Dell acquired Force 10 in July of 2011 and it has since come to form the core of Dell’s overall networking efforts. With the Dell Virtual Network Architecture (VNA) the goal is to enable networks for the new era of cloud scalability and software defined networking (SDN) network programmability.
“Dell Virtual Network Architecture is an open IT networking framework for efficient IT infrastructure and workload intelligence,” Arpit Joshipura, head of Product Management and Marketing for Dell’s Force10 division, told InternetNews.com.
One of the key goals of the enhanced VNA is to integrate SDN concepts and bring them to the mainstream of networking. The idea is to enable a networking admin to take any workload running with any virtualization hypervisor and run it on a network — without needing to know specifics of which VLAN or port needs to be used. A key attribute of VNA is that it is interoperable with other networking vendor gear.
“It’s the equivalent of what VMware has done for servers,” Joshipura said.
Enabling the VNA is new hardware from Dell in the form of the MXL 10/40 GbE Blade switch, which can plug into an existing Dell M1000e Blade Chassis.
Read the full story at EnterpriseNetworkingPlanet:
Dell Builds on Force10 for Virtual Networking
Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of the IT Business Edge Network, the network for technology professionals Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.