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. QLogic is a NASDAQ Global Select company and is included in the S&P
500. For more information, visit www.qlogic.com.
See also:-
QLogic
- editor mentions on Zsolt@StorageSearch.com,
early FC SAN SSDs,
SAN SSD news
who's who in SSD? - QLogic
by Zsolt Kerekes,
editor - March 22, 2013
Given the markets it was engaged in (QLogic is
one of the two companies which have dominated the fibre-channel adapter
interface market in the past decade) and given the threats and opportunities
posed by SSDs to traditional server and enterprise storage designs - it was
surprising in some ways how late QLogic was in entering the SSD market. Its
first products were launched in March 2013.
QLogic's SSD products are
PCIe based
SSD ASAPs.
In
one respect QLogic's new SSDs compete with every other company which makes PCIe
SSDs, and they compete with related SSD virtualization and caching software
and with server makers too.
However, by positioning the product as a
value-added application specfic SAN IOPS accelerator which uses existing FC HBA
drivers as the API - QLogic can also make a case for presenting this a natural
progression from what was done before.
One of the ironies of QLogic's
new SSD solution - is that it inherently relies on the very
advances in PCIe chip
technology (the ability to share data across many apps servers at high
speed and with low latency) which could reduce the need for so many FC nodes in
datacenters in the future.
My
view is that being
able to run old SAN-like data architectures faster by using SSDs will still be a
useful thing to do in the next 5-10 years.
Having said that - it
still remains to be seen if QLogic's approach to SAN caching is now - or
will be the most efficient
way of doing this. |
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editor's earlier comments:- September 2012
Traditionally
QLogic used to design adapters, chips and boxes for connecting, routing or
switching
fibre-channel,
iSCSI and the niche
InfiniBand market.
But in January 2012 QLogic agreed to sell its IB business and assets to
Intel.
The
company hs been a member of the
SSD Form Factor Working Group
which is working to standardize PCIe SSDs.
You would have thought
that acompany this closely involved with high speed storage fabric which gets
close to the apps server would have got its act together with an SSD product
line years ago.
But it's only recently - in September 2012 -
that QLogic
announced
its intention to enter the
SSD ASAP market.
Details
released so far are too vague to make an assessment of how useful or
competitive this product will be when it sees the light of day.
In March
2013 - QLogic
enterered the enterprise
SSD market - with a 2 card set PCIe SAN IOPS caching accelerator. The
FabricCache has upto 400GB flash, and 2x 8Gbps FC ports and can deliver
upto 310,000 initiator IOPS and supports upto 2,048 concurrent logins. |
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In March 2013 -
QLogic entered the
enterprise SSD market
(in the PCI SSD and
SSD ASAPs segments)
with the
launch
its first product - the
FabricCache
10000 Series adapter (pdf) - which provides transparent sharable and
clusterable caching for FC SANs in a 2 card set (upto 400GB flash, and 2x
8Gbps FC ports) which can deliver upto 310,000 initiator IOPS. |
| . |
| don't all PCIe SSDs
look pretty much the same? |
When you look at the
photos and headline specs for high speed PCIe SSDs - it's easy to come away with
the impression that they all look the same and have about the same performance.
After
all - how different can they be?
But don't let the experience of the
2.5" SSD market -
in which clusters of consumer SSD vendors use the
same or similar
controllers and hover
close together inpopular
(consumer) performance rankings - give you the wrong idea about
PCIe SSDs.
In
this market the performance limits and capabilities of the SSD aren't set by an
old hard disk interface
and package limitations.
In the PCIe market the products you get are
limited only by the imagination of the designers - tempered by the guesses of
marketers who are trying to predict the optimum (most salable) features for an
ideal SSD. |
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| QLogic enters the
enterprise SSD market - with SAN IOPS caching accelerator |
Editor:- March 22, 2013 -
QLogic
yesterday entered the enterprise
SSD market (in the PCI
SSD and SSD ASAPs
segments) with the
launch
its first product - the
FabricCache
10000 Series adapter (pdf) - which provides transparent sharable and
clusterable caching for FC SANs.
