Emulex Supports Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2

COSTA MESA, Calif., Oct. 8, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Emulex Corporation (NYSE: ELX), a leader in network connectivity, monitoring and management, today announced that its I/O connectivity solutions, including its LightPulse® Gen 5 Fibre Channel (16GFC) Host Bus Adapters (HBAs) and 10Gb Ethernet (10GbE)-based solutions provided by Emulex, support the release of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Server 2012 R2. In addition, forthcoming Emulex Virtual Network eXceleration™ (VNeX) virtual network offload technology will support Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V Network Virtualization, enabling flexible workload mobility inside the data center and public or hybrid cloud, reducing network reconfiguration from days to minutes.

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"With broad I/O connectivity support for Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 users, combined with our next generation network virtualization capabilities, we provide a high performance, highly scalable solution for customers that enables the highest I/O operations per second (IOPS), low latency and improved network throughput," said Shaun Walsh, senior vice president of marketing and corporate development, Emulex. "In collaboration with Microsoft and other ecosystem partners, we're bringing forth a new generation of software defined networking (SDN) solutions that reduce the limitations of legacy data center networks, enable virtual machine (VM) mobility and reduce complexity."

Forthcoming Emulex VNeX technology simplifies network scaling by enabling IT managers to adapt or provision the network as VMs start up, shut down, or move, based on the VM's specific workload requirement, thereby shifting available resources for other workloads on the logical network. Emulex VNeX virtual network offload technology further accelerates Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V Network Virtualization by offloading Network Virtualization using Generic Routing Encapsulation (NVGRE), allowing environments to more efficiently scale to meet the needs of customers while improving network throughput and reducing CPU overhead.

In addition, Emulex I/O technology and management addresses the following virtualized data center needs: 

• Superior Gen 5 Fibre Channel Connectivity: Emulex LightPulse Gen 5 in-box driver support for Windows Server 2012 R2 increases the ability of virtualized platforms to scale cloud and virtual machine (VM) density to reduce costs, delivering more than 1.2 million I/O operations per second (IOPS) on a single port,¹ the highest level of Fibre Channel adapter performance available today, which is needed for the pervasive deployment of virtualization and data center and public cloud infrastructures. Emulex inbox 16GFC driver support, combined with Emulex LightPulse Virtual HBA technology allows cloud and virtual workloads to efficiently scale by dedicating logical resources to guest applications over a shared physical I/O and storage infrastructure.
• Support for Highly Virtualized and Shared Cloud Environments: Emulex Gen 5 FC adapters feature industry-leading performance with significantly increased IOPS and twice the data throughput of 8GFC adapters² for highly virtualized data centers; greater VM density required for shared data center and public cloud deployments; and the performance needed to match current and new Intel Xeon E5-2600 v2 servers with optimized handling of very large multi-core configurations.
• Time-Saving I/O Management: With a single driver model, the Emulex Gen 5 FC adapters can be controlled, configured and managed from a single console using Emulex OneCommand® Manager, enabling increased enterprise scalability with time-saving features that provide more than twice the adapter management functionality and take half the time to install and manage compared to other I/O solutions.²
• Backward Compatibility: For customers taking advantage of 8GFC or 10GbE connectivity within Windows Server 2012 R2, upgrading is simple, with full backward compatibility, a common driver stack and management tools across multiple generations of I/O connectivity products.

"Windows Server 2012 R2 delivers groundbreaking innovations for evolving virtualized and shared global-scale cloud environments, offering a proven, enterprise-class virtualization and cloud platform that can scale to continuously run customers' largest workloads and support increased virtual machine (VM) densities," said Rajeev Nagar, Group Program Manager, Windows, Microsoft. "Emulex adds high performance connectivity solutions for Windows Server 2012 R2 that further the transition to software-defined networking, with forthcoming VNeX virtual network offload technology, which enhances performance with improved network throughput and reduced CPU utilization."

1. Demartek Emulex LPe16000B 16Gb Fibre Channel HBA Evaluation, October 2012
2. Based on Emulex Labs benchmark testing

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About Emulex

Emulex, a leader in network connectivity, monitoring and management, provides hardware and software solutions for global networks that support enterprise, cloud, government and telecommunications. Emulex's products enable unrivaled end-to-end application visibility, optimization and acceleration. The Company's I/O connectivity offerings, including its line of ultra high-performance Ethernet and Fibre Channel-based connectivity products, have been designed into server and storage solutions from leading OEMs, including Cisco, Dell, EMC, Fujitsu, Hitachi, HP, Huawei, IBM, NetApp and Oracle, and can be found in the data centers of nearly all of the Fortune 1000. Emulex's monitoring and management solutions, including its portfolio of network visibility and recording products, provide organizations with complete network performance management at speeds up to 100Gb Ethernet. Emulex is headquartered in Costa Mesa, Calif., and has offices and research facilities in North America, Asia and Europe. For more information about Emulex (NYSE: ELX) please visit http://www.Emulex.com.

