Moore's law has usually been used to predict general trends in semiconductors.  While not exactly a perfect analogy, we have seen trends in interconnect bandwidth increase.  Ethernet has seen bandwidth increase ten-fold every few years, with the latest transition to 10Gb.  Usually these transitions take a while because the costs to transition are high, and the transition to 10Gb has followed that trajectory - until now.

Yesterday we announced an exciting new technology: Virtual Connect Flex-10.  We've figured out a way to deliver 10Gb Ethernet technology at a price lower than what many people are spending on 1Gb technology today.  As a result we can help customers get onto 10Gb technology sooner than they otherwise could have done before.

We've noticed that many customers are buying four or more NICs for their servers, sometimes due to bandwidth constraints, other times due to network segmentation or security constraints, and usually for redundancy.  As a result, customers spend an awful lot on a bunch of 1Gb networks.  We figured out that we could help customers by providing a 10Gb network connection that can be divided into up to four connections, replacing the need for up to four NICs.  By doing this we conquer the high price for 10Gb Ethernet connectivity by delivering up to 8 network connections at costs that are less than what many customers pay for four 1Gb connections. At the same time they can allocate more bandwidth for one or more links or maintain the multiple connections they want for security reasons, or do a combination of both.  And to top it all off, Virtual Connect takes less space and power too.  We think this is very cool.

Bottom line: more bandwidth, more flexibility, less costs and less power.  More of what you want and less of what you don't want.  We think this is a good combination.  This is why we believe the quickest, most affordable way to move to 10Gb is Virtual Connect Flex-10, and the time to do it is now.