The 2 card set (upto 400GB flash,
and 2x 8Gbps FC ports) can deliver upto 310,000 initiator IOPS and
supports upto 2,048 concurrent logins.
QLogic says - FabricCache uses
just a single standard adapter driver per OS, the same QLogic field-proven
adapter driver stack that has shipped with more than 13 million FC ports. The
FabricCache adapter appears logically to the server as a single QLogic HBA which
integrates seamlessly into current enterprise server and infrastructure
environments.
Editor's comments:- from the business and
marketing perspective QLogic's new Mt. Rainier branded SSD is a tardy,
pragmatic and cunning response to the threats and challenges posed by SSDs
to traditional storage ecosystems vendors.
Tardy - because
the first SSD ASAP appliances - which used SSDs to automatically and
transparently accelerate access to
SAN storage first shipped
in 2009. And
the first enterprise PCIe SSDs started shipping in 2007.
Pragmatic
- for a bunch of reasons
- Pragmatic - because QLogic's new products provide a credible way for the
company to participate and get customer experience in the crowded high
value PCIe SSD market - by recycling IP from (what would otherwise soon be
downgraded to) a commodity IP base (FC SAN physical adapters).
In
my 2011 article - don't
all PCIe SSDs look pretty much the same? - SSD ASAPs (like QLogic's
FabricCache ) were discussed as one of the many options for market
differentiation.
- Pragmatic - for another reason too - because with 50 or more different
flavors of auto-caching/tiering software schemes already in the market - QLogic
has neatly side-stepped the issue of participating as yet another new
SSD software company
which user have got to learn about - and instead has cleverly positioned its
product as needing no new software. (The FabricCache adapters learn everything
they need to know from being acticated by standard FC HBA drivers.)
Cunning
- because the implied message to users here is:- "if you want to fool
around with SSD auto-accelerating your SAN storage - you can do it without
haveing to learn about new software. - All the software you need to know about
is already running your interface HBAs."
This is kind of sneaky -
because in reality - if users are investing in this product - they will soon
start to care about the internals of the software - and to ponder on the
ability of QLogic to continue delivering good
market roadmap
symmetry across upcoming new generations of back end SAN storage systems as
these SAN racks themselves change their internal make-up from hard drives to
flash.
Another consideration is that - accelerating data I/O between a
traditional server SAN stack and storage on the SAN - may give better results
than without any flash - but may not be as good an ROI as the competing
alternative of accelerating apps performance using similar flash capacity
but with an interface agnostic bunch of algorithms.
Nevertheless -
QLogic's new SSDs provide a "low perceived risk" way for users -
who don't want to plunge deeply into the mystical and changeable details of
SSD acceleration - to experiment and fool around with the benefits of SSD
SAN acceleration.
Before I get any emails from investors asking - is
this good for QLogic? or - is it bad for
Fusion-io (or
Virident)? Here are
my thoughts.
Companies in the server SAN infrastructure market have no
future without an SSD core. So having a plausible SSD product - even at this
late stage of the enterprise SSD market development game- upgrades QLogic from
a future as a mere commodity interface chip supplier to a plausible player.
I doubt if any PCIe SSD makers feel in anu way threatened by QLogic's new
product.
See also:- QLogic's informative white paper -
QLogic
Mt. Rainier Integrates SSDs with SAN Connectivity (pdf) | | |
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| QLogic
signals intention to enter SSD ASAP market |
Editor:- September 7, 2012 - QLogic yesterday
announced
its intention to enter the
SSD ASAP market.
The company says its so called
Mt.
Rainier technology will support industry standard
PCIe SSDs and
SAS SSDs - and will
connect via the company's HBAs and drivers. |
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The 1st product in this
family will connect via traditional Fibre Channel HBA. Details released so
far are too vague to make an assessment of how useful or competitive this
product will be when it sees the light of day. | | | |
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