Do you want to converge your infrastructure? With Cisco’s Unified Computing, you buy everything from them, so you’re locked-in. Fortunately, Xsigo gives you better options.

Xsigo just launched the world’s most open convergence solution: the Ethernet-attached I/O Director.

You can now converge your infrastructure at far less cost using the servers and ports you already have: standard x86 servers, with standard Ethernet ports (1G or 10G). NO special servers, and NO special adapter cards.

Xsigo has been saving customers time and money by converging infrastructure with industry-standard servers for 3 years. Results include:

• Salesforce.com saved over $1,000,000 in capital cost alone
• Los Angeles Department of Water and Power reduced port count by 80%
• VMware re-configured servers from FC to iSCSI in hours
• New England Biolabs saved $30,000 CAPEX per IBM Blade Center deployed

Xsigo’s new Ethernet-attached  I/O Director ups the ante by making the solution even more open.

• Read the eWeek article here
• Read the CIO article here

Here are 10 reasons why Xsigo gives you better options than Cisco:

10) Connects to the servers you have… right now: Xsigo is open, so you can converge your infrastructure with the servers you already have. Cisco will sell you servers, cards, and special infrastructure to do the same thing.

9) 10G and 1G flexibility: You can use either 1G or 10G Ethernet ports. Pick the I/O that meets your performance and cost needs. Cisco offers only 10G, and that requires a special host adapter card.

8 ) Choose the highest performance or the easiest integration: Do you need more than 10G performance? Only Xsigo lets you choose from 1G, 10G, 20G and 40G connectivity. All can be managed from a single graphical  user interface or command line interface. Cisco offers only 10G.

7)Proven design: Xsigo has been shipping for 3 years to customers including Salesforce.com, VMware, Accenture, Technicolor, and many more. All Xsigo products use the same proven operating platform.

6) Commodity servers, blade servers, rack servers OK: Save $1,000′s on every server and converge using your standard server configuration. Use either blades or rack mount devices from the vendor you prefer.

5) Evergreen technology: Add new I/O types by simply adding modules to the I/O Director. If you need FCoE connectivity down the road, just add a module. No re-cabling, and no need to touch the servers. With Cisco, the I/O functionality is built into the card in the server, so if you’re forced to swap adapter cards to update the I/O.

4) No server re-boots: Only Xsigo lets you manage virtual I/O on live servers. Deploy and modify virtual NICs and HBAs without downtime. Cisco requires a re-boot when deploying new resources.

3) Easy to use: Xsigo was designed specifically for converged I/O, so the UI makes it simple. Manage resources in groups, drag and drop to deploy I/O, and choose the CLI or graphical interface that works for you. You can even use an iPhone or iPad. With Cisco, you’ll need familiarity with both MDS and Catalyst management tools.

2) As little as $500 per server: Complete solution costs can drop to $500 per server for 1G Ethernet server connections. With Cisco, adapter cards alone will cost more than $2,000 per server. And then you need to buy their servers as well.

1) Open: Xsigo is proven with virtually every server, storage, and networking vendor. And with VMware, Microsoft, and Citrix virtualization software. Hear what Salesforce.com, Dell, and others say about the fight for the next generation data center in this video:

>> View the video: Fight for the Next Generation Data Center

Network Computing.com recently raised this question: “Does the world need virtual I/O?” Why introduce virtual I/O, they ask, when 40G Ethernet will provide plenty of bandwidth for any server?  Isn’t virtual I/O really needed only for bleeding-edge, large scale applications?

Rather than respond here myself, I put the question to two data center architects who use virtual I/O. Neither runs bleeding-edge apps — they provide web services, database, Exchange, all the usual stuff. And neither operates an esoteric Star Wars-type computing environment.  Both run typical data centers in facilities familiar to us all.

So why do they need virtual I/O? Here are their answers.

Case 1: Distribution Company

This company is a distributor in the Midwest. The IT department maintains databases for orders, inventory and customer relationships. And they provides similar IT services to their clients to help them streamline their own operations.

