Solutions

In the early days of the data center each server depended on its own local resources (for example: storage). These resources were considered “captive” to specific servers resulting in management challenges, limited scalability and poor resource utilization. With the introduction of the Storage Area Network (SAN) multiple servers could access disk resources simultaneously via a network of storage devices; reducing complexity, centralizing management and dramatically improving application service levels. Organizations could reach new levels of scalability, improve business agility, higher resource utilization and lower total cost of ownership.

Management and provisioning of server I/O connectivity is today’s new barrier to data center scalability. Dedicated I/O adapters “captive” within the server, impede flexibility and scalability at many levels. Management and maintenance is challenging, especially within virtualized data centers, where high-performance I/O resources are over-provisioned to meet the demands of a hyper-consolidated environment.

With the introduction of PCIe sharing (and thus enabling I/O Virtualization), server management can be greatly simplified. The I/O adapters are “disaggregated” from the server and consolidated within the PCIe sharing appliance. Now, a smaller number of high-powered I/O adapters can be centrally managed and shared between a rack of servers or within a blade chassis environment. Server administrators have a choice of I/O adapter types; assignment is easy and can be done on-demand. Once provisioned, servers have access to robust adapter types providing scale for their critical applications without the cost and management constraints of the traditional environment.