29th September 2005 Network equipment titan Cisco Systems is promising “a big leap forward” in utility computing with the release of new server technology that improves data centre managers’ ability to optimise the allocation of server resources.

Cisco’s VFrame is one of the first multi-vendor utility and management suites, making it easier to deploy various applications over a grid-like architecture.

The technology is based on Cisco’s recent $250 million acquisition of programmable server switch maker TopSpin, combined with its virtualisation technology.

“We feel VFrame represents a big step forward in utility and virtualisation computing because it’s the first truly open utility architecture,” said Stu Aaron, Cisco’s director of server virtualisation.

“Combining InfiniBand with the virtualization capabilities of VFrame, [gives] customers the benefits of on-demand computing with their individual server and storage platforms of choice,” said Vernon Turner, group vice president and general manager of IDC’s Enterprise Computing.

TopSpin had built switches which used the Infiniband data transmission technology. This had attracted interest from server and application makers such as EMC, Hewlett-Packard, Oracle, Microsoft and SAP.

But while Cisco executives will hope its multi-vendor virtualisation management suite will prove attractive, many of the server makers are intent on producing their own virtualisation technologies.