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Cisco Aims to Improve Power Usage in Data Centers

2009-02-07T21:18:00Z

Cisco Aims to Improve Power Usage in Data Centers

Cisco Report

In 2008, Cisco IT began expanding one of its North California data centers in order to provide much-needed additional server and storage capacity for crucial corporate applications such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), Telepresence and Software as a Service (SaaS) offerings. At the same time, Cisco IT also wanted to maximize utilization of space and minimize demand for electrical power and cooling in this facility.

Find out how they did it by downloading this paper.

Get the White Paper.

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Revolutionizing Data Center Energy Efficiency

2009-02-07T12:51:00Z

Revolutionizing Data Center Energy Efficiency

McKinsey & Company Point of View

Data centers are driving rapid expense growth for many technology-intensive businesses. Despite the huge amounts of capital tied up in data centers, significant inefficiencies exist. Average server utilization seldom exceeds 6 percent and facility utilization can often be as low as 50 percent. With average data center costs now threatening to crowd out other technology investments, the matter has become a board level concern.

Here are a few important learnings from the report:

Data center facilities and electricity cost are growing at 10-15 percent a year with many clients pursuing data center build programs reaching upwards of $500M; this growth shows no sign of stopping due to the increased demand for computing resources.
Aside from the rapidly rising cost, green house gas emissions from data centers will quadruple by 2020.
Most organizations remain very inefficient in managing the return on spend of their data centers (very low server and facility level utilization) and operational improvements can (in most cases) lead to a doubling of efficiency by 2012.
Keys to attaining this doubling of efficiency are taking the following steps (a) making the CIO responsible for all data center facilities costs (b) implementing more mature capabilities for asset management and true total cost of ownership and (c) creation of a new technology "Energy Czar" position to implement an operational and technical plan for driving the required changes across the organization.
The data center world should establish a single means of measuring data center efficiency, similar to the miles per gallon standard used by automakers.

To download the complete report: Revolutionizing Data Center Energy Efficiency

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Importance of Thin Provisioning grows in a Tough Economy

2009-01-06T23:53:00Z

Importance of Thin Provisioning grows in a Tough Economy

Research Reflects Pressure to Thin Provision Datacenters in Lean Times

Fremont, CA, January 6, 2009--3PAR^® (NYSE: PAR) [PR2WEB], the leading global provider of utility storage, announced today that recent research conducted by TheInfoPro (TIP) as part of its Wave 11 Storage Study reflects the growing importance of thin provisioning to Fortune-1000 and Midsize Enterprise storage end users. The number of respondents rating thin provisioning as an important virtualization technology has increased over the last three waves of the study, up more than 30% between Wave 9 and Wave 11. In total, 87% of Wave 11 respondents indicated that they considered thin provisioning an important virtualization technology. According to a recent survey conducted by 3PAR, 50% of 3PAR Utility Storage customers surveyed said that over the past 12 months they have saved at least $50,000 in up-front capacity purchases with 3PAR Thin Provisioning.

"With the current downturn in the economy, end users are indicating that much of their efforts are being focused on consolidation, refresh, and improving storage utilization—reclaiming under-used and overallocated storage—thereby maximizing assets and minimizing spending," said Robert Stevenson, Managing Director of Storage Research for TIP. "Our research shows that one of the key technologies in use to maximize these efforts is thin provisioning, which has moved up from a 'nice to have' feature to a 'must have' for intelligent storage utilization management."

3PAR has built a comprehensive strategy for allowing customers to start thin, get thin, and stay thin. This includes the use of 3PAR Thin Provisioning software to reduce storage capacity requirements by as much as 75%. 3PAR also recently introduced new InServ T-Class Storage Servers featuring Thin Built In^™ technology. These third-generation utility storage arrays are the first in the industry to incorporate a "fat-to-thin" volume conversion mechanism right into silicon to ensure high rates of capacity utilization while maintaining industry-leading performance levels. To help customers get thin and stay thin, 3PAR and Symantec also recently announced a development partnership to introduce Thin Reclamation—a granular, intelligent, and automated mechanism for reclaiming unused storage capacity based on the sharing of intelligence gathered at the file system level, another industry first.

