Dell cuts deal to expand data center virtualization

Dell announced a deal today with Xsigo Systems, a Silicon Valley company whose I/O virtualization technology will now be offered as an option on Dell's PowerEdge servers and storage systems.

The move helps Dell, which also has being forced to rethink business strategies as the economic downturn impacts its business, get back on a level playing field with HP and IBM, which already have virturtalization I/O technologies of their own in place. In this economy, many companies are not only looking for immediate savings but also smart investments that will help operate more efficiently when the economy starts to recover. In a statement, Joe Skorupa, research VP at Gartner, said:

With budgets under pressure, CIO’s are looking for new ways to reduce capital expenditures and increase management efficiency. I/O virtualization, the logical extension of server and storage virtualization, has the potential to deliver immediate benefits by reducing infrastructure costs, unifying server I/O management, and eliminating the I/O bottlenecks that may result from increased server utilization.

Among the benefits being touted by Xsigo and Dell, compared to traditional server I/O:

•    100 times faster I/O configuration management •    30 percent less power consumption •    70 percent fewer I/O cards, cables, and switch ports •    Predictable I/O bandwidth to applications via hardware-enforced QoS

Xsigo says its solution is interoperable with servers and storage across most platforms. With I/O virtualization, configuration changes can happen in minutes, instead of days, and can be remotely managed via software, instead of hardware.