Virtual Iron Tool Creates Virtual Scalable System

Virtual Iron Software Inc. on Monday unveiled Version 1.0 of its upcoming data center virtualization offering.

Virtual Iron is readying Virtual Iron VFe, software that enables users to partition processing power across multiple industry-standard servers, said Alex Vasilevsky, executive vice president, chief scientist and co-founder of the Acton, Mass., company.

The product is scheduled to ship in May and will support Linux operating systems from Red Hat Inc. and Novell Inc.s SuSE Linux unit. It runs on 32- and 64-bit x86 systems and uses InfiniBand as the interconnect between the servers to create the virtual building blocks.

“This product … aggregates servers into a virtual computer,” Vasilevsky said.

The software is designed to pool multiple independent servers into a virtual scalable system. Then administrators can take that virtual system and, depending on demand, partition it into increments as small as a fraction of a server to large multiple-processor systems, he said.

For end users, that means reduced capital and management costs—fewer systems are needed to run the same tasks, and fewer people are needed to manage the systems—and greater flexibility, enabling them to respond quickly to changing business demands, Vasilevsky said.

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