“This year saw many vendors scrambling to introduce products to meet the demand created by 3PAR Thin Provisioning,” said David Scott, 3PAR President and CEO. “But not all thin provisioning is created equal. As the first storage vendor to build thin technology into our storage architecture, 3PAR has continued to demonstrate leadership in thin provisioning innovation. Vendors just now coming out with what they claim to be 'thin' solutions are actually just offering bolt-on products that simply cannot compete with 3PAR’s incumbency in this key technology area."

To preview findings of TheInfoPro Wave 11 Storage Study findings, visit http://www.theinfopro.net/public/home/document.php?dA=storage

About TheInfoPro

TheInfoPro (TIP) is the only independent research network for the Information Technology (IT) industry. Created in 2002 by alumni of Gartner, EMC, Giga, and Bell Labs, TIP investigates key IT sectors – Networking, Information Security, Servers, Storage, and Sourcing – via a comprehensive in-depth interview process. Through a peer network of over 1800 of the world’s largest buyers and users of IT – including Citigroup, FedEx, McGraw-Hill, MasterCard, and Harvard University – TIP delivers detailed budget, vendor performance and technology roadmap data without spin or bias. Known as the voice of the customer, TIP helps IT professionals, technology providers, and institutional investors make sound decisions on technologies, vendor relationships and investments. To learn more, visit www.theinfopro.net or call 1-212-672-0010.

About 3PAR

3PAR^® (NYSE: PAR) is the leading global provider of utility storage, a category of highly virtualized, tightly clustered, and dynamically tiered storage arrays built for utility computing. Organizations use utility computing to build cost-effective virtualized IT infrastructures for flexible workload consolidation. 3PAR Utility Storage gives customers an alternative to traditional arrays by delivering resilient infrastructure with increased agility at a lower total cost to meet their rapidly changing business needs. As a pioneer of thin provisioning--a green technology developed to address storage underutilization and inefficiencies--3PAR offers products designed to minimize power consumption and promote environmental responsibility. With 3PAR, customers have reduced the costs of allocated storage capacity, administration, and SAN infrastructure while increasing adaptability and resiliency. 3PAR Utility Storage is built to meet the demands of open systems consolidation, integrated data lifecycle management, and performance-intensive applications. For more information, visit the 3PAR Website at: www.3PAR.com.

© 2009 3PAR Inc. All rights reserved. 3PAR, the 3PAR logo, Serving Information, InServ, InForm, InSpire, and Thin Built In are all trademarks or registered trademarks of 3PAR Inc. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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Self-repairing Data Center Automation solution released

2009-01-02T17:46:00Z

Self-repairing Data Center Automation solution released

Oslo (January 1, 2009) – Following 5 years of research and development under the technical direction of its long time author Mark Burgess (a professor of Network and System Administration at Oslo University College), the recently formed support company Cfengine AS today released a major upgrade of the Open Source, self-repairing software cfengine based on its innovative Promise Theory technology.

Unlike would-be alternatives, cfengine is not about producing alarms and reports to notify about errors and misalignments in the Data Center: it is a fully self-repairing maintenance engine capable of fixing them without human intervention. Cfengine users know that systems are compliant and maintained even when humans are unavailable, because they have made all the important decisions in advance.

With probably a million existing cfengine installations already worldwide, this major upgrade will have a big impact in improving data center operations at some of the largest data centers in the world, says CEO Thomas Ryd.

Cfengine has always been at the leading edge of research in its field and one of the important innovations in the new release is integrated knowledge management. As a tool that separates human decisions from machine implementation, cfengine historically freed humans from manual labour to indulge in proactive decision-making and strategic planning – something that relies on clear enterprise knowledge. Cfengine 3 now integrates a knowledge engine based on ISO standard Topic Maps making it easier than ever to follow the strategic intentions behind data centers operations. Cfengine ties IT and business-processes together in a way many companies and compliance-auditors will find powerful and appealing, CEO Thomas Ryd continues.

Cfengine is not a quaint dashboard for users – it is a powerful engine for datacenter engineers. Version 3 introduces an innovative new language to the trusted technology, with a simpler syntax and sophisticated pattern description features. It brings technology to manage the essential large scale infrastructure and resource clouds of the next decade.

Cfengine 3 will work side-by-side with existing versions of cfengine to provide a minimum-disruption, incremental upgrade path to existing users. Gradual adoption has always been the cornerstone of cfengine's success, setting it apart from alternative disruptive roll-out systems. While other solutions require weeks or months of training with downtime and a major impact on existing infrastructure and applications, Cfengine works unobtrusively behind the scenes, according to Mark Burgess.

