RoCE or roll in the general, er, Vcinity: Thousand mile-plus RDMA makes remote editing seem local

San Jose peeps tout distance-killing file data access

California networking startup Vcinity said this week that its networking products shunted a petabyte of data 7,000km in under 24 hours, providing access to remote files thousands of kilometres away with a 250ms round trip time.

How does Vcinity explain its hardware and software driving a link so fast? The firm said it used a patented Global Fabric Extension technology with Ultimate X (ULT X) software and RDMA (Remote Direct Memory Access). It claimed it can use up to 95 per cent of a link's available bandwidth but did not explain how.

ULT X presents itself outwardly as a NAS (NFS v3/4 and SMB v3) or transitional storage tier, and has a global namespace and network-mapped drive volumes. Vcinity said it is compatible with various storage systems for file storage.

The product set includes:

• ULT X software in on-premises Linux server or as software-only to run in the cloud
• RAD X kit:
• • X-1010e (1/10Gbit/s)
  • 1040 (1/10/40 Gbit/s and FDR InfiniBand)
  • 1100 (1/10/40/100 RoCE and FDR/EDR InfiniBand)
• Command X web-based GUI management facility included with ULT X
• Access X file management and sync tool to copy and move folders
• Sync X is a web-based file synchronisation and backup tool

The RAD X cards need ULT X software on their host server and use RoCE (RDMA over converged Ethernet) or InfiniBand over any layer 2/2.5/3 network with traffic engineering and congestion management of flows across the network.

This kit is only available from Vcinity's channel partners.

Noboru Aoki at Core Microsystems said of the tech: "For our Media and Entertainment clients, the Vcinity Ultimate X solution allows video producers to edit remote content across any distance as if it were local to their desktop.

"Editors are no longer required to replicate content at multiple locations, avoiding redundant copies of the content, leading to dramatic storage efficiencies as well as improved control and security." ®