Networking gear maker QLogic announced a reseller agreement with Fujitsu today that puts its 8200 Series 10GbE converged networking adapters into the latter’s ETERNUS storage systems. QLogic thinks very highly of its embedded target controller, and here some of the reasons why.

The company says the fact its 3GCNA products are all one-chip-based means they’re easily programmable, so it’s easier for OEMs to integrate into their offerings. It also features some other more notable capabilities, mainly the patented FlexOffload protocol that takes packet processing off the storage to-do list.

Another feature that the 8200 Series makes use of is something called ConvergeFlex, which enables concurrent multi-protocol processing. FCoE, TCP/IP and iSCSI are supported.

“QLogic is a trusted name in data and storage networking infrastructure and since the inception of iSCSI it has been a leader in hardware offload for this widely adopted protocol,” said Yasuhiro Arikawa, senior vice president, Storage Systems Unit, Fujitsu Limited.

“QLogic 3GCNA technology addresses the demands of today’s virtualized data centers and cloud computing environments which demand 10GbE bandwidth. The 8200 Series allows us to deliver highly scalable, highly flexible ETERNUS storage systems that significantly improve performance while greatly simplifying management and reducing TCO.”

The 8200 Series line in particular seems to be very popular lately among manufacturers. Before Fujitsu there was Dell, which certified the product to run along its Force10 S-Series S4810 10/40 GbE switches last month. These adapters are also used in the company’s latest PowerEdge servers, while 8Gb Fibre Channel switches from the same networking provider are used to power Hewlett-Packard’s rivaling Generation 8 servers.

“Ethernet continues to grow in importance to storage customers with the adoption of 10Gb Ethernet solutions,” says Wikibon Sr Analyst Stu Miniman. “Design wins and brand recognition drive will determine the winners for the interconnect vendors. QLogic led the pack in designing embedded solutions for the storage market and this announcement bolsters its position in the iSCSI marketplace.”

Both systems are expected to gain a lot of traction (although Gen8 is clearly on the lead in some areas, and not exclusively the hyper department), which means two very good partnerships for QLogic.