Cfengine AS added support and consulting services to the mix this year, with a strong business management team to complement Burgess's well known research credentials. CEO Thomas Ryd summarizes the main reasons for using cfengine 3 in Data Center Automation:

It is the only truly scalable self-repairing solution.
Its open source code base is broadly tested by a community of expert users.
Its state of the art technology for voluntary cooperation delivers scalability and security and users set their own pace for change.

cfengine to offer a proprietary licence

Oslo (August 20, 2008) – cfengine AS has today announced it will offer a proprietary licence for cfengine version 3.0.0.

Along with the release of cfengine 3.0.0, cfengine AS will offer third-parties the right to modify, implement or in other way integrate cfengine in other licensed software packages. In our quest to make cfengine the most usable software within configuration and automation, allowing third-parties to distribute, bundle and integrate the software, is an important and strategically correct decisions, CEO Thomas Ryd comments. This will not influence the free cfengine. Core cfengine software will still remain GPLed , Thomas continues.

Support & Consultancy available to cfengine-users

Oslo (July 25, 2008) – by email, phone and onsite presence, cfengine now offers professional support to new and existing users of the open source software cfengine. Top-qualified cfengine-personnel are now ready to assist the cfengine-community, CEO Thomas Ryd announced today.

After 15 years, time is more than ripe. With our support-services available companies can feel confident both using and modifying cfengine, Thomas Ryd says. Given the software, we believe our support-services will make the difference and even more companies will decide to use cfengine, and use it more extensively than today. We also offer onsite consultancy and training-sessions, starting with a first training-session in San Diego, November 2008 during the USENIX/LISA 08 conference. ITIL-compliance, SOX-compliance, adaption, Proof-of-concept, Assessments and adjustments of existing infrastructure and validation are among the things our customers will request.

For more information: www.cfengine.com

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IBM Smarter Planet Initiative: The Business of Altruism

2008-12-31T23:15:00Z

IBM Smarter Planet Initiative: The Business of Altruism

What is Happening? On November 12, 2008, Sam Palmisano, IBM Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, spoke at the 2008 Business Leadership Forum in Istanbul, Turkey. His remarks focused on a concept termed the “Smarter Planet.”

Palmisano characterized the Smarter Planet initiative as striving for more intelligent management of business processes and consumption of natural resources. Examples include utilizing information technology to address energy consumption and CO2 emissions. The Smarter Planet thrust includes a range of initiatives, from energy-efficient hardware and energy management software for data centers, to intelligent electric utility networks, support for solar development, carbon management, and intelligent transportation systems.

In addition, IBM is contributing technology, expertise, and guidance to various groups to “better understand and manage the impacts of climate change.” For example, IBM and The Nature Conservancy have joined in an initiative to create tools for simulating, visualizing, and forecasting more sustainable management of the world's great river basins. The system will provide access to wide-ranging data on climate, rainfall, land cover, vegetation, and biodiversity, and enable users to better understand how policy decisions impact water quality and ecosystem service.

Why is it Happening? While IBM is definitely neither a not-for-profit nor a philanthropic organization, the Smarter Planet initiative strikes chords that resonate with both business and social motivations: Becoming more competitive through smarter processes; conserving natural resources through smarter infrastructure.

Palmisano offered key statistics that help provide context for the huge range of challenges and opportunities for all involved. These included the following:

Losses of electrical energy due to inefficient grid systems range from 40 to 70 percent around the world. Assuming an average transmission cost of 8 cents per kilowatt hour places the losses at between $23B and $40B per year – just for U.S. household electricity.
In one year in one small business district of Los Angeles, drivers looking for parking spaces drove the equivalent of 38 trips around the world, consumed 47,000 gallons of gasoline, and produced 730 tons of carbon dioxide emissions. One intelligent transportation management system to more efficiently regulate traffic and transport in urban areas could save drivers as much as $750,000 in that district in vehicle operating costs, along with reducing congestion and emissions, reducing repair costs for vehicles and infrastructure, reducing insurance costs for drivers and carriers, reducing needs for tires, and so on.
Every year due to inefficient supply chains, consumer product manufacturers and retailers together lose about 3.5 percent, or $40 billion, of their sales.
Health care systems rarely link between diagnosis, drug discovery, insurers, employers, patients, and communities. Studies indicate that unified, standardized and integrated healthcare management systems can save 40 to 70 percent in overall hospital operating costs, while reducing errors, improving work environments, reducing training needs, and improving the availability and quality of health care at lower costs.
Typical data centers lack intelligent power and cooling management that can reduce energy consumption by half, and are filled with IT equipment that is utilized an average of between 10 and 20 percent of its capacity.

