The Big Switch- by Paula Bernier

Views and Opinions on Green IT (Mar 1 2010)

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   Virtualization is great for the savings it can produce in terms of hardware, real estate and power usage. And it delivers a more environmentally friendly solution, as compared with traditional architectures that require a separate server for each application. However, this new virtualization architecture can mean a 1:1 radio between each virtual machine and each virtual switch within a server. And that switching can take up a fair amount of processing power on the server.

    

   But there’s a movement afoot to take that switching capability out of the server and instead allow for multiple virtual machines to communicate via an external switch. This effort is known as VEPA, or virtual Ethernet port aggregator. It will allow both for fewer switches per virtual machine and will enable “hairpinning” among those VMs.

    

   The VEPA standard has yet to be ratified, as different vendors are still negotiating the details. But an understanding about the value of VEPA clearly exists, as this is just one method through which the communications industry is readying the data center to scale over time.

    

   Moving the switching capability back into the physical world will free up some server resources that were previously used for switching. And while that will create a greater need for real estate and power within the data center, it will also potentially result in the need for less server hardware over time.

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