The face of the data center is ever-changing. Computers that once filled huge underground rooms are now condensed down into a small box that may even fit under a television. These small boxes also contain several servers thanks to the boom that is virtualization. Avaya is not looking to miss this wave and is coming up with some virtualization hardware of their own.
The Avaya VENA (Virtual Enterprise Network Architecture) is how Avaya is hoping to make it big in the virtualization realm. This new hardware allows organization to harness more of the benefits that come with virtualization. These benefits are realized with a simple and cost-effective architecture that is suited for datacenters and campuses.
The foundation for the new Avaya VENA is the re-branded Nortel VSP 9000. This is similar to the high-end Cisco Nexus 7000 switch. The VSP 9000 can scale up to 240 ports while allowing up to 24 Terabits of throughput. This is just the beginning as more products are in the pipeline and will see their introduction in 2011. These new products will extend this new offering from one campus to one branch.
Avaya is not reinventing the wheel with virtualization, of course. A series of new partnerships that support the new Avaya VENA technology means customers can implement this new technology in their existing datacenters. The most notable of these new partnerships is that of VMware. For those that do not know of VMware, they are one of the leading companies in hardware virtualization. Other companies jumping on the VENA support wagon include QLogic, Coraid, and Silver Peak Systems.
Avaya maybe a communication company, but this new hardware is just one more step to helping them increase their presence in datacenters everywhere. The new Avaya VENA hardware is just one more step towards making virtualization that much more important to companies of all sizes. With partnerships like VMware, Avaya is well on their way to becoming a one stop shop for data and telecommunication products.
