Cisco, VMware offer up Network Interface Virtualization proposal to IEEE

Cisco and VMware presented to the IEEE a proposal for Network Interface Virtualization, it was revealed in  a reponse written by "Omar Sultan, Cisco" to a blog post by The Virtual Data Center about Cisco's Nexus 1000V announcement last month.

Writing in response to the blogger Alan Murphy's thoughts on VN-Link, Cisco's virtual switching software, offered as either software via the Nexus 1000V or as embedded hardware in Cisco's Nexus 5000 data center switch,  Sultan writes: "... we presented with VMware, a proposal for Network Interface Virtualization to the IEEE meeting in Seoul. Since each option [VN-Link as software or embedded hardware] has its merits, the vision is to have both technologies available to customers as implementation options while still maintaining consist management and operations."

In his blog, Murphy called for Cisco to develop an enterprise-class virtual switch to supplant VMware's vSwitch, "a complete drop-in IOS replacement," he writes. "Not something in a VM or something that has to be managed off-box, but a native Cisco-esque high-end L2-L4 vSwitch. You guys own that part of the data center today, and if VMware’s goal is to create a complete virtual data center platform (ala VDC-OS), seems like they’ll need good on-box L4 transport and management."

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