Palmisano added that current worldwide economic conditions offer a fortuitous incentive to focus on the changes that Smarter Planet encompasses. However, those changes may be impeded by organizational lethargy and lack of necessary IT and management skills.

For example, Saugatuck research indicates that implementing virtualization can dramatically improve IT infrastructure utilization, and yield dramatic reductions in power and cooling costs. However, our research also shows that new skills, tools, and processes are required to properly manage the new virtualized IT infrastructure.

Market Impact The concepts that comprise the Smarter Planet can yield substantial improvements in the global environment and the global economy. On a macro level, they can yield substantial improvements in national economies, regulated industries, and public interests such as traffic control. And, on the micro level, the concepts can yield economic and competitive benefits for companies of all sizes.

However, many of the broad sweeping changes encompassed by the Smarter Planet will not be easy, quick, or inexpensive. Palmisano offered one estimate that modernizing the world's urban water, electricity and transportation systems would require 25 years and cost $41 trillion.

In recent years IBM has introduced sweeping initiatives (e.g., e-Business, autonomic computing, On-Demand) with considerable publicity and coordinated company-wide (i.e., worldwide) product and marketing strategies. In each of those initiatives, the underlying drumbeat (and core motivation) was sales of IBM products and services. Recognizing the opportunities, other major “full line” IT vendors such as HP, Sun, and Unisys, launched similar efforts.

The Smarter Planet initiative differs from those previous initiatives in the following ways:

In keeping with the aura of altruism, IBM is promoting the Smarter Planet initiative in a low-key approach, not as a major marketing thrust.
Since many potential “solutions” will require governmental approval and funding, IBM is hoping to drive broad government and business acceptance of the concept.

This is not to ignore the possibilities for IBM and its vendor partners. Smarter Planet could reasonably become a link that connects many of IBM’s key projects and offerings. A visible example is IBM’s New Enterprise Data Center initiative for optimizing IT infrastructure and reducing user data center power and cooling costs, which has roots in the “Green Data Center” originally announced in May, 2007. In a less-obvious example, Stanley Litow, VP of Corporate Citizenship and Corporate Affairs, hosted a briefing on December 8, 2008, for IT analysts to review IBM’s support of the World Community Grid and IBM’s participation in research to develop less expensive and more efficient solar cells.

And other IT vendors appreciate both the near-term and the long-term opportunities offered by focusing on environmental issues. For example, similar to IBM’s Green Data Center initiative, vendors have been helping users implement more efficient IT networks and infrastructures through “green” products and services. Cisco promotes the network as a central control mechanism for a more efficient infrastructure and HP offers “EcoSolutions” including Data Center Transformation services for implementing a more efficient IT infrastructure.

Several vendors, including Cisco, Dell, HP, Intel, Microsoft, and Sun, support the Global eSustainability Initiative (GeSI). The GeSI is a partnership of information and communication technology companies that is focused on promoting technologies for sustainable development. GeSI is broad-based, and is focused on many of the same areas identified in IBM’s Smarter Planet initiative.

Such major vendor positioning, combined with an increasing demand for “green” initiatives and actions by customers and regulators, and the urgency of current economic conditions, suggests to Saugatuck that we are seeing a series of signposts – indicators that the time has arrived for investment by users and vendors in improving business, public, and governmental processes and infrastructures. Many earlier ideas and initiatives that were formerly held to be impractical or uneconomical are now much more attractive due to the combination of conditions. Some changes will yield near-term savings while other efforts will be protracted but could yield near term benefits. For example, a public works effort to renew the US power grid could offer currently needed employment opportunities.

