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Networks Unlimited distributes Mellanox
solutions throughout Africa, and has been
an advocate of the company’s innovative
technology since inception.
Mellanox’ ConnectX-4 Network Interface
Cards (NICs) feature cutting edge
technologies including: RDMA over
Converged Ethernet (RoCE) and Data Path
Development Kit (DPDK).
In essence, RDMA technology is designed to
solve the delay of server-side data processing
in network transmission. It enables network
adapters to access the application buffer
directly, bypassing the kernel, the CPU, and
the protocol stack, so the CPU can perform
more useful tasks during the I/O transport.
This improves server performance, thus
enabling application workloads to be highly
scalable with high bandwidth networks.
RDMA is based on converged Ethernet and
can be implemented on an existing open
Ethernet network. The benefit is that with
RoCE, there is no need to convert data
centres’ legacy infrastructures, which allows
companies to save on capital spending.
RoCE also enables introducing RDMA
technology seamlessly into an Ethernet
data centre, which benefits applications
by making them more efficient, without
requiring massive changes to the current
network infrastructure.
DPDK is a technology that provides a simple
and complete framework for fast packet
processing in data plane applications. The
tool set allows developers to rapidly build
new prototypes.
www.intelligentcio.com
The Mellanox open source DPDK software
enables industry standard servers and provides
the best performance to support large-scale,
efficient production deployments of Network
Function Virtualisation (NFV) solutions such
as gateways, load balancers and enhanced
security solutions that help prevent denial of
service attacks in the data centre.
“We are encouraged by Alibaba Group’s
utilisation of Mellanox’ technologies and
hope to see similar successes through our
collaboration with Mellanox Technologies in
our region of operation,” said Jacobsz.
Networks Unlimited is a value-added
distributor, offering the latest solutions
within the converged technology, data
centre, networking and security landscapes.
The company also distributes best-of-breed
products, including Arbor Networks, Attivo
Networks, Fortinet, F5, Hypergrid, Mellanox,
ProLabs, Rackmount, RSA, Rubrik, PhishMe,
Silver Peak and Tintri.
The product portfolio provides solutions
from the edge to the data centre, and
addresses key areas such as cloud
networking and integration, WAN
optimisation, application performance
management, application delivery
networking, Wi-Fi, mobile and networking
security, load balancing, data centre in-a-
box and storage for virtual machines. Since
its formation in 1994, Networks Unlimited
has continually adapted to today’s
progressively competitive and evolving
marketplace, and has reaped the benefits
by being a leading value-added distributor
(VAD) within the Sub-Saharan Africa market.
Networks Unlimited complies with the
South African Broad-Based Black Economic
Empowerment (B-BBEE) guidelines as a level
four contributor. n
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