The new generation of IBM System x® and BladeCenter® interconnects can help you lower costs and improve service with unmatched investment protection.

Modern data centers face a range of significant challenges:

• Budget, power and space constraints
• Demands to do more with less
• Investment protection requirements

New generation System x servers deliver the performance and efficiency you demand. New generation interconnect products in the Ethernet, Fibre Channel and FCoE (Fibre Channel over Ethernet) portfolio are designed to complement these servers with flexible, high-performance networking capabilities.

Virtual Fabric for IBM BladeCenter 
IBM's BladeCenter Open Fabric portfolio offers a variety of high performance interconnects from IBM and IBM Business Partners. These offerings support open standards and industry interoperability across multiple I/O fabrics, including Ethernet, Fibre Channel, SAS, InfiniBand and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE). Today, IBM is extending the value of this portfolio by introducing the new generation fabric for data centers – Virtual Fabric for IBM BladeCenter. This new and innovative fabric is a flexible, easy, fast and reliable I/O solution that helps reduce cost and complexity in both virtualized and non-virtualized environments by allowing you to allocate bandwidth based on your application needs. A single adapter and switch combination can be Ethernet, FCoE, or even iSCSI, operating at any speed from 100Mb to 10Gb. And you can quadruple the number of adapters by server, while at the same time reducing switch modules by up to 75%.

• Learn more about Virtual Fabric for IBM BladeCenter

BladeCenter Open Fabric Manager for BladeCenter S 
With BladeCenter Open Fabric Manager for BladeCenter S, IBM extends the benefits of I/O virtualization and simplified blade deployment for retail and distributed environments. IBM BladeCenter Open Fabric Manager software is designed to help you easily manage I/O and network interconnects by virtualizing network parameters such as the World Wide Name (WWN) and Media Access Control (MAC) addresses. With Open Fabric Manager, when you replace a blade or failover from one blade in a chassis to another blade in a different chassis, the LAN and SAN configurations update automatically. Once installed, the utility is resident in the built-in Advanced Management Module (AMM) so you can pre-configure LAN and SAN connections. I/O connections are made automatically when you plug in a blade.

• Learn more about BladeCenter Open Fabric Manager

Converged networking
Server virtualization and SAN consolidation promise savings, but connecting every server to centralized storage offers significant budget challenges. Converged networking through Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) is designed to simplify access to storage while lowering costs. FCoE uses the two most ubiquitous fabrics (Ethernet and Fibre Channel), leveraging the existing infrastructure in your data center.

The first new generation FCoE offerings from IBM are based on open industry standards and work with several BladeCenter systems including the latest HS22. For BladeCenter systems, you can use a Qlogic converged network adapter and connect to an FCoE-capable switch via the 10Gb pass-thru module for BladeCenter. For a rack-based solution, IBM has partnered with Qlogic and Brocade to offer PCIe-based converged adapters.

Both solutions have been tested to interoperate with IBM Top of Rack FCoE switches.

• Learn more about BladeCenter I/O convergence products
• Learn more about System x convergence products

New generation 'Convergence Ready' 10Gb Switch modules
Making the right choice of next generation storage fabric for the datacenter is important and challenging. You have budget constraints, and you also need to future-proof your data center infrastructure. You may currently rely on 1Gb equipment, but you may be looking toward 10Gb.

• The BNT Virtual Fabric 10Gb Switch Module for IBM BladeCenter not only offers enough ports to meet bandwidth requirements, but is designed to seamlessly integrate with existing infrastructure. And the switch is also convergence ready. You have the option to upgrade to FCoE and connect to a FCoE capable switch for even greater savings by converging LAN and SAN traffic on a single device.
• The Cisco Nexus 4001I Switch Module for IBM BladeCenter is the first end-to-end 10Gb Cisco switch for IBM BladeCenter. This module works at both 1Gb and 10Gb speeds, offering a high-performance, low-latency solution that seamlessly integrates with other Cisco Nexus family products. In addition, the optional upgrade license key enables easy transition to FCoE.

IBM delivers new generation storage products
IBM offers end–to-end 8Gb Fibre Channel solutions across all BladeCenter chassis from vendors like Brocade, Qlogic and Emulex. 8Gb Fibre Channel can help you do more with less. For example, you can support the same number of Exchange users with 68% less hardware over 4Gb.

• Learn more about the Fibre Channel products

New high-speed SSD PCIe adapters for performance-critical storage applications
As server performance continues to increase, the limitations of aging storage architectures become evident. IBM offers next–generation solid state storage today with the new solid state PCIe adapters. Designed around revolutionary silicon-based storage architecture, the High IOPS SSD PCIe Adapter offers performance comparable to DRAM and storage capacity on par with today's hard disks – giving you the power to improve both capacity and performance.

• Learn more about IBM High IOPS SSD PCIe Adapter