Network equipment supplier QLogic is aiming for a comeback with its 16Gb FC “Gen 5” adapters, the first product family to support simultaneous multi-protocol traffic in Xeon E5-2600/1600 v2 environments. Citing independent research, the company reported on Monday that its share of the Fibre Channel market increased by 12 percent in the third quarter for a total of 54 percent.

The Dell’Oro Group’s newly published Q3 2013 SAN Report and the Crehan Research Q3 2013 Quarterly Market Share Report both concluded that QLogic increased its lead over the nearest competitor (Emulex) by more than five points, boosting its edge to more than 15.4 percent. The company credits much of this growth to the success of its FlexSuite 2600 Series Gen 5 devices, which aim to address the scalability and availability requirements of mission-critical workloads.

“In addition to being the market leader in Fibre Channel host bus adapters (initiator side), QLogic chips are used to deliver 16Gb FC for most storage arrays (target side),” says Wikibon Senior Analyst Stu Miniman. “FC usage remains high in enterprise environments; and with the ability to support both FC and Ethernet from the same product, QLogic has a strong position for SANs no matter which protocol customers choose to deploy.”

Speaking on theCUBE at the recently concluded Oracle OpenWorld 2013 conference, QLogic OEM marketing boss David Ard told us that his company is taking a protocol-agnostic approach to ending the great Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) interconnection debate. QLogic is offering a flexible host bus adapter (HBA) that lets customers switch from one protocol to another without spending an arm and a leg on infrastructure replacements.

The Oracle Sun Storage 16Gb Universal HBA is designed to “enhance the Oracle RAC environment” and give customers the “ability to meet the growing demands of their business and continuing to keep up with the data needs they have in that environment,” according to Ard.

To hear the full interview from Oracle OpenWorld 2013, check out the video below.