COSTA MESA, Calif., Oct. 15, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Emulex Corporation (NYSE:ELX) today announced it has signed a technology agreement with Nuova Systems to utilize Nuova technology in the development of a family of Emulex Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) products. Emulex products are currently undergoing development testing and the Company will begin delivering samples to OEMs for qualification in the first half of 2008, followed by production shipments in the second half of 2008.
"The decision to partner with Nuova to bring Emulex's FCoE products to market was based on their unique technology, systems approach and long term vision," said Ameesh Divatia, general manager and senior vice president, Intelligent Network Products, Emulex Corp. "Our goal is to provide a seamless migration path to FCoE, which enables end users to preserve and leverage the substantial investments they have made in Fibre Channel technology and SAN management tools."
Designed to natively transport Fibre Channel traffic over the Ethernet network, FCoE will take advantage of the proposed enhancements to 10Gb/s Ethernet. The proposed enhancements to 10Gb/s Ethernet will provide the level of performance and reliable delivery of data required for enterprise storage environments. Further, FCoE enables fabric convergence within the data center by allowing IT managers to utilize common network technology for both storage and data networks, and paves the way for a single network sharing both data types.
"Working with Emulex and our ecosystem of partners, we expect FCoE to provide customers with a compelling next generation solution that fits within their existing SAN environments and preserves their current data center investment," said Soni Jiandani, chief marketing officer, Nuova Systems. "The collaboration with Emulex is helping drive the emergence of FCoE and our development efforts will result in a seamless migration path for customers leveraging both Ethernet and Fibre Channel technologies within the data center."
"The new FCoE standard is emerging as a formidable technology option for companies looking to protect and extend their existing SAN infrastructure investments," said Arun Taneja, founder and consulting analyst, Taneja Group. "This collaboration between Nuova and Emulex will help facilitate the adoption of FCoE and provide users with the flexibility they need to seamlessly transition to next-generation 10Gb/s Ethernet in the future."
The two companies are also demonstrating FCoE technology within the FCIA booth at this week's Storage Networking World in Dallas, Texas, Booth P+1.
About FCoE
FCoE is designed to provide an efficient storage protocol for use on a Consolidated Ethernet Fabric within the data center. The end user benefits associated with FCoE include consolidated management and connectivity, which will lower operating costs and protect customers' existing Fibre Channel infrastructure investments. The FCoE standards proposal is being driven by the ANSI T11 Committee and includes a group of leading IT vendors, including Emulex and Nuova Systems. The T11 Committee recently agreed to double the rate of its technical meetings to ratify the FCoE standard more quickly and specification completion is expected next year. The Committee is making progress with the recent vendor agreement on the FCoE "frame-format" which marks a significant milestone in the definition of the standard. For more information on Emulex, visit www.emulex.com. For more information on Nuova Systems, visit www.nuovasystems.com.
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.
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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.