infoTECH Feature

June 20, 2012

NextIO Streamlining Server I/O, Bringing Simplicity to the Data Center

When it comes to data centers, one word might come to mind – complicated. From ensuring efficiencies to monitoring power to grappling with things such as consolidation to virtualization, the process of data center management can be cumbersome and daunting.

But at least when it comes to server I/O in the data center, NextIO has your back.

“The whole purpose of the company was to simplify I/O in the data center,” Mike Heumann, senior vice president of worldwide sales and marketing for NextIO, told TMCnet at Cloud Expo East 2012 in New York last week. “Think about how you create data centers today. You take a server, put lots of switches and cards and connect with hundreds of cables, and in the end you have something that is very inflexible and hard to change. It’s also very expensive and takes a lot of management. We say rather then put cards in the servers, we put them in the top of the rack and share them throughout the servers in the rack. We bring PCI (News - Alert) Express to the top of the rack.”

Founded in 2003, NextIO touts itself for simplifying enterprise data centers by consolidating and sharing networking, GPGPU computing, and storage devices within the compute rack. In so doing, data center managers can enjoy reduced CapEx, increased operational efficiency, and unmatched business agility to respond to changes in computing needs, according to company officials.

According to company officials, NextIO stands out amongst its competitors as it is the only top of rack I/O fabric solution that integrates existing and future servers, networks and storage fabrics without requiring proprietary drivers.

“We don’t ever put a driver in the system; we don’t change people’s management processes,” Heumann said. “We don’t require special drivers. It looks just the way people are used to it.”

The NextIO product suite includes architecture based on industry standard PCIe switching technology and addresses data center requirements across multiple industry segments including: enterprise, cloud computing, managed service providers, Web 2.0, and oil and gas, among others.

While at Cloud Expo, in addition to spreading the word about its competitive edge, the company was also focused on shedding light on the fact that it recently signed an agreement with DEPO to offer NextIO’s vNET I/O consolidation appliance as part of its product portfolio. The OEM agreement represents an important step toward providing more simplified I/O management and virtualization options to companies throughout Russia, according to NextIO officials.

“The big thing is this gives us access to a large and growing market,” Heumann said of the OEM agreement. “The Russian market has been growing for six to eight years, and they are early adopters of new technologies. Putting a DEPO label on our box makes it much more appealing for the Russian government to buy as 95 percent of all companies in Russia buy from DEPO. It’s a huge opportunity for us.”

For DEPO, the developer and manufacturer of computer equipment and integrated IT solutions will be able to incorporate NextIO’s vNET technology into its server infrastructure will which result in increased manageability, greater flexibility and lower costs for its broad customer base in industries such as government, manufacturing, oil and gas and internet service providers.

As part of the agreement, DEPO will incorporate NextIO’s vNET product into its server portfolio to provide network I/O virtualization for data center rack fabrics to reduce IT infrastructure costs and complexity.

As a company that has been in the industry for almost a decade, NextIO is not only excited by the new deals it is forging but also by how much the industry has changed.

“What we have seen is a lot more end users, especially over the last three to four years, saying are there things I can do to save money and can they give me a competitive advantage,” Heumann said. “People used to stay safe and buy HP and Cisco (News - Alert) but now they are saying I still need that technology but can’t afford it.”

“There are alternative ways to do your data center networking that are much simpler and cheaper than the way people do it today; we just happened to build the best one of those alternative solutions,” he added.


Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2012, taking place Oct. 2-5, in Austin, TX. ITEXPO (News - Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. For more information on registering for ITEXPO click here.

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Edited by Braden Becker
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