Blade Network With FCoE-Ready 10GbE Blade Server Switch

BLADE Network Technologies, Inc., in data center networking, will unveil at Interop Las Vegas 2009 the delivery of the first in a set of products that support its Cloud Ready Network Architecture. BLADE’s Cloud Ready Network Architecture incorporates the five elements of open networking required for efficient cloud computing, along with the products to build it.

BLADE’s Cloud Ready products include the industry’s first FCoE-ready 10 Gigabit Ethernet blade server switch with full 100 Gig Ethernet of uplink capacity, a high-performance 10GbE top-of-rack switching solution for IP SANs and a massive virtualization solution that supports more than 1,000 virtual ports for the cloud-ready data center.

BLADE’s Cloud Ready Network Architecture addresses the network-related concerns about cloud computing raised in a controversial McKinsey & Company report Clearing the air on cloud computing. The recent report states that specific steps can be taken to ensure the successful adoption of cloud technology, that technical, operational and financial hurdles will need to be overcome before clouds will be used extensively by enterprises and that CIOs should focus now on the immediate benefits of virtualizing server, storage, network operations, and other critical building blocks.

"As enterprises and cloud providers seek to harness the considerable advantages of cloud computing, their networks must be equipped with five essential elements – high-bandwidth/low-latency switching, convergence to Ethernet, massive virtualization for agile workloads, scalable management and advanced energy efficiency," said Vikram Mehta, President and CEO, BLADE Network Technologies. "BLADE’s Cloud Ready Network Architecture is extending the performance and capabilities of data center networks from blade server to switch to SAN that will enable the scale-out performance and economies promised by cloud computing."

BLADE is delivering a series of Cloud Ready innovations that enable open unified networking for cloud computing environments whether operated by service providers or internal IT providers:

High-bandwidth, low-latency switching: A BLADE switch can deliver up to 100Gbps of uplink connectivity from a blade server to core networks at latencies as low as 350ns to power the very large-scale, distributed I/O required in cloud computing environments. Priced at under $500 per 10 Gigabit Ethernet port, BLADE 10Gb Ethernet switches enable the affordable scale-out networks required for cloud computing. Standards-based and widely available 10Gb Ethernet eliminates the need for InfiniBand in cloud computing clusters.
Convergence to Ethernet: At Interop, BLADE is introducing the first FCoE-ready blade server switch with the loss-less switching required for converged data and storage networking. This switch is the first to provide a full 100 Gigabits of Ethernet connectivity to a blade server system. For IP SANs in cloud computing environments, Stonefly recently selected BLADE’s RackSwitch G8124 as the fastest 10 Gigabit Ethernet switch for deployment with its new Voyager virtualized IP SAN solution. The StoneFly and BLADE solution achieves iSCSI SAN performance of up to 950 megabytes per second.
Massive virtualization for agile workloads: BLADE’s VMready switch resident software is the first networking solution to support 1,000 or more virtual switch ports. A virtual machine-aware network is required by today’s massive cloud computing environments. BLADE’s VMready switches are available now for IBM BladeCenter and HP BladeSystem. VMready will be available for BLADE’s RackSwitch top-of-rack switches in mid-2009.
Scalable management: BLADE’s approach to Rackonomics enables the lowest total cost of ownership for data center networks. Using BLADE’s SmartConnect and BLADEHarmony Manager, multiple switches in the stack can be managed as a single large switch. Multiple switches located in multiple blade server chassis, even across racks, operate as one large virtual switch.
Advanced energy efficiency: The power consumption of a BLADE switch is as low as a standard light bulb. In massive cloud computing environments, this translates to savings of hundreds of thousands of kilowatt hours. At Interop, BLADE will conduct a Power FaceOff between its RackSwitch and a comparable Cisco switch.