Two blade switches have been extremely popular as networking blades for use in the M1000e, selling tens of thousands of units: the Dell Networking MXL and the Dell PowerEdge M IO Aggregator. Both blade switches have become popular due to the exceptional bandwidth (40 GbE), and flexibility (modular approach with SFP+, QSFP+, and 10G BaseT modules), along with full DCB support allowing for networking convergence right from the M1000e chassis. The high performance and flexibility along with networking convergence abilities has made this switch a must have for literally thousands of M1000e deployments. These switches are leaders in the 10GbE/40GbE networking blade market and customers repeatedly confirm this. 
Announcing as of Tuesday (January 21), another excellent module is being introduced to the market that is taking these blades to new heights – introducing the Fibre Channel Flex IO Module. With just a simple plug-in, this module enables native Fibre Channel and Ethernet right from the M1000e chassis. It supplies up to 4 ports of 2/4/8Gb Fibre Channel – allowing you to have up to 32Gb Fibre Channel through a single module or 64Gb Fibre Channel throughput with two modules per MXL/IOA blade! This makes this module the leading Fibre Channel module for blades in the market today bar none with 4X the Ethernet throughput and 2X the Fibre Channel throughput at up to 35% cost savings compared with HPs Virtual Connect Flex Fabric. All this Fibre Channel along with Ethernet convergence right in the chassis means real cost savings for customers (cuts adapters up to 50%, also cuts unnecessary cabling and switching upstream).
The MXL and M IO Aggregator blade switches now have increased flexibility, allowing you to install FC Flex IO modules along with the current SFP+, QSFP+, or 10G Base T modules according to your needs. The FC Flex IO module also is highly interoperable – not only with Dell’s award winning S5000 unified storage switch, but also with most popular Fibre Channel switches, Compellent/PowerVault/EMC/NetApp storage, and all the currently supported CNAs for the MXL/IOA.
For additional information on the MXL blade switch and the new module and it’s capabilities check out the MXL wiki on Dell Tech Center.
