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Home > Products > IBM BladeCenter Switches > BNT Virtual Fabric 10G Switch Module (10-port) > IBM Virtual Fabric

IBM Virtual Fabric

Next generation servers, such as the HS22 and newer blades for IBM BladeCenter, deliver outstanding performance in virtualized environments, but I/O has become more complex and often becomes a bottleneck.

Virtual Fabric helps address three key I/O issues: Reduce Cost, Reduce Complexity and Improve Performance which can be done by leveraging 10Gb Ethernet:

Carving up virtual I/O pipes between the servers and switching. This can provide clients with the 2-8 NICs they need per server but reduce the number of adapters, cables and upstream switch ports required.
Being able to dynamically allocated bandwidth in increments of 100Mb, but also being able to change on the fly with no server downtime.
Future-proofing for network convergence as new technologies are deployed.

Virtual Fabric for IBM BladeCenter addresses these concerns and provides value to non-virtualized environments as well.

The IBM BladeCenter Virtual Fabric solution, which includes the BNT Virtual Fabric 10G Switch Module (10-port) and the Emulex Virtual Fabric Adapter, allows clients to achieve new levels of consolidation, efficiency, flexibility and scalability - all at lower costs.

Features	Benefits
Virtual	Ability to assign bandwidth, as required, by carving up 10G pipes, in increments of 100Mb. (Minimum 100Mb - Max 10Gb) * VMready™ allows for Virtual Machine discovery which can help IT reduce deployment or downtime by being able to identify VMs in the network. VMready also allow for VM bandwidth control allowing for additional granularity down to the VM level for maximum performance per VM.
Easier	50-75% less hardware to manage (adapters/switches) Reduces cable clutter up to 58-86% (larger 10G uplinks). Ability to manage 4 virtual groups instead of 112 individual virtual NICs.
Availability	Ability to provide isolation between various vNICs and virtual groups. Failore to a vNIC or virtual group has no impact on other vNICs or virtual groups.
Performance	480 Gbps throughput Latency starting at 1.6μsec
Cost of Ownership	Thousands of dollars of savings on adapters & switches. Up to 50% more energy efficient. Investment protection for Converged Enhanced Ethernet / FCoE*.

* Switch is currently FCoE Ready. In 2010, clients will be able to leverage a single Emulex Virtual Fabric Adapter for both Ethernet and FC traffic.

Soltuion Components:

IBM BladeCenter H chassis
IBM BladeCenter HS22 blades (and newer blades)
Emulex Virtual Fabric Adapter (CFFh) for IBM BladeCenter
BNT Virtual Fabric 10G Switch Module for IBM BladeCenter with BNT VMready - 3 year license included with the switch
Recommend: IBM BladeCenter Open Fabric Manager for simplified address management

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