Channel Daily News

LANs and SANs go virtual

Hewlett-Packard has turned to the concept of virtualization to help make network connectivity and management of its enterprise BladeSystem c-Class servers.

The company has introduced HP Virtual Connect Ethernet and Fibre Channel virtualization modules, which it says enables administrators to replace or recover problem blade servers on the fly.

The devices plug into the back of c-Class servers, which have ports for four I/O devices and come with configuration software.

If an ordinary server fails and is replaced, users can’t access the new server until its network addresses are corrected. The Virtual Connect modules hold each blade’s addresses. If resources are changed from one server to another the addresses stay the same.

They create “virtualization of the LAN and SAN connectivity,” explained Chris Christianopoulos, HP Canada’s blade system business development manager.

Blade infrastructures may need network, storage or storage area network switches, which can be a lot for administrators to deal with, he said.

“With Virtual Connect we’re not adding another switch. We’re reducing the number of cables coming out of that blade enclosure,” he said. “We’re giving them the ability to change servers in minutes, not days and simply how to add and remove resources.

“From an operational cost-saving perspective, it’s significant because now you don’t have to have administrators in the changing of (server) resources. You do it once up front and you don’t have to revisit it again.”

The Ethernet module, which starts at US$5,699, manages the connection to the network, while the Fibre Channel module, which starts at US$9,499, manages a connection to the SAN if the system has one.

“It’s a great product for the channel because it allows them to sell installation and integration services,” Christianopoulos said. “When you’re talking about architecting a networking environment, this allows the channel to play a critical role.”

HP also announced that Blade Connect, an online community for partners who are members of the BladeSystem Solution Builder program to share knowledge of the line’s products.

In a separate announcement, the company launched its first workstation blade for the c-Class architecture.

The ProLiant xw460c, powered by Dual-Core Intel Xeon 5000-series processors, is said to deliver data centre workstation computing.

HP said the unit is ideal of customers in the financial services, public sector and manufacturing industries.