Clearly, the types of changes envisioned in the Smarter Planet and in GeSI present enormous product and services opportunities for major IT vendors. But Saugatuck does not expect vendors (or users) to abandon long-standing IT or business planning, development, purchasing, and management practices, and suddenly switch to so-called “smart” alternatives. We do expect an upsurge in interest and action toward “smart” and “green” initiatives and solutions (such as virtualization of IT infrastructures) partly as a result of these major vendors’ positioning and pressure - which in turn, are responses to increasing public market pressures – and partly the result of near-term cost benefits. More and more, there is profit in doing good.

The authors invite your comments and inquiries on this Research Alert. Please contact Charlie Burns at charlie.burns@saugatech.com, ,or Bruce Guptill at bruce.guptill@saugatech.com . For a PDF Version of this Research Alert please Click Here (Site Registration Required).

Browse Related Research:

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Data Center Transformation a Top Priority in 2009 for CIOs – Survey

2008-12-28T15:46:00Z

Data Center Transformation a Top Priority in 2009 for CIOs – Survey

HP Data Center Transformation Experience workshops launch.

New global research reveals that 84 percent of technology organizations are planning to implement a data center transformation (DCT) project in the next 12 months, primarily to lower costs and reduce business risk.

The HP-commissioned survey⁽¹⁾ further shows that a vast majority of technology decision makers are currently implementing or planning to implement in 2009 consolidation (95 percent), business continuity (93 percent) and virtualization (91 percent) projects.

In support of these and other DCT initiatives, HP announced the worldwide availability of the HP Data Center Transformation Experience workshops. Designed to help build out efficient next-generation data centers, these collaborative workshops demonstrate how chief information officers (CIOs) can swiftly maximize their investments in transformation initiatives through an integrated and customized technology roadmap aligned to business goals.

Today’s CIOs are challenged more than ever to control costs and quickly achieve returns on technology investments. According to the study, respondents named reducing operational costs (31 percent) as their top driver for 2009 DCT spending. Enhancing security (29 percent) followed as a close second.

However, in both cases decision makers reported that technology needs, more than business needs, are prompting the investments. This may limit their ability to achieve both short-term and long-term business benefits such as reduced costs, mitigated risks and accelerated growth.

“CIOs who approach DCT initiatives with a focus on business needs can significantly reduce time to value for today’s technology investments while laying the foundation for future growth,” said John Bennett, worldwide director, Data Center Transformation Solutions, HP. “HP Data Center Transformation Experience workshops offer CIOs a unique opportunity to align technology strategies with their specific business goals.”

Opportunity for CIOs to impact business performance in 2009

Most organizations are transforming their data centers through independent projects instead of taking a broad, integrated approach. The new research indicates that 20 percent of technology decision makers are initiating a complete transformation, while the remaining 80 percent are implementing individual transformation projects without an overall DCT strategy.

When asked to indicate what projects they would implement independently to achieve specific technology goals, respondents named the following:

Automation – 64 percent
Green IT – 60 percent
Operations management – 59 percent
Virtualization – 59 percent
Business continuity – 58 percent

All of these projects have the potential to also achieve business goals. By taking a comprehensive approach and aligning these autonomous projects to an overall DCT strategy, an opportunity exists for CIOs to maximize the value of their transformation initiatives.

HP Data Center Transformation Experience

The HP Data Center Transformation Experience is a half-day or full-day workshop providing an opportunity for CIOs and key decision makers to gain critical knowledge and discover best practices regarding complete transformation projects that can help organizations lower overall costs, reduce risk and accelerate growth. The workshop is an interactive walkthrough of the key elements that make up a successful data center transformation project.

The HP Data Center Transformation Experience helps CIOs:

Realize the scope, scale and critical success factors for a DCT initiative, including facilities, IT infrastructure, governance and operations,
Identify initiatives that require a more strategic approach and teaming with the business to deliver significant company benefits, and
Outline next steps in a customized roadmap.

Methodology

Hansa | GCR performed the study, commissioned by HP, using a web survey to collect information from 600 technology decision makers from midsized organizations to enterprises, globally. Approximately 85 percent of the respondents were from enterprise companies and 15 percent were from midmarket companies. Countries included in the survey were Brazil, Germany, India, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.

About HP

HP, the world’s largest technology company, simplifies the technology experience for consumers and businesses with a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure. More information about HP (NYSE: HPQ) is available at http://www.hp.com.

⁽¹⁾ Hansa I GCR, “HP Data Center Transformation: Key Implementation Drivers,” November 2008.

