David Ard, OEM Marketing at QLogic, discussed the newly launched Oracle Sun Storage Universal HBA and the ongoing fibre-ethernet protocol debate with theCUBE co-hosts Dave Vellante and Stu Miniman, live at Oracle OpenWorld 2013.

Longtime partners QLogic and Oracle announced the new Oracle Sun Storage 16 Gb Universal HBA which according to Ard, helps companies “make an investment into a server and their storage interconnects” in this solution. “Oracle is the only OEM that supports all possibilities,” he added, replying to Miniman’s comment about the protocol wars needing to end. By simply changing the configuration options, tools, and the optics, a company can change from one protocol to another.

The biggest advantage to enterprises is that they “invest in one solution, and as their needs change,” they don’t have to rip and replace hardware to meet them, Ard explains.

Asked what drives customers to adopt the 16 Gb environment, Ard said it gave them the ability to scale their existing fibre infrastructure, without additional investments. As far as the fibre channel market is concerned, Ard said “it’s continuing to be stable at this point, we are not seeing a mass decline in fibre channel. There are still a lot of customers implementing Ethernet” as they build new data centers.

Commenting on what companies look for in QLogic, Ard explained, “when customers come to us, they want stability, a solution that provides stability long term. Oracle and QLogic have been collaborating for many years, customers want to continue to have the stability we provide, and continue to look for new ways to innovate,” without making big investments in their infrastructure.

Watch the full-interview below: