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I/O Virtualization

VirtenSys Introduces Its Flagship I/O Virtualization Switches

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VirtenSys has announced the general availability of its flagship I/O virtualization switches, the VirtenSys VIO 4000 Series based on its Virtual Connectivity Cloud platform.

With this announcement, VirtenSys became the first company to release production units of I/O virtualization switches based on PCI Express standards. The VIO 4000 switches are the first products on the market to consolidate, virtualize and share the major types of server networking and storage connectivity, including Ethernet, Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), SAS/SATA, and Fibre Channel, without requiring any changes be made to the servers, networks, or I/O adapters. The switches are available through the VirtenSys worldwide partner network, and the products’ full capabilities will be demonstrated at VMworld 2009, booth #2231, in San Francisco, Calif.

The VIO 4000 switches reduce rack and blade server management complexity and costs by more than 60 percent, improve I/O utilization to greater than 80 percent, deliver full connectivity bandwidth to servers, halve equipment cost, and reduce I/O power consumption by more than 60 percent. This results in providing servers with the best price/performance and lowest energy consumption for accessing not only the local area networks (LAN), but also the storage infrastructures, including direct-attached storage (DAS) and storage area networks (SAN).

NextIO Strikes Partnership with Avnet Technology Solutions

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NextIO today announced that it has entered into an agreement with Avnet Technology Solutions, the operating group of Avnet. Under the terms of the agreement, Avnet will act as NextIO’s primary integration partner and exclusive distributor of NextIO’s I/O virtualization solutions to its IBM reseller partners in the United States and Canada.

The NextIO Express Connect product provides an all-encompassing I/O solution for today’s dynamic data center. NextIO provides customers with the largest breadth of server I/O choice for any-to-any connectivity without the need to change existing infrastructure and lays the foundation for I/O virtualization in any server environment. Express Connect enables servers to access many more I/O devices than are available by default. Server I/O devices are contained in the NextIO Express Connect appliance and are accessed by multiple servers as a flexible and dynamic pool of I/O resources.

NextIO provides customers with cost savings, flexibility and manageability, while protecting their existing infrastructure investments. As the industry leader in next-generation I/O virtualization solutions, NextIO provides enterprise-class servers with faster installations, network transparent I/O upgrades, minimal service disruptions, and less operational management overhead.

PrimaCloud Deploys Xsigo Virtual I/O To Deliver Enterprise-Class Cloud Computing

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Xsigo Systems announced today that PrimaCloud, a leading managed cloud computing services provider, has deployed the Xsigo I/O Director as the foundation of its new service offering.

The virtual I/O architecture allows customers to provision a complete virtual private data center in just five minutes, a task that would otherwise require days or weeks. With Xsigo, PrimaCloud maintains 99.99% uptime at 50% less cost and in 85% less physical data center space than would otherwise be possible. Capital and operational cost savings enabled by Xsigo virtual I/O are expected to exceed $1 million in the company’s first year of operation.

Xsigo virtual I/O allowed PrimaCloud to deploy a fault-tolerant architecture based on highly-dense, quad server systems that package 48 processing cores within a compact 2U high chassis, reducing data center space requirements by 85% compared with conventional 4U high servers. By providing 40 Gb of bandwidth to each server while consuming only two PCI slots, Xsigo virtual I/O allowed PrimaCloud to deliver superior performance from more than 200 virtual machines per 2U system, a compute density that is believed to be the industry’s highest.

Xsigo virtual I/O was deployed in conjunction with VMware ESX software and Enigmatec’s EMS cross-platform policy-based automation solution. The combination allows configuration changes to be completed entirely in software — either manually or automatically — eliminating the need to visit the data center. When adding physical server resources, installation only requires connecting two I/O cables, reducing configuration time by 90%.

NextIO Raises $15 Million In Fourth Round Of Financing

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NextIO today announced that the company has received a $15 million round of Series D funding. NextIO is the industry leader in providing intelligent, rack-optimized I/O virtualization (IOV) solutions based on high-performance PCI Express (PCIe) switching technology.

NextIO received support not only from existing VCs and strategic investors, but participation from new strategic investment sources as well. The new funding will be used to expand NextIO’s sales, marketing and support and will allow the company to accelerate the delivery of its second-generation of Express Connect products.

Through I/O virtualization, NextIO products deliver an unprecedented combination of low cost, lower power consumption, greater ease of use, and greatly reduced maintenance requirements. For example, server rollouts that previously required days or weeks can be accomplished in less than 30 minutes, and routine server maintenance time is reduced from hours to minutes.

NextIO’s second-generation products build on the success of the company’s existing Express Connect products, which are at revenue and are currently being deployed in the U.S. and Europe. NextIO solutions are currently in use in a number of different markets for applications such as simulation, adding graphic processors to commodity computing environments, expanding I/O, speeding up existing I/O, and delivering new data center technologies.

Xsigo Hooks Up With Dell

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Xsigo Systems, the I/O virtualization specialist, today announced that Dell has selected the company as a provider of I/O virtualization solutions — a critical technology necessary for optimizing data centers. In addition to reselling Xsigo’s virtual I/O solutions, the companies will work together on technology roadmaps and the development of reseller resources, allowing Dell to further expand its data center offerings.

As a result of this agreement, Dell will offer the Xsigo I/O Director as an option with its PowerEdge servers and storage solutions, creating a simple path to creating fully virtualized data centers. The combined Xsigo – Dell solution lets IT professionals manage I/O resources across multiple vendor platforms from a single console, instead of being restricted to a single vendor solution. In addition, the combined system eliminates the restriction of physical I/O ports, letting users deploy new I/O resources to servers on-demand.

Dell customers using Xsigo’s I/O virtualization products can reduce both the operational and capital costs associated with server I/O. Xsigo consolidates the I/O infrastructure and replaces physical network and storage interfaces (NICs and HBAs) with virtual resources that can be deployed on-the-fly.

This open standards-based solution, interoperable with servers and storage across most leading platforms, is designed to remove the constraints imposed by traditional I/O cards and cables that otherwise limit the flexibility to re-deploy assets. The result is a wire-once infrastructure where configuration changes are completed in minutes rather than days, are executed in software rather than hardware, and can be remotely managed. Eliminating the need to re-cable can help reduce operational costs and remove the risk of cabling errors that may cause unplanned downtime.

Included within the agreement is the full range of Xsigo products, including the VP780 I/O Director. The Xsigo offering complements Dell’s product families by enabling universal connectivity across all I/O types, which simplifies and accelerates the adoption of heterogeneous solutions such as Dell PowerVault, Dell/EMC and Dell EqualLogic storage. The Xsigo I/O Director provides a scalable I/O solution interoperable with most currently available Dell servers, including the Dell PowerEdge M-Series Blade Systems.

Pricing for the Xsigo Virtual I/O System begins at approximately $30,000, and is immediately available.

3Leaf Systems Scores $35 Million in Series C Funding

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3Leaf Systems (previous coverage), a provider of virtualization solutions for enterprise data centers, today announced that it has secured new financing from a suite of blue-chip investors led by LSI Corporation with follow on investments by Alloy Ventures, Enterprise Partners Venture Capital, Intel Capital, and Storm Ventures.

3Leaf Systems says it will use the new capital to accelerate development of the company’s virtualization solutions and to expand sales and marketing activities.

Using 3Leaf’s products, enterprise data centers can dramatically increase their resource utilization and enhance their operational efficiency. The 3Leaf V-8000 Virtual I/O Server has been named a Best of VMworld award winner at VMworld 2007 for its innovation, value, performance, reliability and ease of use.

3Leaf Systems

[Source: Data Center Knowledge]