George Zimmerman and Steve Pope, CTOs at 10-Gbit Ethernet (10GbE) silicon solutions provider Solarflare Communications (www.solarflare.com), are predicting widespread adoption of 10GbE in data centers and enterprises this year to support advanced applications and enablehigher efficiency. Growing networkdemands coupled with “going green” initiatives, say the executives, will drive high-performance solutions that are both cost- and power-efficient.
“2008 will see tremendous demand for virtualization and convergence,” says Pope. “Enterprises and datacenters can now easily and cost-effectively upgrade their network infrastructure to 10GbE and support these advanced applications.”
In expressing their published opinions on technology trends in the coming year, Zimmerman and Pope offered the following observations:
- Increasing power, cooling and footprint costs, combined with a growing number of applications, users, and transactions, will drive the need for server and storage virtualization, as well as application and storage network convergence to fully realize the potential of both virtualization and convergence. Enterprises and data centers will move to 10GbE networks to address cost and power efficiency issues, along with ever-increasing business demands.
- Until now, virtualization and 10-Gbit networking were specialized technologies. In 2007, VMware went public and Citrix acquired XenSource. These companies’ technologies have becomemore mature, stable, secure, andaccepted. In 2008, to make virtualization a reality and enable mass-market adoption, major players, includingVMware, XenSource/Citrix, andMicrosoft, will focus on virtualized operating systems optimized for 10GbE.
- Storage Area Networks (SANs) will adopt 10GbE networks as their core infrastructure, with the proliferation of iSCSI and the introduction ofFibre Channel over Ethernet (FCOE) products by storage vendors. By optimizing for and deploying over 10GbE, I/O performance bottlenecks for virtualized platforms will be removed. Data centers willbecome completely virtualized with the ability to run I/O-intensive applications, such as High Performance Computing (HPC) and financial services on virtualized machines.
- Industry market forces pushing for energy efficiency will outstrip government demands. Data centers will increasingly focus on efficiency, moving beyond power distribution. Activities ranging from company-led initiatives (such as Climate Savers Computing launched by Intel and Google) to task forces in industry-standards organizations, paired with next-generation technology developments, will provide solutions that by far surpass those the government proposes.
- 10GbE links will become a cost- and energy-efficientalternative for aggregated gigabit links. With virtualization driving more fully utilized links, and second generation 10GBase-T PHYs enjoying power reductions of 50% ormore, 10-Gbit will finally break through in cost andenergy efficiency, per bit-per-second transferred. Andwith the worldwide rollout of 10GBase-T server adap-ters and switches from major original equipment man-ufacturers (OEMs), 10GbE will finally fulfill its promise as the next level in efficient, high-performance networking.
“Energy and power efficiency will continue to be top-of-mind for CIOs and IT administrators this year,” says Zimmerman. “Huge advancements have been made in10GbE technology, and efficient, standards-based, high-performance solutions are now available.”
Short runs ...SANTA CRUZ, CA—The University of California at Santa Cruz is partnering with the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives to connect the campus to the statewide California Research and Education Network fiber-optic network. Installation from the network hub in Sunnyvale over mountainous terrain to Santa Cruz has proved challenging, but the $5 million project is expected to be finished by the end of the year. Initial plans call for the network to be sent to five campus locations, with the ultimate goal of establishing ultra-high-speed connectivity to campus labs and classrooms.
HOUSTON, TX—Intelligent home solutions provider IntelliHome (www.Intellihomeinc.com) is working on a new subdivision in Brazoria County, TX where each home will have a pre-determined structured wiring package. “These developments are well known for their commitment to leading edge technology, including structured wiring as a standard feature of all homes in each development,” says John Peper, IntelliHome’s vice president of operations. The Katy, TX-based company provides products and services ranging from home automation and monitored security systems to whole house audio/video and structured cabling to facilitate state-of-the-art networking technologies.
KING OF PRUSSIA, PA—Weintraub Telecomm, LLC (www.weitel.com), which designs, deploys, and manages voice, video, and data networks for telecom companies and selected commercial customers, plans to acquire Phoenix, AZ-based Jensen Communications Corp. (www.jencomcorp.com), which provides CATV design, drafting, and mapping services that help customers build, rebuild, or upgrade documentation of their outside plant. “Together, we will be able to provide solutions to many of the commercial serviceability and multi-dwelling-unit (MDU) issues and opportunities,” says Bruce Weintraub, CEO.
DUBLIN, IRELAND—“WiMAX Business Plan and Business Planning Tool” has been introduced by Research and Markets (www.researchandmarkets.com). The 70-page report is designed to enable intelligent WiMAX investment and deployment, and includes an Excel spreadsheet tool that incorporates several WiMAX performance parameters needed to determine network, VoIP, and video capacities.