HP Virtualizes Ethernet Ports As Well As ServersHP Virtualizes Ethernet Ports As Well As Servers

It's a little-understood fact that in a virtualized server each virtual machine will need its own very real network connection, multiplying networking costs. HP has a solution that at least shows that things don't have to be that way.If virtualization for servers is the wave of the future, then more and more users are going to run into the fact that there's no way to virtualize networking requirements. If the server contains four virtual machines, it will need four network interface cards (NICs) with four cables to four ports on the router.

Hewlett-Packard has recently responded to this problem with its Virtual Connect Flex-10 Ethernet module, which distributes the capacity of a 10-gigabit Ethernet port onto four network connections. Meanwhile, users can assign bandwidth to each connection in increments of 100 megabits. The alternative is to buy additional expensive network switches in 1 gigabit or 10 gigabit increments. (The virtualized server will still need a NIC for each virtual machine.)

The HP Virtual Connect Flex-10 Ethernet module costs $12,199.

With that price we are obviously talking about the high end of the SMB server market. But hopefully this is the kind of thing that will soon start showing up for more modestly priced solutions. Running one application on one server can be wasteful and inefficient, but the alternative -- virtualization -- remains so complex that SMB users are virtually shut out. Any movement to help the situation is welcome news.

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