RSSVirtualization Channel
News Analysis
Cisco Overlay Network Bridges Distributed Data Centers
Cisco continues its march to complete its Data Center 3.0 vision with a proprietary method to interconnect remote data centers called Overlay Transport Virtualization (OTV), extending a layer 2 Ethernet network over a WAN. The claim is that OTV is simpler. Cisco also counted 10Gb Base-T Ethernet modules for the Catalyst 6500 and 4900 switches, and new IO modules for the Nexus 7000. Additionally, they are furthering their Wide Area Application Services (WAAS) product with VMware as well as automatic recognition, acceleration and optimization of SaaS services.
More News Analysis
- VMware-Cisco-Netapp: A Meaningless Relationship?
- Cloud Storage Lags Behind The Hype
- Oracle Outlines Post Merger Roadmap
- Voltaire Splits Nanoseconds With Grid Director
More News Analysis in Virtualization Channel »
Architectures
Case Study: The Value of Virtual I/O, New England Biolabs
When New England BioLabs realized that it had outgrown its 120 servers, it also soon discovered that options for physical expansion were limited and potentially costly--one option required the building of a tunnel. NEB provides enzymatic products for gene research and drug discovery and had housed its bioinformatics data center in an historic mansion. It was bursting at the seams; port utilization of its blade servers for networking and storage was at an unsustainable 99 percent. To address the problem, Thomas Peacock, IT architect at NEB, knew that the company's old 2U-per-server systems would have to go.
More Architectures
- Nursing Facility Turns To SaaS For Network Management
- SMBs And The Psychology Of Virtualization
- Q&A: HP ProCurve CTO Paul Congdon
- Time To Halt Runaway VM Sprawl
More Architectures in Virtualization Channel »
Reviews & Workshops
VDI Rolling Review: Wrap Up, Virtual Desktops Are For Real
Server virtualization is one of the few technologies that have managed to live up to its hype. Can its virtual desktop cousin do the same, or is VDI destined to fizzle out like a wet firecracker? Our forecast says VDI has a good future in enterprise IT. Here are our reasons why.
More Reviews & Workshops
Blogs
Converged Network Savings Less Than Expected
February 9, 2010 8:00 AM
Posted by Howard Marks
The proponents of converged data center networks, especially those in the FCoE camp, take it as an article of faith that their new network architecture will be less expensive than separate data and storage networks. When I sat down to figure out the real cost of connecting a server to the data center network, I was surprised that my FCoE configuration was just $300/server, or 5 percent, cheaper than using separate 10Gb Ethernet and 8Gbps Fibre Channel networks.
See all blogs by Howard Marks
Can You Afford 384GB of RAM? Or How Much is Too Much Memory?
February 5, 2010 4:00 PM
Posted by Howard Marks
When Cisco announced its UCS last year, I was impressed by the fact that the double-width blades could hold a whopping 384GB of memory. Now it's budget time here at DeepStorage Labs, and I'm figuring how much we're going to have to shell out for the pair of Nehalem servers we're adding to the lab in next few weeks. Turns out if you try to even get close to 384GB, you'll end up paying several times as much for memory as for the rest of the server.
See all blogs by Howard Marks
CommVault Delivers A Cloud-Enabled Platform
February 5, 2010 1:00 PM
Posted by David Hill
Everybody wants to go to heaven someday, but nobody seems to want to go now. Why so? Perhaps it's mere uncertainty. If we substitute the cloud for "heaven," the same seems to be true today. That is why it is so important for vendors to create products and services that can actually get clients to the cloud today while still keeping their feet on the ground. With that in mind, CommVault's ability to effectively extend its data management platform into the cloud provides a positive illustration that the cloud can provide real value today and not just someday. Such examples are important so that the cloud is not just dismissed as hype.
See all blogs by David Hill
A Private Cloud Is Called IT
February 2, 2010 9:00 AM
Posted by Mike Fratto, Editor
The title of this blog comes from a sentence penned by Steve Duplessie in Why the Cloud will Vaporize, and it's a sentence that really speaks to me. Duplessie writes an evocative article about the cloud market, but he made a few points on the benefits of cloud services and then wrote that little nugget, which I want to expand on. Whether you call it private cloud or a data center, the automation technologies and processes that are being developed for cloud services will trickle down into your data center and that's good for everyone.
See all blogs by Mike Fratto, Editor
Broadcom Unveils Converged Network Adapter
January 29, 2010 8:00 AM
Posted by Frank Berry
Broadcom Corporation officially entered the converged network adapter (CNA) war on December 15, 2009, at their analyst day event. At the event and in independent lab tests, the company demonstrated a 10 gigabit Ethernet adapter simultaneously running TCP/IP, iSCSI and Fibre Channel over Ethernet traffic on a single port. With multiple LAN and SAN protocols running on a single port, Broadcom leap-frogged the capability of its competition that must separate different types of traffic on different ports. Additionally, the difference for users is significant. From an end-user standpoint, the primary benefits of CNAs are simplifying management and saving on hardware by consolidating multiple adapters into one. If Broadcom can sustain this advantage, end-users will have a solid reason to choose a CNA with a Broadcom ASIC on-board.
See all blogs by Frank Berry
SAN Cloud Storage
January 21, 2010 2:00 PM
Posted by George Crump
As we discussed in my last entry, the use of cloud storage for primary data has become more practical, especially for NAS-based use. It is going to require more work but there are some pocket use cases already. What about the other extreme: using cloud storage for SAN based data? The first challenge is probably why would you want to do that, anyway?
See all blogs by George Crump
Best of the Web
Data deduplication: Declawing the clones
Data deduplication is emerging as a critically important new arrow in the storage administrator's quiver to answer hard questions about the increasing problem in storage growth costs.
Compression, Encryption, Deduplication, and Replication: Strange Bedfellows
One of the great ironies of storage technology is the inverse relationship between efficiency and security: Adding performance or reducing storage requirements almost always results in reducing the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of a system.
WAN Optimization Whitelists and Blacklists
Optimization is a fantastic way of saving money and creating really happy customers at the same time, but it doesn't work flawlessly for all applications.
WAN Optimization as a Managed Service: It's Not About the Cost
This insight examines how organizations outsourcing their WAN optimization initiatives to a third-party go about achieving their goals for application performance, reducing operational costs, and streamlining enterprise infrastructure.
