SCIENCE

Data Center Demonstration Validates Deployment Readiness of Next-Generation Virtualization Technologies

VMWORLD has announced that they are working with Emulex to demonstrate an advanced virtualized data center, processing converged IP and storage traffic over a multi-vendor unified network. This demonstration, taking place at VMworld 2010 in booth #1636, features Ixia's IxVM virtualization test solution and Emulex's OneConnect Universal Converged Network Adapters over a unified, next-generation data center architecture.

Large enterprises, system integrators, and operators are rapidly transforming data centers using new virtualization technologies. Thorough assessment of virtual infrastructure performance and capacity, and isolation of network functions and bottlenecks in virtual data centers is an extremely challenging task. Pre-deployment testing is mandatory in order to ensure user quality of experience (QoE), and correctly provision virtualized network resources.

The convergence of network and storage I/O as well as the consolidation of multiple switching frameworks using Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and data center bridging (DCB) technologies will deliver major cost savings. Testing such networks requires a truly unified, high-density test platform that is able to characterize the performance of converged traffic forwarding, end-to-end, from virtual hosts to the storage area network (SAN).

This VMworld demonstration substantiates that next-generation data center solutions can dramatically decrease overall cost of ownership, while maintaining application performance and reliability.

Key Facts:

·         The end-to-end converged data center is a live demonstration of server virtualization and I/O consolidation over a unified fabric.

·         The demonstration features a unified multi-vendor infrastructure with I/O consolidation using Emulex's OneConnect Universal Converged Network Adapters.

·         Ixia's IxSAN emulates a realistic high performance Fibre Channel SAN.

·         Ixia's IxVM characterizes the performance of the virtual switch by generating storage I/O and server-to-server network traffic.

·         Ixia's Fibre Channel load modules enable Fibre Channel and FCoE testing of high-density converged data center infrastructures. The load module comes with four or eight ports, and each port can be configured to run at 2, 4, or 8 G speeds.

Supporting Quotes

·         "Virtualization and network convergence will be the backbone of next-generation cloud computing environments and the ability to utilize both technologies efficiently in the data center is critical for end user deployment," said Steve Daheb, chief marketing officer and senior vice president of business development, Emulex. "This demonstration shows the value of using diagnostic instrumentation to understand the impact that virtualization and network convergence have on supported applications and end users."

·         "Data center operators face a multitude of testing challenges such as server optimization, application and I/O performance, energy efficiency, and security," said Deepesh Arora, Director of Layer 2/3 Product Management at Ixia. "Ixia is the only testing company that addresses these challenges in a single, unified hardware platform."

Resources:

For more information on Ixia and its data center solutions, please visit www.ixiacom.com