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HP Virtual Connect TCO

Delivers unique cost advantages.

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Virtual Connect Total Cost of Ownership


The Virtual Connect (VC) architecture, with Virtual Connect Flex-10 technology, delivers unique cost advantages over pass-through modules and switches without the usual compromises of too many cables, too many switches, too many expensive uplink ports and too many people to make simple changes to server connections. Here is a quick list of TCO benefits:

• Consolidates networks—reduce NICs, switches and cables

• Simplify server connections—cleanly separate server management from local area network (LAN) and storage area network (SAN) management with industry-standard protocols

• Change servers in minutes, not days—add, replace and recover servers without impacting LAN or SAN

• Fine-tune network bandwidth at the server edge and adapt to changing workload demands on the-fly. Provisioned storage resource can be associated directly to a specific virtual machine; even if the virtual server is re-allocated within the BladeSystem.

Virtual Connect drives down the TCO. Here’s how:


• With our new Virtual Connect Flex-10 technology we can quadruple the number of connections per server without adding NICs, switches and cables thereby reducing connection costs up to 66 percent

• Overall, Virtual Connect Ethernet and Fibre Channel modules consolidate cables and expensive aggregation switch ports up to 94 percent and reduce ongoing cable-related maintenance

• Reduces the number of expensive data center switch ports needed

• Avoids limit to Fibre Channel fabric size

• Lowers operational costs across multiple data center teams


Lower TCO even more with our new Virtual Connect Flex-10 technology


A standard VMware implementation requires 6 NICs and 2 Fibre Channel ports per server. With conventional networking gear, this gets very expensive very fast. For a regular blade server this means adding 2 NIC cards, plus one Fibre Channel HBA card (by the way, many blade servers can’t support this amount of expansion). Next add in the switches. For each NIC, one needs a switch. For a 6 NIC and 2 Fibre Channel port configuration a total of 6 LAN switches are needed as are also 2 Fibre Channel switches. Now add in the cables and uplink ports required and you are talking about some serious cost. With HP Virtual Connect Flex-10 you can have up to 8 FlexNIC ports without adding any NIC cards. And you can connect the FlexNICs to your data center network with only 2 Virtual Connect Flex-10 Ethernet Modules vs. 6 LAN switches. You still need the Fibre Channel HBA card and associated Virtual Connect Fibre Channel module. But with the expansion port and bay savings with Virtual Connect Flex-10, there is plenty of room for your Fibre Channel needs. Saving money and having expansion room – what could be better?

Combined NIC and I/O module costs plus included cables and switch ports


4 NICs 6 NICs 8 NICs
Pass-thru (1:1) $50,700 $79,578 $107,480
Cisco 3120G (1:1) $53,904 $84,384 $113,888
Cisco 3120X (1:10) $75,892 $117,366 $157.864
Virtual Connect With Flex-10 $52,790 $52,790 $52,790

Cable costs include: cable, installation and associated SFP module. NIC pricing includes: HP Dual-Port NC360m, HP Quad-Port NC364m, HP Dual-Port NC532m 10 GbE Flex-10 NIC Your mileage may vary.

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