Neterion Releases 10-GigE Adapter

CUPERTINO, Calif. -- Neterion, Inc., the industry pioneer of I/O Virtualization (IOV) in 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) adapters for server and storage environments, today announced the general availability of its third generation I/O Virtualized X3110 10 GbE server adapter through its world-wide channel of distributors.

The adoption of server virtualization is the fastest growing trend in today's datacenters and has been enabled by two major technology developments:

-- Hypervisor technology (from the likes of VMware, XEN, Citrix and Microsoft) that logically divides a single CPU complex into dozens (or even hundreds) of virtual CPUs

-- Impressive gains in CPU horsepower thanks to the advent of multi-core technology

I/O is rapidly becoming the bottleneck or "glass ceiling" in large-scale virtualized server environments as technology trends and the economy demand higher VM density and faster migration of I/O intensive applications. Until now, I/O has failed to keep pace with advances in CPU and Hypervisor technology. This threatens to eventually limit the number of VMs per platform, stunt the adoption of "cloud computing" and also prevent the migration of I/O intensive applications such as databases and mail servers.Neterion's I/O Virtualized X3110 10 GbE server adapter shatters virtualization's glass ceiling. The industry's first fully virtualized Ethernet controller brings the following capabilities to virtualized server environments:

-- Integrated Hypervisor Offload technology dramatically reduces the Hypervisor's CPU utilization and frees up system resources for applications, not "plumbing." Included in the X3110's Hypervisor Offload is support for the newly emerging Virtual Ethernet Bridge (VEB) standard that migrates Ethernet switching overhead from the Hypervisor to the X3110 adapter hardware. The X3110's Hypervisor Offload facilitates greater VM density per platform and deployment of I/O intensive applications that before now required a dedicated, non-virtualized server.

-- Neterion's hardware-based I/O Quality of Service (IOQoS) technology allows IT managers to implement true I/O isolation and bandwidth guarantees for each workload. Each fully virtualized I/O workload can independently enable prioritization, classification and queuing of traffic. IOQoS allows virtualized data centers to meet demanding Service Level Agreements (SLAs) of enterprise applications, regardless of whether they run in a virtualized environment. Now, nearly all enterprise applications can be migrated to virtual server environments, greatly expanding the breadth of server virtualization in the datacenter.

-- Neterion's unique Virtual Link Technology (VLT)™ enables the X3110 10 GbE adapter to appear to the system as up to 17 fully independent Ethernet adapters that can be managed just like multiple Gigabit adapters. VLT presents multiple PCI device functions to the host system, which means that today's servers can take full advantage of the technology. VLT also provides future proofing by allowing enterprise data centers to migrate to the industry standard Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) when enabling software becomes available.

"The next level of server virtualization requires I/O Virtualization to break down the links to physical infrastructure, simplify provisioning and ensure quality of service to different virtual machines," said Nik Simpson, Senior Analyst for Burton Group. "While several companies have developed proprietary systems to virtualize I/O connections, Burton Group believes that the future of I/O Virtualization lies in support for open hardware standards such as PCI multi-function mode and embedded PCIe switching, along with the more advanced features found in fully SR-IOV complaint adapters."Neterion Inc.