Grid computing is quickly taking hold as the architecture of choice for computing in the next generation data center. Also referred to as utility computing or on-demand computing, all of these architectures share a common vision. In this design, pools of servers, storage systems and networks are united into one large, virtual system that better addresses compute jobs by sharing the workload across many low-cost machines. This resource sharing provides more efficient use of the deployed infrastructure and allows for the provisioning of resources on-the-fly to enable utility or on-demand, computing.

Voltaire's multi-service Grid Backbone™ switches are a key enabler of grid computing because their design defines a network for interconnecting processing systems, storage I/O and network I/O into a single, easy-to-manage environment. In a grid environment, Voltaire Grid Backbone switches accept policies or service requests and a virtual datacenter environment that consists of virtual servers, virtual networks, virtual storage and a virtual topology can be created on an as-needed basis.

Voltaire solutions for grid computing provide:

High Performance
Voltaire Grid Backbone solutions deliver bandwidth of 10-30 Gbps, with low latency and low CPU overhead.

Standards-Based
Voltaire solutions work with industry standard hardware are based on standards-based technologies such as RDMA, SDP, DAPL and iSCSI to ensure easy integration with existing infrastructure.

Connectivity to legacy systems
Voltaire solutions provide seamless high performance connectivity to storage and IP networks removing the I/O bottleneck often associated with large clusters and grids.

Scalability
Through high capacity InfiniBand switching and advanced fabric management capabilities, Voltaire solutions enable grids to scale to the thousands and tens of thousands of nodes.

Server and Storage Virtualization
A key dependency for grid computing is the intelligence of the infrastructure to know where the available resources are and how to activate those resources: resource allocation, provisioning and virtualization. Voltaire Grid Backbone solutions provide the intelligent underlying infrastructure that enables advanced management, traffic routing and virtualization.