Intel Microarchitecture and 10 gigabit Ethernet Transforming the Data Center

Introduction
IT managers are turning increasingly to server virtualization and consolidation to increase data center efficiency and
improve total cost of ownership (TCO). Consolidating the tasks of multiple servers onto a single server running multiple
virtual machines (VMs) saves power and space costs and reduces data center sprawl, all critical issues to cost-conscious
IT departments. As virtualized server deployments increase, infrastructure elements are evolving to keep pace, and these
collective improvements are leading to a data center transformation that introduces new efficiencies as well as new challenges.
Today, new, more powerful processors allow servers to host more VMs than ever before, facilitating greater resource
consolidation. This, however, drives the need for more network bandwidth per server, as VMs still require adequate
network connectivity. Server consolidation also requires greater network storage to support the virtualized servers’
data needs–including backup, live migration, and disaster recovery. Rather than allowing these elements to grow at
increasing rates, however, industry leaders are developing technologies to make them more efficient and flexible. These
new technologies are driving IT toward a new data center model, a model in which the various infrastructure elements,
including servers, network devices, and storage devices scale performance dynamically to meet constantly changing
compute needs.
The new generation of servers based on the Intel® Xeon processor 5500 series provides the processing power and
adaptability needed to drive more powerful applications and support growing VM deployment without increasing power
or space requirements in a dynamic data center. As the number of VMs increases, however, a server’s I/O needs increase
accordingly. Platforms based on this new architecture provide superb I/O scalability through higher processing power, a
new local memory architecture, and the faster PCI Express* 2.0 I/O interface bus.
The Intel® 82599 10 Gigabit Ethernet Controller is designed specifically to take advantage of these platform enhancements.
And with optimizations for I/O virtualization and unified networking, this controller is uniquely positioned to satisfy the
needs of the dynamic data center and provide a flexible, reliable network connection capable of carrying multiple traffic
types and adapting to changing network conditions.
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White Paper: Intel® Microarchitecture and 10 Gigabit Ethernet Transforming the Data Center