HP ProLiant Blade Interconnects

HP BladeSystem Interconnects

The HP line of BladeSystem c-Class blade interconnects provides enterprise IT customers with a wide range of options for connecting HP ProLiant blade servers within HP c-class blade enclosure to external storage and networks. These options include support for familiar standards including Fibre Channel (FC), Ethernet, virtual environments, Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) and InfiniBand. And even within these standards of communication, the options expand through the many different blade interconnect models available. Many of the standards of communication used for blade interconnects, such as Fibre Channel or Ethernet, can be indicative of whether it is a storage or a network interconnect. For instance, FC and SAS interconnects are typically used for storage networking purposes, whereas Ethernet interconnects are most often used for connecting to outside networks. While this makes the separation of storage and networking seem very cut and dry, other types of communication such as virtual interconnects frequently are used for both storage and networking purposes.                

So while the primary function of HP BladeSystem c-Class blade interconnects is simple and easy to explain – they plug into the back of blade enclosures and connect the blade servers within those blade enclosures to the desired outside storage or network – the explanation of the communication types and various technologies involved is not quite so easy. For instance, HP’s new Virtual Connect Flex-10 technology is still very new and a bit foreign yet, but offers some great advantages, one of the best being cost savings by allowing your datacenter’s network hardware to be reduced by 75%. This technology isn’t offered in any of the HP blade interconnects, but is available through the HP Virtual Connect Flex-10 10Gb Ethernet modules. Not only does HP incorporate this technology, but they also incorporate Infiniband technology - a switched fabric communications link. HP blade interconnects featuring Infiniband technology offer exceptionally low latency and high throughput, making them ideal for high-performance computing applications and enterprise data centers.