HP Storage Works 81Q PCI-e Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapter brings datacenter infrastructure components to a higher level of performance & efficiency. The HP Storage Works 81Q PCI-e FC Host Bus Adapter is priced only slightly higher than an equivalent 4 Gb HBA, yet, it has the ability to deliver twice the I/O performance. In addition, an 8 Gb FC HBA purchased today will protect your investment longer than if you were to purchase an equivalent 4 Gb HBA. If you are using storage intensive applications, such as rich media, the increased performance of the 8 Gb infrastructure means that you can store & retrieve critical information faster. The virtualization of servers has become an important capability for most datacenters. The ability to improve overall server utilization, resulting in significant cost savings, has made server virtualization a "must-have" for most enterprises. By having an HBA that supports & maximizes your server virtualization efforts, you are protecting your significant investments in virtualization technology. Since most of todays datacenters are required to be available 24 X 7, it is critical that infrastructure components have failover capabilities. By installing redundant HBAs into your servers, you can feel confident that your servers will remain connected to mission-critical stored data. Finally, todays enterprises are becoming more & more sensitive to the power consumption within the datacenter. The 81Q PCI-e FC Host Bus Adapter provides a number of features that work together to reduce power consumption, thus delivering a "green" benefit within the server.