"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, contain forward-looking statements that involve risk and uncertainties. We expressly disclaim any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or changes to these forward-looking statements that may be made to reflect any future events or circumstances. We wish to caution readers that a number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. These factors include the possibility that we may not realize the anticipated benefits from the acquisition of Endace on a timely basis or at all, and may be unable to integrate the technology, operations and personnel of Endace into our existing operations in a timely and efficient manner.  In addition, intellectual property claims, with or without merit, that could result in costly litigation, cause product shipment delays, require us to indemnify customers, or require us to enter into royalty or licensing agreements, which may or may not be available. Furthermore, we have in the past obtained, and may be required in the future to obtain, licenses of technology owned by other parties. We cannot be certain that the necessary licenses will be available or that they can be obtained on commercially reasonable terms. If we were to fail to obtain such royalty or licensing agreements in a timely manner and on reasonable terms, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be materially adversely affected. Ongoing lawsuits, such as the action brought by Broadcom Corporation (Broadcom), present inherent risks, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, or results of operations. Such potential risks include continuing expenses of litigation, loss of patent rights, monetary damages, injunctions against the sale of products incorporating the technology in question, counterclaims, attorneys' fees, incremental costs associated with product or component redesigns, liabilities to customers under reimbursement agreements or contractual indemnification provisions, and diversion of management's attention from other business matters. With respect to the continuing Broadcom litigation, such potential risks also include the adequacy of any sunset period to make design changes, the ability to implement any design changes, the availability of customer resources to complete any re-qualification or re-testing that may be needed, the ability to maintain favorable working relationships with Emulex suppliers of serializer/deserializer (SerDes) modules, and the ability to obtain a settlement which does not put us at a competitive disadvantage. In addition, the fact that the economy generally, and the technology and storage market segments specifically, have been in a state of uncertainty makes it difficult to determine if past experience is a good guide to the future and makes it impossible to determine if markets will grow or shrink in the short term. Continued weakness in domestic and worldwide macro-economic conditions, related disruptions in world credit and equity markets, and the resulting economic uncertainty for our customers, as well as the storage and converged networking market as a whole, has and could continue to adversely affect our revenues and results of operations. As a result of these uncertainties, we are unable to predict our future results with any accuracy. Other factors affecting these forward-looking statements include but are not limited to the following: faster than anticipated declines in the storage networking market, slower than expected growth of the converged networking market or the failure of our Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) customers to successfully incorporate our products into their systems; our dependence on a limited number of customers and the effects of the loss of, decrease in or delays of orders by any such customers, or the failure of such customers to make timely payments; the emergence of new or stronger competitors as a result of consolidation movements in the market; the timing and market acceptance of our products or our OEM customers' new or enhanced products; costs associated with entry into new areas of the network, server and storage technology markets; the variability in the level of our backlog and the variable and seasonal procurement patterns of our customers; any inadequacy of our intellectual property protection and the costs of actual or potential third-party claims of infringement and any related indemnity obligations or adverse judgments; the effect of any actual or potential unsolicited offers to acquire us; proxy contests or the activities of activist investors; impairment charges, including but not limited to goodwill and intangible assets; changes in tax rates or legislation; the effects of acquisitions; the effects of terrorist activities, natural disasters, and any resulting disruption in our supply chain or customer purchasing patterns or any other resulting economic or political instability; the highly competitive nature of the markets for our products as well as pricing pressures that may result from such competitive conditions; the effects of changes in our business model to separately charge for software; the effect of rapid migration of customers towards newer, lower cost product platforms; transitions from board or box level to application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) solutions for selected applications; a shift in unit product mix from higher-end to lower-end or mezzanine card products; a faster than anticipated decrease in the average unit selling prices or an increase in the manufactured cost of our products; delays in product development; our reliance on third-party suppliers and subcontractors for components and assembly; our ability to attract and retain key technical personnel; our ability to benefit from our research and development activities; our dependence on international sales and internationally produced products; changes in accounting standards; and any resulting regulatory changes on our business. These and other factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements and are discussed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our recent filings on Forms 10-K and 10-Q, under the caption "Risk Factors."

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SOURCE Emulex Corporation