HP enhances its FlexNetwork architecture that increases the performance of virtualized and cloud environments while simplifying network complexity and management. 

Organizations with a proprietary multi-tier network infrastructure create lock in that drives up cost and management complexity. As a result, implementing new applications and services is difficult and slow, reducing overall productivity. 

To increase delivery of applications and services through virtualization, HP has enhanced server connectivity, switching, management, security and services under the HP FlexNetwork architecture, its unified networking approach across the data center, campus and branch. 

HP FlexNetwork, also part of HP VirtualSystem, today announced it delivers better performance by flattening the network architecture from 3-tiers to 2 or 1-tier. As a result, HP FlexNetwork solutions increase throughput and lower network latency while eliminating up to 50 percent of the cost and 85 percent of the complexity than legacy 3-tier architectures.

Virtualization drives significant changes in data center traffic patterns. According to Gartner research, by 2014, network planners should expect more than 80 percent of traffic in the data center’s local-area network (LAN) to be between servers. However, to improve business agility, enterprises rely on virtual machine mobility, which can burst data rates up to 9 gigabits per second and significantly slow data transfer between servers.

Based on the HP FlexNetwork architecture, HP FlexFabric solutions for data centers include HP Virtual Connect, as well as HP 5800 and 12500 series switches. These solutions eliminate unnecessary network layers and costly bottlenecks with a 1-tier network fabric that provides wire-once direct connections to thousands of virtual, physical and storage components, providing clients:

Improved virtual machine (VM) performance,  In fact a new report by Network Test demonstrates HP FlexFabric solutions accelerate VM mobility, such as VMware vMotion, by up to 40 percent while doubling throughput and reducing network recovery time by more than 500 times.

Increased application performance with the new HP 5830 top-of-rack switch series which delivers high-density server access connectivity, as well as flexible application and storage deployment, powered by the HP Intelligent Resilient Framework (IRF).