An exclusive gaming industry community targeted
to, and designed for Professionals, Businesses
and Students in the sectors and industries
of Gaming, New Media and the Web, all closely
related with it's Business and Industry.
A Rich content driven service including articles,
contributed discussion, news, reviews, networking, downloads,
and debate.
We strive to cater for cultural influencers,
technology decision makers, early adopters and business leaders in the gaming industry.
A medium to share your or contribute your ideas,
experiences, questions and point of view or network
with other colleagues here at iVirtua Community.
NextIO has been stealthing away down in Austin, Texas, flying underthe radar of most server customers. You can, however, be sure that themajor server vendors know about this small shop.
The start-up last week revealed a $19m funding round led by AdamsCapital Management and Crescendo Ventures. That cash infusion bringsNextIO's total funding to $40m and should help the firm grow from about35 workers to 50 workers, along with aiding continued productdevelopment.
document.write('\x3Cscript src="http://ad.uk.doubleclick.net/adj/reg.main_hardware.4159/servers;'+RegExCats+GetVCs()+'pid='+RegId+RegDT+';'+RegKW+'maid='+maid+';test='+test+';pf='+RegPF+';dcove=d;sz=336x280;tile=3;ord=' + rand + '?" type="text/javascript">\x3C\/script>'); <ahref="http://ad.uk.doubleclick.net/jump/reg.main_hardware.4159/servers;dcove=d;sz=336x280;tile=3;ord=F4bCBdRk6jgAADciJRUAAAAf?"target="_blank"><imgsrc="http://ad.uk.doubleclick.net/ad/reg.main_hardware.4159/servers;dcove=d;sz=336x280;tile=3;ord=F4bCBdRk6jgAADciJRUAAAAf?"width="336" height="280" border="0" alt="" />
NextIO's play revolves around virtualizing networking connectionsparticularly on blade servers and also rack-mounted servers. You slot aNextIO module into an existing server chassis or rack and can thenshare the PCI Express I/O flow between physical servers. In addition,NextIO lets customers connect just about any type of switch - FibreChannel, Fibre Channel over Ethernet or iSCSI - to the chassis and thento the corresponding back-end storage.
Looking just at the virtualized I/O, NextIO claims a cost advantageover current set-ups. Rather than purchasing networking gear for eachblade or server, a customer can buy the NextIO module and then trickthe servers into thinking they have their own switch. According to thecompany's figures, this approach can reduce I/O hardware costs by "atleast" 50 per cent.
The story grows more intriguing as you look out to the storageconnections. NextIO's hardware fits into existing switch bays on serverchassis and lets customers use standard switches rather than oftencustomized, pricey gear for blade boxes.
Traditional blade server designs limit users to only one additonalI/O technology from the integrated ones on the motherboard. This legacydesign forces users to remove power from their blades and physicallyreplace the I/O daughter cards to change or update their I/Otechnology. Additionally, if a new I/O technology is chosen for theblade, a fabric switch for the chassis I/O is typically purchased toextend the technology within the datacenter.
With NextIO's PCI Express shared switch module solution, blades onlyneed to extend PCIe from their chipset through the chassis midplane toa module bay. In a chassis module bay, a NextIO shared I/O moduleprovides users the ability to offer multiple I/O technologies to one ormore blade servers and to reassign or change I/O technologies withoutpowering down blades. All shared I/O devices are compatible withexisting operating systems and device drivers without modification.
Dell has invested in NextIO, and the vendor is tracking thetechnology closely, as is Fujitsu which has held demonstrations of theNextIO technology. In addition, NextIO once counted HP's Shane Robisonas a board member.
We should expect to see OEMs picking up the NextIO systems this year.
You can check out the NextIO gear here
Digg Topic
Tag topic on On del.icio.us
Technorati Search
Post to Slashdot
