SANBlaze, a leading innovator in storage emulation, is announcing its new Non-Volatile Memory Express over Fibre Channel (FC-NVMe) Test Solution for early development. The SANBlaze FC-NVMe Emulation Solution, for both System Host and Device test environments, features integrated Cavium QLogic HBAs and Emulex HBAs by Broadcom that support FC-NVMe for performance, firmware, driver development and interoperability testing applications. A key advantage of FC-NVMe is vastly reduced latency and faster operation over traditional Fibre Channel networks. The new FC-NVMe standard takes advantage of the current integrated end-to-end (server/OS/HBA/driver/switch/storage) qualification and support model. Solutions will be available starting June 1, 2017.
 

FC-NVMe extends the reach of NVMe flash drives over existing SAN fabric transport, providing a foundation for improved storage performance and enhanced use of existing SAN infrastructure.

 

NVMe provides a standards-based approach for PCIe® solid-state storage access that significantly improves performance by reducing latency and streamlining the command set, while providing support for security and end-to-end data protection.

"We are excited to announce our new FC-NVMe developers test system because of the enormous benefits to our user base," said Vince Asbridge, President of SANBlaze. "The integration of virtual NVMe targets into the SANBlaze Emulation platform will enable users to perform rapid prototyping, qualification, and performance testing of large NVMe configurations with a minimal capital investment."

NVMe over Fabrics defines an efficient mechanism to utilize NVMe devices in large-scale, shared storage deployments. It also provides investment protection by allowing the latest in innovations and advances in low latency SSD flash, to be used over proven FC fabrics. This enables the NVMe storage devices to be shared, pooled, and managed more effectively.

"Customers are modernizing their data centers with all-flash arrays (AFAs) connected to Fibre Channel networks. The next step in their storage evolution will be implementing NVMe over Fibre Channel-enabled AFAs, and the SANBlaze FC-NVMe test solution is available at a perfect time as customers prepare for the transition," said Brian Reed, vice president of marketing, Emulex Connectivity Division, Broadcom. "Emulex Gen 6 Host Bus Adapters by Broadcom are NVMe-enabled and support NVMe and SCSI networks concurrently providing a seamless transition to NVMe Fibre Channel fabric."

"The announcement of the SANBlaze FC-NVMe test solution with Cavium QLogic Fibre Channel is a significant milestone for FC-NVMe, a technology that we are driving," said Praveen Midha, Director of Marketing, Cavium QLogic. "FC-NVMe technology provides investment protection by allowing the latest in innovations and advances in low latency SSD flash, to be used over proven FC fabrics - without a rip and replace."

SANBlaze's solution is based on the specification of NVMe over Fabrics as defined by the NVM Express, Inc. organization and the draft FC-NVMe standards under definition by T11. The fully functional FC-NVMe demonstration implements NVMe on standard Cavium QLogic 32Gb FC and Emulex 32Gb FC HBA hardware and employs SANBlaze Target Emulation software with NVMe target device capabilities.