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). “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.” 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. 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.
