Avastu Blog: Sustainable Global Clouds

Xsigo takes an interesting approach in addressing the I/O concerns. The solution is to virtualize server I/O. That is, turn normally fixed and static I/O channels, host bus adapters, and network interface cards into more dynamic resources whose capacity can expand and contract based on virtual server needs. If I/O virtualization could be achieved, it would resolve a persistent problem server administrators have as they stack virtualized applications on the same hardware. Until virtualized I/O becomes commonplace, applications with heavy or fluctuating I/O demands aren't being virtualized, lest they end up causing I/O backups. Two early solutions have emerged and more are sure to follow. Startup Xsigo off-loads I/O traffic to an attached appliance that virtualizes it (see diagram, p. 20). The approach requires replacing standard HBAs and NICs on the server with Xsigo custom cards and investing in the Xsigo appliance. Pricing starts at $30,000. Xsigo's appliance can generate up t...

The newly released Neterion X3100 Series adapters enable multiple guest operating systems of a virtual server environment to share one physical adapter through the use of physically separate I/O channels. The X3100 offers 17 independent hardware I/O paths directly in silicon, each with independent reset and control that can be matched to a 16-core CPU virtualized server with one extra path for management. Neterion's president and CEO, Dave Zabrowski, says having true independent I/O paths directly in silicon overcomes the severe manageability limitations of other firmware-based implementations of I/O paths, which can't perform true I/O virtualization. Neterion's silicon-based architecture, he says, enables applications on virtual machines to deliver Quality of Service (QoS) with dynamic allocation of I/O bandwidth that can instantly increase to full 10Gbps throughput when required. Here for more news