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January 21, 2020

HPE Reseller Relies on Marvell FastLinQ & QLogic for I/O Connectivity

By Graham Forrest, Server and Storage Practice Lead, Enterprise Group

gforrest@dtpgroup.co.uk
DTP Group, Leeds UK

Being a trusted advisor to our customers means making sure what we recommend, configure and install works as expected. That’s why here at DTP, we recommend Marvell® QLogic® Fibre Channel and Marvell FastLinQ® Ethernet I/O for all our server and storage connectivity solutions.

The DTP Group has over 30 years of experience in delivering technology and solutions to our customers. We only recommend HPE for server, storage and networking solutions because we know the technology, get great support from the HPE organization and trust the HPE brand. Within the HPE portfolio, there are technology choices that need to be considered, especially when it comes to I/O connectivity. HPE makes a variety Ethernet and Fibre Channel connectivity options available that they source from several different manufacturers. After evaluating all of them, the DTP PreSales and Technical teams have chosen to standardize on 10/25/50GbE based on Marvell FastLinQ technology and on 16GFC and 32GFC based on Marvell QLogic technology.

We find that Marvell’s advanced features help us future-proof our customers to ensure the products they are buying today have the connectivity features needed for deploying next-generation NVMe-enabled storage, hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) and software-defined storage solutions. Features like dual-port isolation in QLogic Fibre Channel HBAs from Marvell ensure predictable and reliable SAN performance. Marvell FastLinQ Ethernet technology for HPE includes features like storage offload for iSCSI and universal RDMA, with support for both RoCE and iWARP protocols, ensures maximum flexibility in the Nimble storage and HCI solutions that we design and deliver to our customers.

The choice of I/O technology goes well beyond the feature set and the speeds and feeds on the data sheets or marketing literature.  We find that not only does Marvell technology “just work” in all the mainstream enterprise operating system environments and applications, but should we have a problem (which isn’t very often), the Marvell team supporting HPE partners like us are readily available to help. The HPE team at Marvell engages with us in the field and at all the major technology events. Having solid relationships and knowing that when you email or call with a question or issue, you will get a quick response, this is very important in the world of solution providers. Marvell clearly understands this and their HPE-focused team makes themselves readily available to help us and even helps us get things escalated within HPE when required.

In addition, Marvell goes above and beyond what other technology providers make available in the way of education and training. Their Follow the Wire program is a best-in-class platform for providing up-to-date information, training and educational resources. Marvell’s program provides incentives for our team to stay current, access the latest collateral, view on-demand videos, and attend live webinars and webinar replays. This keeps information about new and emerging features readily available at your fingertips.

Bottom line is, at The DTP Group, we rely on more than what you can find on the data sheet or in a line card when we make our decisions on what technology to recommend and who to partner with. This enables us to be more prepared, understand the technology better and ultimately deliver better solutions, service and support for our customers. That’s why we continue to work closely with Marvell. If you are having challenges getting questions answered, getting trained and educated or getting support in general from your I/O technology partners, you might consider Marvell as well.

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