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Gary E. Smith
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Unleashing the Power of Dynamic Infrastructure in the Data Center and Beyond: A Live Streaming Event

2008-12-20T13:51:00Z

Unleashing the Power of Dynamic Infrastructure in the Data Center and Beyond: A Live Streaming Event

Is your network ready for Infrastructure 2.0? It better be.

Network infrastructure will be transformed in coming months by new levels of automation and intelligence driven by new system and endpoint demands and new IT initiatives. Find out how you can boost network availability and flexibility while reducing TCO by transforming your static network infrastructure into a dynamic network infrastructure capable of responding quickly to the needs of more dynamic systems and endpoints. Attendees will learn about:

Cisco's perspective on the biggest revolution in data center networking technology since TCP/IP
Why new initiatives, from RFID/supply chain to voip/wireless and virtualization will require dynamic infrastructure
Why core network services automation and "connectivity intelligence" are a critical part of the evolution to Infrastructure 2.0

Date: January 15, 2009

Time: 8:15AM pacific - Breakfast and Seating
9:00AM pacific - Panel Discussion Begins (show times for major cities)

Venue: The Fairmont Hotel, San Jose CA or Video Streaming to your Desktop

Speakers: Doug Gourlay - Senior Director, Cisco
Stuart Bailey - Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Infoblox

Moderator: Richard Kagan - VP Marketing

We look forward to seeing you at this free event.

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Data Center Networking Leader BLADE Network Technologies Maintains Dominance in Blade Server Switch Market and Establishes Early Leadership in 10 Gigabit Ethernet

2008-12-17T02:18:00Z

Data Center Networking Leader BLADE Network Technologies Maintains Dominance in Blade Server Switch Market and Establishes Early Leadership in 10 Gigabit Ethernet

BLADE Concludes Record-Breaking FY08 Reaching 5 Million Ethernet Ports Milestone for Blade Servers -- 2x More Than the Competition and Blocks to Enforce Security and Compliance of VMware™

SANTA CLARA, CA, Dec 16, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- BLADE Network Technologies, Inc. (BLADE), the trusted leader in data center networking, announced that the privately held company enjoyed a record fourth fiscal quarter during which it shipped more than 500,000 Ethernet ports to conclude its 2008 fiscal year with 54 percent shipment growth over the previous year. In so doing, BLADE maintained its leadership in blade server networking with a 2x lead over the nearest competition. BLADE's new 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) RackSwitch products, introduced in 2008, also position the company to deliver the enhanced network performance required for data center consolidation, virtualization and cloud computing.

"BLADE enjoyed a banner year in 2008 because of our passionate commitment to customer satisfaction and innovative products that out-perform the competition while offering significant savings in cost and power," said Vikram Mehta, president and CEO of BLADE Network Technologies. "We believe that BLADE will continue to meet its aggressive business goals in 2009, despite an economy that has Cisco forecasting that its revenues will be 5 to 10 percent lower than a year ago. BLADE is in a pole position to emerge as a new giant in data center networking -- not just for blade servers, an area it already dominates, but for all types of rack-mounted systems used in today's enterprise data centers."

A recent BLADE switch installation at Phorm (AIM: PHRM) (AIM: PHRX) put BLADE's total shipments past the 5 million ports milestone. A technology company specializing in highly targeted online advertising, Phorm has deployed BLADE's new top-of-rack RackSwitch data center switch for its innovative Open Internet Exchange (OIX), which enables advertisers to connect precisely with their key customers.

"Phorm delivers advertising technology services that are secure, innovative and high performance," said Marc Burgess, Phorm's Senior Vice President of Technology. "We expect the same qualities from our partners. BLADE Network Technologies' RackSwitch offered us the best price performance and the highest level of technical flexibility for our needs. We look forward to working with BLADE as we progress our strategy globally."

BLADE has now shipped 5 million Ethernet switch ports to more than 5,000 customers worldwide. Over half of Fortune 500 companies rely on BLADE's Ethernet switches to connect their datacenter servers or racks of servers to each other and to the network.

