Xsigo Systems, the technology leader in I/O virtualization, today announced that Dell Inc. has selected the company as a provider of I/O virtualization solutions – a critical technology necessary for optimizing data centers.  In addition to reselling Xsigo’s virtual I/O solutions, the companies will work together on technology roadmaps and the development of reseller resources, allowing Dell to further expand its data center offerings.

As a result of this agreement, Dell will offer the Xsigo I/O Director™ as an option with its PowerEdge™ servers and storage solutions, creating a simple path to creating fully virtualized data centers. The combined Xsigo – Dell solution lets IT professionals manage I/O resources across multiple vendor platforms from a single console, instead of being restricted to a single vendor solution.  In addition, the combined system eliminates the restriction of physical I/O ports, letting users deploy new I/O resources to servers on-demand.

"As our customers continue down their path of IT simplification, they look to Dell to help them with all aspects of their virtual infrastructure,” said Rick Becker, vice president of Software and Solutions, Dell Product Group. “With the addition of the Xsigo virtual I/O product family, we now offer I/O virtualization that enables delivery for both IP and Fibre Channel, helping our customers to improve quality of service for specific applications or virtual machines.”

Virtual I/O consolidates server I/O, accelerates management
Dell customers using Xsigo’s I/O virtualization products can reduce both the operational and capital costs associated with server I/O. Xsigo consolidates the I/O infrastructure and replaces physical network and storage interfaces (NICs and HBAs) with virtual resources that can be deployed on-the-fly. Compared with traditional server I/O, benefits of the Xsigo virtual I/O infrastructure include:

• 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

This open standards-based solution, interoperable with servers and storage across most leading platforms, is designed to remove the constraints imposed by traditional I/O cards and cables that otherwise limit the flexibility to re-deploy assets. The result is a wire-once infrastructure where configuration changes are completed in minutes rather than days, are executed in software rather than hardware, and can be remotely managed.  Eliminating the need to re-cable can help reduce operational costs and remove the risk of cabling errors that may cause unplanned downtime.

"With budgets under pressure, CIO’s are looking for new ways to reduce capital expenditures and increase management efficiency,” said Joe Skorupa, research VP at Gartner, Inc. "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.”

Included within the agreement is the full range of Xsigo products, including the VP780 I/O Director. The Xsigo offering complements Dell’s product families by enabling universal connectivity across all I/O types, which simplifies and accelerates the adoption of heterogeneous solutions such as Dell PowerVault, Dell/EMC and Dell EqualLogic storage. The Xsigo I/O Director provides a scalable I/O solution interoperable with most currently available Dell servers, including the Dell PowerEdge M-Series Blade Systems.

“IT managers need virtualization solutions that extend beyond the server to increase efficiency and reduce capital costs throughout the data center,” said Lloyd Carney, CEO of Xsigo. “We are pleased to work with Dell to offer complete solutions that incorporate Xsigo I/O virtualization, so IT managers can spend their time optimizing resources rather than configuring them.”

Pricing for the Xsigo Virtual I/O System begins at approximately $30,000, and is immediately available. For more information on Dell server and storage solutions that include Xsigo I/O virtualization visit Dell Solutions for Large Business.