Oracle addressed two major networking requirements for cloud-enabled data centers today with new high performance, low cost 10Gb/40Gb Ethernet switches and the addition of virtual network services to Oracle SDN. Engineered and integrated to enhance the Oracle stack, the new networking technologies provide the flexibility and scalability for both enterprise data centers and network function virtualization infrastructure.

"Cloud-enabled data centers are only as fast or as agile as their networking allows, which makes the convergence of software-defined networking and network services a next logical step in the evolution of the software-defined data center," said Raju Penumatcha, senior vice president, Netra Systems and Networking, Oracle. "Oracle's new Ethernet switches and virtual network services in Oracle SDN help clear the way for enterprises to deploy key network services faster and gain high performance at the lowest cost."

Oracle Ethernet Switch ES2-72 and Oracle Ethernet Switch ES2-64 are designed to harness the full capabilities of Oracle engineered systems, servers and storage with extremely low-latency and massive scalability for all Oracle applications including Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC), as well as financial and high-performance computing (HPC) applications.

These high density, low cost Ethernet switches help collapse existing multi-tiered network topologies, simplifying IT infrastructure and reducing costs with fewer cables and simplified management. When deployed with Oracle systems, the new switches can further reduce cost through reuse of existing cabling infrastructure and unified management. The switches are used in Oracle's Netra Modular System and are also available independently.

"The transition to software-defined data centers has created new networking requirements where high speed and low latency are must-haves for most applications," said David Krozier, principal analyst at Ovum. "Oracle's new ES2-64 and ES2-72 Ethernet switches ably address these requirements with impressive performance at what Oracle claims is a very competitive price. Combine these switches with the new virtual network services in Oracle SDN, and unified management across the entire Oracle systems portfolio, and customers now have a compelling new fabric option for building flexible, scalable and agile infrastructure for cloud deployments."

Oracle SDN Unifies InfiniBand and Ethernet Fabrics with New Virtual Network Services

Oracle also added new virtual network services to Oracle SDN, virtually eliminating the need for purpose-built network appliances which lack the scalability and flexibility needed in today's data centers. The new services allow customers to deploy security, load balancing and routing on-demand in a single virtual instance with the ability to configure and manage them in a single pane using Oracle Fabric Manager.

Oracle SDN dynamically connects any virtual machine to any resource and allows for quick deployment of multi-tenant environments via a private virtual interconnect, which delivers up to 80 Gb/sec server-to-server bandwidth to radically accelerate application performance. A single fabric connects up to 1,000 servers and 16,000 private virtual interconnects. With its new virtual network services capabilities, Oracle SDN now extends across the data center and is uniquely able to unify InfiniBand and Ethernet fabrics, allowing end-to-end provisioning of network infrastructure from a single management interface.

Oracle SDN supports both SPARC and x86 servers as well as the new Netra Modular System. Oracle SDN also powers engineered systems like Oracle's Virtual Compute Appliance.

"Oracle SDN has simplified and accelerated our data center infrastructure and allowed us the flexibility to support our customers and our growing business needs," said Shlome Seidenfeld, CIO and senior vice president, E-Commerce, B&H Photo Video. "Oracle's high speed, low-latency fabric has given us the performance and agility we needed to accommodate a multi-fold jump in customer traffic to our e-commerce business. We are very excited to see the unveiling of virtual network services as part of the Oracle SDN portfolio."