Broadcom recently introduced Emulex Secure Fibre Channel HBA, which hardware encrypt traffic between servers and storage with minimal impact on performance.
Emulex Secure HBAs are a cost-effective, easy-to-manage solution that encrypts all data in flight (EDIF), protecting it as it moves between databases, applications, servers, and storage.
Emulex Secure HBA integrates post-quantum cryptography (PQC) algorithms, ensuring reliable data protection even in the face of threats from quantum computing and AI that threaten traditional encryption methods. And it must be said that these threats are quite real in the next few years – Gartner writes that by 2029, the development of quantum computing will lead to the fact that traditional data protection algorithms will become unreliable.
Secure HBA are the most advanced solutions of 2025, providing a high level of security, performance and manageability for critical infrastructures. In the face of increasing cyber threats, traditional data protection methods, such as the use of NGFW/WAF firewalls, are becoming insufficient, and software encryption creates an additional burden. The combination of artificial intelligence and quantum computing increases the risk of data compromise if it is not encrypted at all stages of processing, including transmission over the storage network.
Safety
Broadcom’s session-based key management solution, designed to the new ANSI/INCITS FC-SP-3 standard, eliminates the need for complex and expensive key management software. Compared to other encryption methods, such as application-level encryption, Emulex Secure HBA can encrypt entire applications at a lower cost and without impacting storage services such as compression, deduplication, and ransomware detection.
Emulex Secure HBA adapter provides a cost-effective and easy-to-manage solution that provides end-to-end encryption data in-flight (EDIF) as it moves between databases, applications, servers, and storage systems.
Emulex Secure HBAs integrate post-quantum cryptography (PQC) algorithms to ensure encrypted data remains secure even as quantum computers and AI codebreakers advance and threaten traditional encryption methods.
Simple and efficient key management system
- Uses session-based key management based on the new ANSI/INCITS FC-SP-3 standard.
- No need for complex and expensive key management software.
Advantages over other encryption methods
- Encrypts data for absolutely all applications (as opposed to software encryption at the application level).
- Provides lower costs without sacrificing performance.
- Does not affect key storage system functions such as:
- Data compression
- Deduplication
- Ransomware detection
In the context of modern data security requirements, including regulations such as CNSA 2.0, DORA and NIS 2, Emulex Secure HBA offers a reliable and efficient security solution that complies with the principles of Zero Trust and provides quantum-resistant security.
Performance
With hardware acceleration of cryptographic functions, Emulex Secure HBAs provide encryption without reducing overall system performance. The adapters support high throughput and low latency, which is especially important for modern applications that require fast data access. They support both NVMe over FC and SCSI FC simultaneously, providing flexibility and compatibility with various enterprise storage systems.
The Emulex Dynamic Multi-core architecture provides high performance and maximum port utilization with 8 fully redundant compute cores and 16 threads that dynamically distribute ASIC resources between ports depending on their load, ensuring service level agreements (SLAs) are met.
Compared to Gen 6 HBAs, Gen 7 Emulex HBAs support 64GFC, providing up to 2x greater throughput.
Emulex Gen 7 HBA Performance:
- Delivers 12,800 MB/s (two 32GFC ports) or 25,600 MB/s (two 64GFC ports) in full duplex mode.
- Delivers 3x lower hardware latency than previous generations.
- 64GFC LPe38100-series adapters deliver over 10 million IOPS (!), one of the best in the industry.
Model Variations and Backward Compatibility:
- LPe38100-series are available in single or dual 64GFC fiber interface configurations, and are backward compatible with 32GFC and 16GFC networks.
- The LPe37100-series is available in single or dual 32GFC optics configurations, and is backward compatible with 16GFC and 8GFC networks.
- The LPe37100-series is upgradeable to 64GFC using Broadcom-qualified optics.
Here is the LPe38102 64GFC adapter benchmark result with hardware encryption enabled versus database-level software encryption performance, as reported by StorageReview:
Manageability and Deployment with Emulex SAN Manager
Emulex Secure HBAs integrate easily into your existing FC SAN infrastructure without the need to upgrade it. To simplify network management and monitoring, the optional Emulex SAN Manager software provides:
- Visualization of network congestions with a dashboard that displays throughput and congestion graphs.
- Automatic congestion avoidance with the adaptive management feature.
- Comprehensive visibility into HBAs on the network, including hostnames, operating system versions, software, and firmware.
- Transceiver health monitoring to detect optics degradation.
- A multipath configuration validation tool to identify configuration errors.
- Network-wide visibility into encryption capabilities and policies, as well as detailed information about encrypted connections and post-quantum cryptography usage at the port level.
Emulex SAN Manager is the industry’s first solution that automatically identifies, minimizes, and resolves application performance issues caused by SAN congestion using FPIN-CN technology.
Operational Efficiency
Emulex Gen 7 HBAs deliver improved reliability, availability, and serviceability (RAS), including port isolation and port-level fault isolation, allowing users to quickly identify, isolate, and resolve faults.
Intelligent SAN Management
Emulex HBAs fully support industry standards, complementing Broadcom Autonomous SAN technology. These technologies enable the storage network to self-learn, self-optimize, and self-heal, ensuring maximum SAN performance and preventing downtime.
Support for new Fabric Performance Impact Notifications (FPINs) standards:
- FPIN-LI (Link Integrity Notification) – notification of connection integrity.
- FPIN-CN (Congestion Notification) – notification of network congestion.
- FPIN-PN (Peer Congestion Notification) – notification of congestion from adjacent devices.
- FPIN-DN (Delivery Notification) – notification of data delivery problems.
Ease of management and reduced operational costs
- Firmware updates without rebooting the server – changes in queue depth or replacement of optics are performed without system downtime.
- Hot-Plug of optical modules – optics can be replaced without turning off the server, ensuring continuous operation.
- Centralized management of HBA adapters – the Emulex HBA Manager application supports management of both current and previous generations of Emulex FC HBA.
Diagnostics and Troubleshooting
The Emulex HBA Capture tool collects system, adapter, and driver information into a single compressed file that can be sent to Broadcom Technical Support for diagnostics and troubleshooting.
Deep Integration with Brocade Fabric Vision
Emulex HBAs support all key Brocade Fabric Vision features, enabling seamless integration of servers with SAN switches.
Supported functions:
- ClearLink (D_Port) – diagnostics of optical connection quality.
- Link Cable Beaconing – indication of active cables.
- Host Name Registration – automatic host name registration.
- Read Diagnostic Parameters – analysis of diagnostic parameters.
- Support for VMID tags to ensure visibility of virtual machine traffic.
- BB Credit Recovery – technology for preventing problems associated with frame loss.
- FC Trace Route and FC Ping – diagnostics of network connections.
- REST API – automation of SAN network management.
Conclusion
In the context of modern cyber threats and increasing demands for data security, Emulex Secure Fibre Channel HBA from Broadcom is an advanced solution that provides reliable protection of information during its transfer between servers and storage systems. The integration of post-quantum cryptography algorithms and support for the ANSI/INCITS FC-SP-3 standard ensure the safety of data even in the era of quantum computing and artificial intelligence. With hardware acceleration of cryptographic functions, these adapters provide high performance without compromising storage-related services such as compression and deduplication. Ease of management via Emulex SAN Manager and compliance with modern security standards make Emulex Secure HBA the optimal choice for mission-critical infrastructures that require maximum protection and efficiency.
