Xsigo Systems, Inc., a technology leader in data center I/O virtualization, today announced that Iper Montebello S.p.A., one of the largest hypermarket chains in Italy, has deployed Xsigo virtual I/O in two data centers, saving the company 50% on capital costs when compared with conventional server connectivity. Xsigo was selected for its open standards-based approach that ensures continued flexibility in the company’s vendor-sourcing decisions.
“When we virtualized our servers, we knew that our aggressive consolidation objectives – up to 30 virtual machines per device – would dramatically increase the I/O demands on each server and potentially introduce performance bottlenecks,” said Giovanni Oteri, director of infrastructure for Iper Montebello. “Xsigo virtual I/O delivers the performance, availability, and management flexibility we needed to ensure application performance, in a highly cost-effective, open solution – without OEM-bounded hardware – that works on standard x86 servers.”
Iper Montebello realized substantial performance and cost benefits with Xsigo by delivering 20Gbs aggregate throughput to each server while requiring just two I/O ports and two cables per device, a 70% reduction in complexity compared to conventional I/O. Because Xsigo’s virtual I/O resources are modified in software rather than hardware, the company can manage I/O at their data center facilities from any location, a significant savings in time and operating expense.
“Through the Xsigo virtual I/O fabric, we now enjoy a single I/O infrastructure, from the smallest server to the biggest, flexibly, with only one management point,” Oteri continued.
The Xsigo I/O solution was chosen to complement Iper Montebello’s selection of Dell PowerEdge R905, Fujitsu RX200, and HP DL785/385 G5 servers, VMware ESX software, and Compellent storage. Deployed in two data centers, with reciprocal disaster recovery and business continuity capabilities, the configuration runs a variety of back office applications including Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SQL, MySQL and Oracle. The Xsigo system virtualized multiple Ethernet and Fibre Channel interfaces per server and demonstrated interoperability with 3COM Ethernet switching, and Brocade Fibre Channel switching. Full redundancy across all components ensures system availability, while multiple virtual I/O connections retain the physical segmentation of data center network and storage resources.
“We are thrilled that we could help Iper Montebello exceed their virtualization program objectives for performance, availability, cost, and management agility,” said Lloyd Carney, CEO of Xsigo Systems. “Customers continue to find that the virtual I/O delivers capabilities that traditional I/O cannot match, which helps them to get more from their virtualization initiatives.”