Dell adds virtualized I/O to PowerEdge line | | 2009-02-05 | | | Dell has formed a partnership with virtualization specialists Xsigo Systems to offer an I/O virtualization option for Dell PowerEdge servers, and PowerVault and EqualLogic disk arrays.Xsigo’s I/O Director product cuts the hard-coded links between servers, storage, and networks and completely virtualizes those connections allowing users to manage I/O cross platform resources from a single console.While Dell competitors HP and IBM have developed their own I/O virtualization products for blade servers, the I/O Director is rack-mounted and not restricted to blade servers."What we are excited about with the Xsigo appliance is the openness," said Rick Becker, vice president of software and solutions at Dell’s Product Group. "This works across form factors and vendors, and in a heterogeneous data centre, this can mange it all no matter what logo is on the box."Xsigo’s base VP780 appliance comes in a 4U rack chassis with links to reach out to 24 server ports plus 15 I/O modules slots, each with four Gigabit Ethernet, one 10 Gigabit Ethernet, and two 4 Gb Fibre Channel ports. The I/O modules also have an SSL offload module.The Ethernet modules support iSCSI disk links, and the Fibre Channel links go out to SANs. An expansion switch allows the appliance to connect to hundreds of servers. Every server linking into the appliance has to be equipped with a virtual NIC and a virtual HBA, which uses InfiniBand as a transport back into the appliance.The VP780 appliance costs $30,000. Dell claims that by using the device on a network of 120 servers, a company can save up to $1.6 million over three years. | |
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