BLADE's Switches Overcome Network Overload Through "Rackonomics" — An Approach For Scaling Out Data Center Networks

BLADE Network Technologies announced its new RackSwitch family of Gigabit and 10 Gigabit Ethernet switches, Ethernet switches for rack-level network virtualization.

BLADE's new 1U RackSwitch product family extends virtualization by mirroring the benefits of server virtualization within the network at the rack level, saves energy through rack-friendly cooling and alleviates management pain by removing complexity through simplified management and fabric convergence.

BLADE's RackSwitch products take an approach that is becoming known as "Rackonomics" to reduce the total cost of ownership of data center infrastructures, overcome network overload and enable scale-out data center economies. Data center architects can standardize on a unified and affordable rack-level network infrastructure to provision and scale out Web 2.0 environments, high-performance clusters and virtualized data centers.

"A perfect storm of factors – among them server and storage virtualization, I/O-intensive Web 2.0 applications and the move to data center consolidation using blade servers, multi-core CPUs and converged I/O fabrics – is overloading data center networks," said Vikram Mehta, President and CEO, BLADE Network Technologies. "Weathering this overload requires a revolutionary new set of customer-driven rules for the data center that is becoming known as 'Rackonomics.' IT departments can leverage Rackonomics to scale out their data center networks affordably at the rack level. This comes as a welcome alternative to vendor-driven approaches that require them to scale up using inefficient, power-hungry and disjointed network topologies provisioned with large core switches that are far more expensive to deploy and operate. BLADE's RackSwitch is inspired by Rackonomics for data center networking that is ‘Virtual, Cooler and Easier' so that IT departments can contain total cost of ownership, deliver greater return on investment and increase business flexibility."

To bring its new line of rack-level switches to market, BLADE is leveraging its market-leading position as the number-one supplier of Ethernet switches for blade servers. BLADE has more than four million ports installed, connecting more than 800,000 HP, IBM and NEC server blades, delivering its products across 26 market segments including large data center networks equipped with thousands of switches. BLADE's experience with networking optimized for servers and storage validated the need for rack-friendly switches that simplify IT management requirements and equip today's I/O-intensive data centers with network virtualization.

"Rack-level Ethernet switching is important to accommodate data center network loads generated by consolidation and virtualization," said Joe Skorupa, Research Vice President at Gartner. "With servers now being utilized at capacities of up to 80 to 90 percent, server virtualization can saturate your aggregation network. And servers equipped with multiple adapters for networking and clustering require more space and generate more heat. These factors combine to call for a unified approach to network virtualization at the rack level."

"Mantara's technology solution has been designed from the ground up to meet the challenge of exploding market data rates, real time distribution of market data and speed of execution for the demanding securities industry," said Brice Hamon, Chief Technology Officer for Mantara, Inc, a rapidly growing bond and equity trading firm. "BLADE's RackSwitch provides the low-latency, high-bandwidth networking that we require to deliver extremely high-speed data feeds from multiple venues and gives us an affordable growth path to handle exponentially growing volume in the years ahead."

BLADE's new RackSwitch products with SmartConnect and VMReady software are uniquely designed to be "Virtual, Cooler and Easier." RackSwitch is "Virtual" through rack-level network virtualization enabled by:

• Network Virtualization
• Network Mobility
• Virtual Machine Movement

RackSwitch is "Cooler" through server and storage rack-friendly cooling with benefits that include:

• Server Rack-Friendly Airflow
• Low-Power Green Networking
• Rack-level intelligence

RackSwitch is "Easier" through simplified management and fabric convergence with benefits that include:

• Server Administrator
• Lossless FCoE Storage Area Networks
• Rock-solid Ethernet switches
• CX-4 Cabling

BLADE's RackSwitch G8100, a 1U top-of-rack switch equipped with 24 lossless, low-latency 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GE) ports, is designed for emerging high-volume 10 GE application environments, high-performance clusters that require latency of 300 nanoseconds or less and/or as a 10 GE aggregation switch. BLADE's RackSwitch G8000, a 1U top-of-rack switch equipped with 48 Gigabit Ethernet ports and four 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports for uplinks and/or stacking, is designed for rack-level server connectivity, Web 2.0 cloud clusters and/or as a Gigabit aggregation switch.

SOURCE: BLADE Network Technologies