BLADE Network Technologies Delivers Cloud Ready, Virtual Machine-Aware Networking for HP BladeSystem

LAS VEGAS, NV -- (Marketwire) -- 05/20/09 -- INTEROP LAS VEGAS 2009 -- BLADE Network Technologies, Inc. (BLADE), the trusted leader in data center networking, announced that its Ethernet switches for HP BladeSystem support BLADE's VMready(TM) -- the first networking solution that supports thousands of virtual switch ports. VMready is part of BLADE's Cloud Ready Network Architecture designed for the massive virtualization required by today's cloud computing environments.

BLADE's VMready is designed to equip cloud-ready networks with a scalable approach that unifies server computing with the underlying network by enabling switching at the virtual port level. BLADE's virtual machine-aware VMready is designed to balance server performance and network I/O so that thousands of VMs in cloud computing environments can be deployed to run massive application workloads.

BLADE's 1:10 Gb Ethernet switches for HP BladeSystem are available now with VMready. BLADE's 1,000 v-port VMready is being showcased for the first time at BLADE's booth 1175 at Interop, May 18-21, 2009, in Las Vegas.

New multi-core processors combined with 10 Gigabit Ethernet networks provide ample compute power and network bandwidth for cloud computing environments and highly virtualized enterprise data centers. However, conventional Ethernet switches only see physical ports on servers, require complex configurations per physical port and are prone to security vulnerabilities when enabled for dynamic "live" migration of virtual machines. Cisco's alternative approach calls for a proprietary virtual switch that modifies the native VMware hypervisor and requires a Cisco-only environment from VM, to server to network.

"In cloud computing and virtualized enterprise data center environments, hundreds of virtual servers can be consolidated to run on as few as 20 physical servers," said Dan Tuchler, Vice President of Strategy and Product Management, BLADE Network Technologies. "New tools are needed to gain visibility into the traffic for each Virtual Machine. Controlling traffic by physical port only, as is typical in today's switches, cannot efficiently support a virtualized cloud network. In an environment in which Virtual Machines are being created, moved, and retired, network policies must move along with the VM to ensure security and the integrity of the application, which is exactly what VMready is all about."

Pricing and Availability

BLADE's VMready is available now to BLADEHarmony Premium Services customers as part of the SmartConnect software upgrade to new and previously installed HP 1:10Gb Ethernet BL-c switches. The BLADEHarmony Premium Service provides customers with 24x7 support and an entitlement to upgrade to new BLADE software products for a three-year period. This service is priced at $600 for BLADE's 1:10Gb BL-c switch. VMready will be available for BLADE's RackSwitch top-of-rack data center switch products in mid-2009.

About BLADE Network Technologies

BLADE Network Technologies is the leading supplier of Gigabit and 10G Ethernet network infrastructure solutions that reside in blade servers and "scale-out" server and storage racks. BLADE's new "Virtual, Cooler and Easier" RackSwitch family demonstrates the promise of "Rackonomics"-- a revolutionary approach for scaling out data center networks to drive down total cost of ownership. The company's customers include more than 300 of Fortune 500 companies across 26 industry segments, and an installed base representing more than 250,000 network switches and nearly 6 million switch ports connecting more than 1,200,000 servers. For more information, visit www.bladenetwork.net. Follow us on Twitter at BLADENetwork or read our tweets at www.bladenetwork.net/twitter.html.

BLADE Network Technologies, RackSwitch, VMready, SmartConnect, BLADEHarmony and the BLADE logo are trademarks of BLADE Network Technologies. All other names or marks are property of their respective owners.

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