA management architecture for VMware ESX Server 3i is a result of close collaboration with VMware. At VMworld Europe 2008, this week in Cannes, France, Emulex is working with VMware to showcase the benefits of this HBA management integration.
With VMware ESX Server 3i, customers can rapidly deploy virtualization out of the box. The automatic configuration capabilities provided by VMware ESX Server 3i provide detection, discovery and intelligent-default configuration, with a menu-driven startup experience that enables end users to go from booting the server to running virtual machines in a matter of minutes. Additionally, those customers attaching VMware virtualized servers to SANs may now benefit from integrated HBA management from Emulex, providing a simpler, more comprehensive user experience.
"Our work with Emulex includes working toward open, standards-based device management on VMware ESX Server 3i to enhance the management capabilities of VMware virtualization environments that include external SANs," said Brian Byun, vice president of global partners and solutions, VMware. "With Emulex's new standards-based HBA management integration with VMware ESX Server 3i, customers can quickly realize the benefit of better interoperability, security and cost savings in managing a multi-vendor storage and networking solution in a standard format."
These new management capabilities will be available for use with existing 4Gb/s HBAs and the new LPe12000 family of 8Gb/s HBAs to provide the I/O scalability necessary to support an increased number of applications running on VMware virtualized software. Leveraging these new products to consolidate additional applications onto fewer physical servers increases the benefits of VMware virtualization, such as reduced procurement and management costs, assured business continuity and lower power and cooling costs.
"With the ever increasing popularity of server virtualization and its high correlation with networked storage, the majority of which are Fibre Channel SANs, it is important to empower customers with the connectivity tools and technology they require to efficiently and effectively manage their virtualized server environments," said Bob Laliberte, analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group. "Emulex and VMware are staying ahead of the game by coupling Emulex's HBA management tools with VMware's embedded, ultra-thin hypervisor, VMware ESX Server 3i, giving customers the ability to seamlessly manage both their virtual and physical HBA resources that are attached to SANs."
Emulex is demonstrating its HBA management integration on VMware ESX 3i at VMworld Europe 2008 this week in Cannes, France, February 26-28, in booth 61A. For more information on Emulex LightPulse Virtual HBA technology, please visit http://www.emulex.com/solutions/virtual/index.jsp.
About Emulex
Emulex Corporation creates enterprise-class products that intelligently connect storage, servers and networks. The world's leading server and storage providers rely on Emulex award-winning HBAs, intelligent storage platforms and embedded storage products, including switches, bridges, routers and I/O controllers, to build reliable, scalable and high performance storage and server solutions. Emulex is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE:ELX) and corporate headquarters are located in Costa Mesa, California. News releases and other information about Emulex Corporation are available at http://www.emulex.com.
The Emulex Corporation logo is available at http://www.primenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=1744
Emulex Safe Harbor Statement
"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: With the exception of historical information, the statements set forth above include forward-looking statements that involve risk and uncertainties. The company wishes to caution readers that a number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Those factors include the rapidly changing nature of technology, evolving industry standards and frequent introductions of new products and enhancements by competitors; fluctuation in the growth of Fibre Channel and IP markets; changes in economic conditions or changes in end user demand for technology solutions; fluctuations or delays in customer orders; the highly competitive nature of the markets for Emulex's products; Emulex's ability to gain market acceptance for its products; the company's ability to attract and retain skilled personnel; the company's reliance on third-party suppliers. These and other factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements are also discussed in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its recent filings on Forms 8-K, 10-K and 10-Q. All trademarks, trade names, service marks, and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies.