Server and Network Virtualization

Implementing plans to ensure business continuity for key IT services and business critical applications is an essential requirement for organizations today. Downtime of important applications is a costly proposition and extended downtime can even be fatal—industry research finds that a significant number of companies that experience extended interruption to IT services soon go out of business. BLADE's patented VMready solution works with VMware infrastructure to ensure that the network infrastructgure is virtual machine aware.

Companies have rushed to deploy server virtualization in order to enjoy the benefits of consolidation— namely, reduced capital and operating costs. The promise of server virtualization also includes enhanced mobility and availability enabled by networked storage. However, ensuring network performance and security for highly mobile virtual machines (VMs) can quickly become an operations nightmare. In order to fulfill the promise of a dynamic environment, VMs need to be supported by an intelligent network. While many vendors are just talking about this concept, BLADE Network Technologies is actively delivering products to solve the problem—for all server virtualization technologies.

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Server virtualization is now widely accepted as a key method to consolidate computing resources. As companies take advantage of the cost savings of virtualization, they will begin to migrate to what IDC calls Virtualization 2.0. using virtualization technology to improve business operations and mobility.

This document describes enterprise virtualization today and the anticipated uses of this technology, particularly leveraging the capabilities provided by widespread adoption of 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) as a single, converged network fabric.

In addition, challenges for organizations adopting the next generation of virtualization are discussed as is how network virtualization - another form of virtualization can help meet these challenges. This paper also looks at the role BLADE Network Technologies has in next-generation datacenters with Virtualization 2.0 technologies.

Learn more about BLADE's products for network virtualization: SmartConnect with VMready.

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• blade.org's: "Application Virtualization Solutions: A Collaborative Effort"

Server virtualization has emerged as the most dramatic market inflection of the decade and has resulted in millions of dollars in savings. The positive effects on business, technical and operational environments are still emerging yet virtualization has delivered on the promise to reduce power, cooling and space requirements - with savings of 40% or more. These savings have been realized by solving problems caused by inefficiently utilized server resources.

However, this only represents one facet of the capabilities and flexibility that can be achieved through data center virtualization.

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