We’ve seen almost all of it now – storage, server, application, I/O and desktop virtualization. Now we are seeing memory virtualization from a start-up company in Portland, Ore., called RNA Networks, which is introducing technology that virtualizes the memory in x86-based servers into a single, shared pool.
RNA Networks, which debuted yesterday, with a product called RNAmessenger that replaces the message passing interface and accelerates high-volume, low latency applications such as hedge fund trading. RNAmessenger, which was in beta, is now shipping.
The company plans to introduce an appliance that connects into the network with InfiniBand or Gigabit Ethernet and virtualizes the memory of x86 computers so that it can be shared among applications that need it. Still unnamed, the RNA appliance will cluster servers configured as either compute nodes, capacity distribution nodes or combination nodes. The appliance will be managed from either a Web-based console or a command line interface. The management interface will display server configuration details such as cache in use, available memory by server and total memory in use.
The company, which was founded in 2006, is funded by Menlo Ventures for $7 million.
In other news, Xsigo teamed with Dell to virtualize I/O between servers and storage. The partnership involves Xsigo’s I/O Director and Dell’s PowerEdge, PowerVault and Dell/EMC storage products.
The I/O Director works by inserting an appliance in the network and attaching all servers and storage to it. Since many servers contain dual Ethernet adapters, dual Fibre Channel host bus adapters and perhaps, InfiniBand adapters for server clustering, the I/O Director eliminates them and the “spaghetti like” cabling mess they cause. Xsigo claims that the I/O Director will save 70% on I/O adapters, cables and switch ports and a 30% decrease in power consumption.
Dell will offer the Xsigo I/O Director with its PowerEdge servers and storage.