So what do they get from virtual I/O? Here are a few key points:

Performance: Increased bandwidth was an important feature for them. Like a lot of shops, they’ve consolidated, so they needed to get more out of fewer servers. They’re running high-end Nehalems and very fast storage, so the opportunity to get 40Gb through a single server link was important to maximize sever utilization. And they wanted to do it today, not sometime in the future.  The fact that Xsigo’s IB link delivers by far the industry’s lowest latency (in the nanoseconds, as opposed to microseconds or even milliseconds for FCoE), helped too.

Agility: They are building what they describe as a private cloud. They want to run any application on any server, so the ability to dynamically manage connectivity is important.

Cannot rely on VLANS: They absolutely cannot run a single Ethernet connection into a server and then carve it up. Multiple physically isolated networks are essential — VLANS alone do not provide the isolation they require. Within their cloud there will be multiple businesses (both internal and external) sharing the resources. There will also be multiple data types, including credit card information. From a legal and a compliance standpoint, network isolation is required.

Future Proof: Virtual I/O makes change simple, whatever that change might be. As the company’s architect pointed out, “The future is hard to predict. What happens if I suddenly need to connect my legacy SAN to the cloud? Or if I need a new network, or FCoE enters my plans? With virtual I/O that’s all easy to accommodate.”

Case 2: Online Transaction Company

The second architect, at an online transaction firm, had a slightly different spin on virtual I/O and how it helps. His company is larger and more complex, so he values  tools that help reduce complexity.

Simplified planning: In a complex environment, just planning cabling can be a challenge. With virtual I/O they don’t have to think about it because every server is cabled the same way. The architect commented, “I don’t have to think about whether it’s fibre, single or multi-mode, Cat 6, or whatever. It’s all the same.”

$1.5M cost savings: These guys know data center design, and know very well how to save a buck. But their next-best alternative to virtual I/O would have cost $1.5 million more on day one.

Agility: The ability to change things rapidly with virtual I/O can help avoid downtime. As the architect pointed out, “It’s not that we’re changing things frequently. But when we need to change something right now, it needs to be done — right now!”

Remote management: Because this firm operates multiple data centers, they need remote management. “If I can fix an issue without having to get a guy physically to the data center, that’s a huge time savings.”

Cannot rely on VLANs: Like the distributor, this company has compliance regulations and payment card industry rules to worry about. Not to mention their own peace of mind. The architect pointed out, “I manage my shop tightly to ensure security. You won’t be seeing my name in the news.”  Isolated networks are employed wherever needed, and virtual I/O lets them maintain that isolation while still getting the flexibility to run any app on any server.

“To us, virtual I/O improved the quality of life,” the architect concluded. “We simplified planning, accelerated critical management tasks, and saved cost at the same time.”

That’s live input, this week, from two IT managers on the front lines of data center operations. Neither is unusual in any way except that they looked for and found a better way to manage their infrastructure.

Do they need virtual I/O?

So, getting back to the original question, do they need virtual I/O? No, of course not. They both ran their data centers just fine before they installed Xsigo.

But does having virtual I/O give them a competitive business advantage? And does it improve their quality of life? Absolutely.

Have you noticed that when vendors talk about the cloud, the conversation often revolves around their own product or service? You may come to believe that the “cloud” is defined by a specific set of equipment and software.

It’s not. The cloud is a concept, and it can be attained via various routes and with multiple vendor’s gear. Your options are open, which is the point of this series.

We’re going to discuss what the cloud is, what technologies are involved, and how you can get there with the vendors of your choice.

Why this matters

It’s an important discussion because cloud concepts will save you time and money. For many users, these concepts already are. Every week, we meet with users who have implemented substantial portions of the cloud model. They get more done on fewer servers, and their IT people can implement projects in hours or days, rather than weeks or months.

Furthermore, they’re building the foundation for what’s to come.

Which is the second point: This is a journey. The technology does not yet support the entire vision — despite the hype! Even for those who are furthest along, there is still tremendous opportunity to do more.

What is the Cloud, anyway?

We’ll start this series what a look at what the cloud is, and get to implementation in future posts.

There are a number of cloud definitions, and then some sub-definitions (public vs private cloud, for example), but we need a definition to build a discussion around. So let’s look at two levels. (more…)