BLADE closed its FY08 with several impressive milestones:

--  Through its collaborations with HP, IBM, NEC and Verari Systems, BLADE
    has delivered more than 220,000 Gigabit and 10 Gigabit Ethernet switches to
    enterprise data centers to connect over 1.1 million servers.
--  In 2008, BLADE introduced its new "Virtual, Cooler and Easier"
    RackSwitch product family to address the rapidly emerging market for top-of-
    rack 10GbE data center switches. According to Dell'Oro Group, 10 Gigabit
    Ethernet is expected to reach 15.1 million ports and represent one quarter
    of all switch market revenue in 2012 ("Five-Year Ethernet Forecast, July
    2008").
--  BLADE's market share of data center switches for blade servers now
    stands in excess of 48.5 percent combined on HP and IBM blade servers and
    66 percent on NEC blade servers. To date, BLADE's market share and Ethernet
    port shipments on both IBM and HP platforms are more than 2x greater than
    the nearest competitor's.

BLADE'S Trusted Partners in the Data Center

BLADE delivers its award-winning data center networking products to leading enterprises worldwide through its trusted collaborations with HP, IBM, NEC and Verari Systems.

"Customers who want to reduce their infrastructure connectivity costs, lower energy expenses, and reduce implementation times of their 1GbE and 10GbE switches choose HP," said Mark Potter, vice president and general manager, BladeSystem, HP. "Our portfolio of products and partners have made HP the global market leader in blade infrastructure. BLADE's success with their network switch technology makes them a valuable member of our BladeSystem Solution Builder Program and helps us deliver additional blade technology innovations to our customers."

"IBM is committed to serving our x86 customers with the widest variety of server platforms and networking technologies available," said Alex Yost, vice president, IBM BladeCenter. "IBM's work with BLADE has resulted in leadership products for our blade-server customers including the first native 10 Gigabit Ethernet switch for blade servers."

"As NEC strives to fulfill its role as Japan's leading provider of PC servers, our customers see the value of BLADE's proven approach to integrated blade server networking and as a leader in delivering 10 Gigabit Ethernet networking for enterprise network convergence, data center consolidation and advanced energy efficiency," said Kimihiko Fukuda, General Manager of Client and Server Division, NEC. "BLADE's approach to Rackonomics is particularly well suited for today's global economic environment, providing a rack-level formula for affordably, easily and efficiently equipping next-generation data centers."

"BLADE and Verari teamed up to deliver Verari's NB1010 Series BladeSwitch in enabling next-generation data center environments to scale out affordably for increased performance, scalability and energy efficiency," said Dan Gatti, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Market Operations, Verari Systems. "Our ground-breaking work with BLADE in blade server innovation enables customers to fully realize the benefits of virtualization and energy efficiency as they make the move to 10 Gigabit Ethernet with BLADE's best-in-class products."

Rackonomics for the New Data Center Frugality

To aid data center managers seeking to consolidate and virtualize vital IT systems despite today's tight economy, BLADE champions a new set of rules for the data center known as "Rackonomics" -- an economical approach for provisioning essential server, storage and networking infrastructure one-rack-at-a-time. Rackonomics empowers enterprise data centers to control costs and contain sprawl while realizing massive scale-out economies.

"As enterprises move to consolidate and virtualize their data centers, the demands on networks increase," said Lucinda Borovick, Research Vice President, Datacenter Networks, IDC. "BLADE Network Technologies is delivering Gigabit and 10 Gigabit Ethernet switches in top-of-rack and bladed form factors that are equipped with the low latency and high throughput required for today's network-intensive workloads."

BLADE employs more than 327 people across its worldwide offices, including its Santa Clara, CA headquarters, its BLADE Network Research (BNR) development subsidiary in Ottawa, Canada, and sales and support operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Asia Pacific, Japan, China and Korea.

About BLADE Network Technologies

BLADE Network Technologies is the leading supplier of Gigabit and 10G Ethernet network infrastructure solutions that reside in blade servers and "scale-out" server and storage racks. BLADE's new "virtual, cooler and easier" RackSwitch family demonstrates the promise of "Rackonomics" -- a revolutionary approach for scaling out data center networks to drive down total cost of ownership. The company's customers include half of the Fortune 500 across 26 industry segments, and an installed base of over 220,000 network switches representing more than 1,100,000 servers and over 5 million switch ports.

For more information, visit www.bladenetwork.net.

BLADE Network Technologies, the BLADE logo and RackSwitch are trademarks of BLADE Network Technologies. All other names or marks are property of their respective owners.

SOURCE: BLADE Network Technologies

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Gary E. Smith
Data Center Architect

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