10GbE Multi-Purpose Accelerator Announced by Alacritech

Alacritech Inc. announced the industry’s first Scalable Network 10Gb optical and copper Ethernet Accelerators designed to assist IT administrators in optimizing data center server utilization. Alacritech announced the SEN3001EF PCI-e fiber SNA and the SEN3001ET PCI-e copper SNA. The addition of Alacritech’s 10GbE Scalable Network Accelerators (SNAs) to its product family gives users a single adapter that offers a NIC with stateless offload support and Dynamic TOE functionality while providing increased server utilization, optimization and performance as it also controls power and cooling costs.

Alacritech’s innovative Dynamic TCP Offload technology is natively integrated with Microsoft’s TCP Chimney Offload architecture and supports Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008. Stateless offloads are offered through the 10GbE SNA’s NIC feature and will be supported under Linux, OpenSolaris, Windows and Mac OS X. In addition, Alacritech’s 10GbE SNAs will provide Dynamic TOE support for Hyper-V when Microsoft makes its next major Windows 2008 release available. The 10GbE SNA will also support VMware ESX, including NetQueue, in mid 2009.

As GbE permeates the edge of the enterprise, the need to provide sufficient bandwidth to clients and media-rich applications increases and makes it essential for data centers to begin migrating to 10GbE at the core. In addition, edge clients as well as outside users communicating across the WAN are creating large volumes of rich content that is being stored and forwarded by data centers. As such, more servers are allocating more cycles to moving content rather than processing it.  Unfortunately, server and processor designs historically have not been optimized for moving data. Incorporating an Alacritech GbE or 10GbE SNA optimizes a server to move data and operate more efficiently.

"The availability of a multi-purpose accelerator is very well-timed," said Bob Laliberte, analyst with Enterprise Strategy Group. "Data center administrators are actively optimizing server utilization, so the ability to leverage a versatile network adapter that can address a wide range of application I/O requirements, deliver targeted performance and support lean computing should be an attractive option to many. And now that customers can get multi-purpose 10GbE accelerators at roughly the same price as a standard 10GbE NIC, it just makes sense that they would take advantage of it."

Alacritech’s 10GbE SNA is built to move data efficiently, maximizing throughput and minimizing latency. Compared to competitive products, the 10GbE SNA allows administrators to configure servers with fewer processors while delivering targeted performance and utilization and consuming 30 percent less power. The 10GbE SNA enables servers to support more clients, increasing their useful lifespan and sparing IT departments the burden of buying, installing and maintaining additional servers to handle the workload.

"Alacritech has long been recognized as one of the pioneers of TOE technology and by providing stateless NIC offload they are expanding their reach," said Bob Wheeler, senior analyst, The Linley Group. "And, their TCP Chimney design increases efficiency while lowering energy costs – of which customers who are moving small block iSCSI traffic, in addition to large block traffic with multiple applications can take advantage."

Alacritech’s 10GbE SNA with Dynamic TOE and NIC support is ideal for large block size applications including backup, SQL logging, media streaming, web server, video-on-demand, DSS and OS paging. In addition, the 10GbE SNA increases performance for small block size applications including webserver logging, exchange/email and file servers.

Alacritech 10GbE SNA
The 10GbE SNA is Alacritech’s fifth-generation TOE design that leverages its ten years of expertise in pioneering TCP offload. The single-port 10GbE SNAs accelerate both network and iSCSI traffic, and can be configured in minutes without having to make numerous adjustments to the system or the application.

"Alacritech’s state-of-the-art approach to increasing the utilization and energy efficiency of my existing servers has allowed us to stay cutting edge and differentiate ourselves from our competition," said Dr. Meier, chief technology officer, Stargate Studios. "When I have to move large amounts of video data to support a deadline, Alacritech gives me one less thing to worry about. The SNA’s performance allows my servers to preserve CPU bandwidth for OS and file system tasks, not networking, while improving utilization and reducing the need to add servers. This is critical given today’s space and power constraints."

Alacritech’s 10GbE SNAs address a wide range of applications that place a high burden on the CPU, including the movement of large files such as uncompressed high definition video or iSCSI block traffic. Using Alacritech’s 10GbE SNA in a backup media server significantly improves a server’s performance when transporting data to IP storage targets. The 10GbE SNA enables increased throughput while providing the most efficient transfer of TCP/IP data for all file and block sizes, at the highest frame rates, without introducing unwanted latency. Alacritech’s Dynamic TCP Offload not only reduces backup times but also data recovery times in the unlikely event of data loss.

According to Patrick Riley, Director of Product Management at Alacritech, "Whether a server is under or over-utilized, Alacritech’s SNAs are far more efficient than a general purpose processor in moving data. Administrators can comfortably match the right amount of general purpose processing power with the right accelerator support to achieve targeted performance and costs. Using Alacritech can greatly enhance a server’s scalability while reducing server sprawl."

An Alacritech 10GbE SNA card used in combination with the right general processor mix consumes less power and results in less heat and a smaller carbon footprint. Not only are Alacritech SNAs good for performance and cost control, they are good for the environment. The increased efficiency stems from a thin driver design that allows the 10GbE SNA to perform networking tasks that other competitive adapters leave to the driver and the host CPU.

Availability and Pricing
The Alacritech optical 10GbE SNA begins shipping Q1 of 2009, with the copper 10GbE SNA shipping later in 2009.  Pricing starts at $1,299.