Karlsruhe Institute Of Technology Selects Voltaire 40 Gb/S Infiniband And Unified Fabric Manager Software For Cloud Computing Research

Voltaire's new Grid Director 4700 switches interconnected with HP supercomputeroffers extreme scalability and ultra low latency.

July 13, 2009

4 Min Read
NetworkComputing logo in a gray background | NetworkComputing

BILLERICA, Mass. and RA'ANANA , Israel - July 13, 2009 -Voltaire Ltd. (NASDAQ: VOLT), a leading provider of scale-out data center fabrics, today announced that the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) has selected Voltaire 40 Gb/s InfiniBand switches and Unified Fabric Manager (UFM) software for an HP supercomputer dedicated to cloud computing research.  KIT's new supercomputer will serve as one of the centers of excellence for Open Cirrus, an open cloud computing research testbed designed to support research into the design, provisioning and management of services at a global, multi-data center scale.  

"As part of the Open Cirrus project, KIT's new supercomputer will build and optimize cloud applications for use in data centers around the world," said Professor Rudolf Lohner, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. "We selected Voltaire's Grid Director 4700 40 Gb/s InfiniBand switches because of the high performance and extreme scalability enabled by the switch's double-density fabric boards.  40 Gb/s bandwidth coupled with Voltaire's UFM software helps us improve application performance and offer more efficient service delivery in our multi-tenant cloud environment."

The HP supercomputer consists of 334 HP ProLiant DL2x170h G6 and HP ProLiant DL4x170h G6 servers based on the Intel Xeon processor 5500 series and is interconnected with two Voltaire Grid Director 4700 switches. The Grid Director 4700 features 324 ports of 40 Gb/s InfiniBand connectivity, with the option to double capacity to 648 ports using double-density fabric boards. The double-density fabric boards are the basis for the HyperScale architecture, a unique stackable architecture for building larger configurations into the hundreds and thousands of nodes, with lower latency and greater simplicity than alternative solutions.  

To further optimize the supercomputer's performance and simplify management of the large, multi-tenant fabric, KIT selected Voltaire's new UFM software - the industry's first comprehensive management software that takes a fabric-wide view of the infrastructure to optimize performance.
Unlike other management software platforms that are device-oriented and involve tedious manual processes, UFM software provides IT managers with a logical view of their infrastructure. This bridges the traditional gap between servers, applications and fabric elements, creating a more effective and business-oriented way to manage and scale out high-performance fabrics - especially critical for providing cloud services.

"KIT recognizes that the dynamic nature of cloud-based services requires a high-performance, scale-out fabric that is tightly coupled with a deeply integrated management solution," said Asaf Somekh, vice president of marketing, Voltaire.  "Voltaire's 40 Gb/s InfiniBand combined with UFM software results in a uniquely well-architected fabric that delivers top performance for KIT's supercomputer as well as extended functionality, resource management and deep insight into total infrastructure activities for the cloud."
"IT researchers such as KIT need maximum server performance to advance the functionality and efficiency of cloud applications and services," said Ed Turkel, manager of business development, Scalable Computing and Infrastructure, HP. "Together with Voltaire, HP is delivering the hardware and switching infrastructure KIT needs for scale-out computing on a global level."More information about Voltaire's Grid Director 4700 is available at www.voltaire.com/GridDirector4700 and more information about UFM software can be found at www.voltaire.com/ufm.
About Voltaire
Voltaire (NASDAQ: VOLT) is a leading provider of scale-out computing fabrics for data centers, high performance computing and cloud environments. Voltaire's family of server and storage fabric switches and advanced management software improve performance of mission-critical applications, increase efficiency and reduce costs through infrastructure consolidation and lower power consumption. Used by more than 30 percent of the Fortune 100 and other premier organizations across many industries, including many of the TOP500 supercomputers, Voltaire products are included in server and blade offerings from Bull, HP, IBM, NEC and Sun and provide the internal server-to-storage connectivity for the HP-Oracle Database Machine. Founded in 1997, Voltaire is headquartered in Ra'anana, Israel and Billerica, Massachusetts. More information is available at www.voltaire.com or by calling 1-800-865-8247.

Forward Looking Statements
Information provided in this press release may contain statements relating to current expectations, estimates, forecasts and projections about future events that are "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements generally relate to Voltaire's plans, objectives and expectations for future operations and are based upon management's current estimates and projections of future results or trends. They also include third-party projections regarding expected industry growth rates. Actual future results may differ materially from those projected as a result of certain risks and uncertainties. These factors include, but are not limited to, those discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" in Voltaire's annual report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2008. These forward-looking statements are made only as of the date hereof, and we undertake no obligation to update or revise the forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

###

All product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER
Stay informed! Sign up to get expert advice and insight delivered direct to your inbox

You May Also Like


More Insights