News

Big Data Joins Software-Defined Networking

• By David Ramel
• April 9, 2015

Server hardware company PSSC Labs is teaming up with Plexxi Inc. -- known for its software-defined networking (SDN) technology -- to offer what they claim is the industry's "first SDN-based converged infrastructure solution for scale-out Big Data."

Plexxi said it will display the new solution -- called CloudOOP Big Data Pod, at a conference next week. The next-generation networking vendor said the new offering combines PSSC server equipment optimized for Big Data applications with Plexxi's Big Data Fabric and the enterprise Hadoop distribution from Cloudera Inc.

"The integrated offering ... empowers enterprises for the first time to deploy Big Data/scale-out applications across multiple racks inside a single datacenter or across multiple datacenters located anywhere in the world," Plexxi said in a statement.

The partners said the new product can reduce operating and capital expenses while increasing Big Data app performance and facilitating easy scale-out as needs change by simply adding more racks. The bundled product comes in an original single half-rack footprint.

"Plexxi's open architecture approach allows PSSC Labs to bring a more integrated solution to its customers that can be deployed in a seamless turnkey environment," Plexxi said. "PSSC Labs CloudOOP 12000 is the world's first and only enterprise server designed specifically for Hadoop, offering the highest possible storage density, inside a highly energy-efficient server. Using PSSC Labs' Direct Connect IO design, the CloudOOP 12000 offers significantly faster data IO rates, ideal for Hadoop, Enterprise Data Hub, Data Lake or Big Data analytics environments."

The Nashua, N.H.-based Plexxi partnered with Cloudera in January, announcing that its Plexxi Switch received certification for Cloudera's Enterprise 5 platform, becoming "the first SDN-based Ethernet switch and the only truly single-tier, scale-out networking solution." Last December, the company introduced SDN starter kits to provide an easier onramp for companies to explore the new technology, which takes network "intelligence" from proprietary hardware and puts it into a software controller for increased flexibility, less expensive equipment and more network programmability.

Plexxi said the CloudOOP Big Data Pod converged infrastructure solution is available now, with pricing and configuration options available on request.