Oracle has agreed to acquire virtual networking company Xsigo Systems.
The software giant announced the deal on Monday, but terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Although comparisons with VMware's $1.26 billion acquisition of Nicira are inevitable, Xsigo actually makes a very different type of product. Whereas Nicira offers a tool that lets you build entire computer networks using nothing but software, Xsigo sells a simpler product called Data Centre Fabric (DCF), which is specifically designed to virtualize network cards and connections, reducing the amount of physical hardware and network cabling required to run a network of virtual machines.
Data centers are relying more and more on virtual servers -- machines that exist only as software -- but those virtual servers still have physical network requirements, and running multiple virtual servers from one physical server can put a strain on its network resources. Most hypervisors -- the software systems that manage virtual machines -- tend to require six to eight physical network cards for each physical server. Virtual I/O systems like DCF lighten the load by creating virtual network cards that manage network activity and fool hypervisors into thinking the physical server has more network cards than it actually has.
This reduces both the amount of physical networking hardware required and the amount of cabling required. DCF is more comparable to HP's Virtual Connect product. But Virtual Connect only works with HP hardware and DCF works with servers and hardware from multiple vendors.
But both Xsigo and Nicira are gunning for network hardware giant Cisco. Nicira is doing it by making it possible to use commodity hardware instead of expensive Cisco switches and routers. Its network controller can be used with practically any networking hardware, including the new breed of low-cost gear coming straight from Taiwan. Xsigo is doing it by reducing the number of switches you need in the first place.
Both go right to the heart of the "converged infrastructure" approach that major vendors -- including Cisco, HP, and Oracle -- are pushing. Converged infrastructure generally refers to large packages of integrated hardware and software purchased from a single vendor. Though a converged infrastructure system may include components from a vendor's partners, the basic idea is to get everything you need from one place.
The downside is that the individual components -- blade servers, network gear, etc. -- aren't necessarily cross-compatible with products from other vendors. This locks you into one vendor's converged infrastructure offering. Xsigo and Nicira's tools push back against this trend.
But it remains to be seen whether Xsigo will continue to be a cross-vendor solution or if it will become a proprietary solution for Oracle's Sun hardware after the acquisition. It wouldn't be the first time Oracle acquired a company and turned a product into an Oracle-only solution: Last year it bought Ksplice, a company that made software that enables system administrators to apply updates to the Linux operating system without rebooting. After the acquisition, Oracle stopped supporting non-Oracle versions of Linux for new customers.
Virtual networking isn't as sexy as big data or the consumerization of IT, but these acquisitions prove that it's an important revolution in the way enterprises manage infrastructure.
Image: Flickr/star5112
