An alternative to Cisco, other network-centric data center players

BLADE Network Technologies has unveiled a method for virtualizing data center resources that's an alternative to Cisco's network-centric approach.

The data center switch company, which was spun off from Nortel two years ago (http://www.networkworld.com/news/2006/021306-nortel-server-blade.html), this week unveiled a line of Gigabit and 10 Gigabit Ethernet switches for “rack-level” network virtualization. BLADE’s 1U RackSwitch line is designed to perform server virtualization within the network at the rack level. It is also intended to save energy through “rack-friendly” cooling, simplify management and provide fabric convergence through support for FibreChannel over Ethernet (FCoE).  

The RackSwitch line are key components of BLADE’s strategy to reduce the total cost of ownership of data center infrastructures by enabling scale-out from the server rack – a strategy the company refers to as “Rackonomics.”  Rackonomics is positioned as an alternative virtualization and scaling scheme to those offered by large data center switch vendors, like Cisco, which are anchored by large core switches – like Cisco’s new Nexus 7000 (http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/012808-cisco-juniper-lead-switching-splash.html).

 BLADE claims the large core switch approach is more expensive to deploy and operate, and are power inefficient.  

“The Cisco approach is not too appealing to the server people, that’s for sure,” says Dan Tuchler, vice president of strategy and product management at BLADE. “To rip and replace with a Nexus 7000 is a pretty costly thing. We should leave (virtualization) control to the server guy and leave the network to the networking guy. That’s an easier approach to swallow.”

Observers note, however, that BLADE's approach may contain virtualization to the data center and not allow administrators to extend it to campus or metro area enterprise resources. Switch and router vendors are increasingly looking to extend virtualization out from the data center, as we'll see at next week's Interop trade show.  The BLADE switches include the BLADE RackSwitch G8100 and G8000. The G8100 is a 1U top-of-rack switch equipped with 24 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports, and is designed for emerging high-volume 10 GE applications, clusters that require latency of 300 nanoseconds or less, or 10 Gigabit Ethernet aggregation.  

BLADE’s RackSwitch G8000 is also a 1U top-of-rack switch, but equipped with 48 Gigabit Ethernet ports and four 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports for uplinks or stacking. It is designed for rack-level server connectivity, Web 2.0 cloud clusters or as a Gigabit aggregation switch.

Virtualization on the new switches is enabled by software that allows multiple switches to operate as one large virtual switch, providing networking connections for an entire rack of servers.  Bandwidth, VLANs, security policies and other network parameters can be set once for an entire rack of servers, regardless of the number or type of servers, BLADE claims. The switches also feature front-to-back airflow for more efficient cooling; and lower power consumption -- six watts per 10 Gigabit Ethernet port compared with 20 watts per 10 Gigabit Ethernet port for conventional chassis-based switches, BLADE says. 

BLADE’s RackSwitch switches will be available in June at an entry price of $5,495. The company will demonstrate the new switches at Interop next week.