Lenovo Flex System FC5022 Product Manual page 5

Up to 20-40% fewer servers required to support the workload specified
Twice lower number and higher speed of inter-switch links required in scalable SANs
Higher reliability and availability of services due to fewer number of components used to build
the solution
Twice faster access to the business critical data
Lower acquisition costs due to fewer number of systems and components
Shorten ROI time frame and decrease overall TCO with the efficient utilization of server
resources and lower power, cooling, and management costs
See Lenovo Press paper "Positioning Flex System 16 Gb Fibre Channel Fabric for Storage-Intensive
Enterprise Workloads" for details:
http://lenovopress.com/redp4921
Superior scalability for internal and external ports that reduces costs and increases availability
The FC5022 16 Gb switch is the only switch that provides up to 28 internal server facing FC ports,
which allows the Flex System chassis to scale to 28 compute nodes in a single chassis (when using
double density half-width compute nodes) that lowers the overall per-server cost of the solution.
These 28 internal ports also enable greater path redundancy for ITEs using the 4-port FC mezzanine
adapters. Additionally, the FC5022 offers an industry leading 20 external SFP+ ports that allows for
multi-chassis scalability up to 18 chassis without the use of external FC switches, thereby greatly
reducing the overall cost of the Flex Solution.
Accelerating fabric deployment and serviceability with Brocade ClearLink and Fabric Vision
Brocade ClearLink is a feature supported by the FC5022 16 Gb Switch that enables administrators to
quickly identify and isolate 16 Gbps optic, port, and cable problems, reducing fabric deployment and
diagnostic times. Brocade Fabric Vision Technology offers innovative diagnostic, monitoring, and
management capabilities to help administrators avoid problems, maximize application performance,
and reduce operational costs.
A building block for virtualized, private cloud storage
The FC5022 16 Gb Switch supports multi-tenancy in cloud environments through VM-aware end-to-
end visibility and monitoring, Quality of Service (QoS), and fabric-based advanced zoning features.
The FC5022 enables secure long distance extensions to virtual private or hybrid clouds with dark
fiber support, as well as in-flight encryption and data compression.
Seamless integration with the existing Brocade fabric in Full Fabric mode
The FC5022 switch in Full Fabric mode provides native support for the advanced fabric features of
the Brocade SAN fabric.
Simplified interconnect to existing SAN environments with Brocade Access gateway (NPIV)
operational mode
All models of the FC5022 16 Gb Switch can be deployed as an Access Gateway, which simplifies
fabric topologies and heterogeneous fabric connectivity. Access Gateway mode utilizes N_Port ID
Virtualization (NPIV) switch standards to present physical and virtual servers directly to the core of
SAN fabrics. This makes it transparent to the SAN fabric, greatly reducing management of the
network edge. The FC5022 Scalable Switch in Access Gateway mode can connect servers to NPIV-
enabled SAN fabrics, including Brocade or Cisco SAN fabrics.
Maximizing investments
To help optimize technology investments, Lenovo offers a single point of serviceability backed by
industry-renowned education, support, and training. In addition, the Lenovo 16/8 Gbps SAN Scalable
Switch is in the ServerProven® program, ensuring compatibility among a variety of Lenovo and
partner products.
Lenovo Flex System FC5022 16Gb SAN Scalable Switches 5