DCM, with access layer solutions and dedicated top of rack devices designed to address the I/O excess. So let’s think about it logically. I/O
has always relied on dedicated PCI Express connections which have resided inside the server. Up to eight cables per rack are connected to them using multiple switches to pipe data back and forth between the data centre and the network. Server virtualisation increased the traffic and the cables increased in proportion. However, what if all the traffic could be directed to just one PCI unit which then segmented and rerouted it virtually? That is a modern day reality. Instead of multiple 1Gb lines or some major 10Gb Ethernet cables, DCMs
can deploy a single PCI Express cable connecting the server to a pool of I/O resources at the top of the rack. Now it’s a little more complicated and different vendors offer different rack-based solutions, but intrinsically there you have it. How do you deal with an increase in traffic born from server virtualisation? Virtualise the traffic as well. The beauty of this method is that PCI cables are universal and can support a number of different protocols (Ethernet 1Gb or 10Gb, Fibre Channel, InfiniBand, SAS/ SATA, FCoE, iSCSI, GPU’s) and even better, if you need more bandwidth it can be easily updated. The market for access-level I/O virtualisation solutions is relatively
young. But it is already essential that DCMs consider solution aspects like the type of transport used (look out for post-installation traffic speeds and adaptor costs, a nasty sting in the tail of any implementation!) and protocol adaptability (make sure your solution is compliant with storage protocols like SATA for example if you have an incumbent SAN) as they will all impact on the time it takes to stand up new servers and therefore the cost savings and efficiencies your business will benefit from. With more virtualised data centre environments in existence than ever before, virtualised I/O is surely the next part of the efficiency puzzle.
www.netcommseurope.com
NETCOMMS europe Volume II Issue 4 2012 39
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