The centralized manner in which a software-defined network can be managed makes it much faster to perform configuration changes than traditional setups that require every affected piece of hardware to be updated individually. But the task often still necessitates a great deal of manual tinkering, which can lead to delays that have the potential to hold up an entire data center. Plexxi Inc. hopes to alleviate the bottleneck a set of new integrations that are rolling out for its switching platform this morning to facilitate automated coordination with other infrastructure components.

The arguably most notable addition is expanded interoperability with VMware vSphere that is designed to streamline the movement of virtual machines. When a migration is scheduled via the hypervisor’s management console, the Plexxi Switch can automatically clear a path to the target server through the least busy network link available. The system thereby sidesteps any potential traffic congestions that might slow down the operation while preventing the transferring workload from interfering with the communications of other applications.

Today’s update brings similar automation functionality to Nutanix Inc.’s hyperconverged appliances, which come with their own native virtualization software that is starting to directly challenge vSphere. And Plexxi is also ticking Hadoop off the checklist while it’s at it with the introduction of a connector for Hortonworks Inc.’s popular open-source distribution. Given that the startup is partnered with both of its biggest rivals, Cloudera Inc. and MapR Technologies Inc., it’s more than likely that support their respective flavors of the data crunching framework will be eventually be added as well.

The new capabilities are designed to help Plexxi’s customers deal with what chief executive Rich Napolitano, the former head of EMC Corp.’s $4 billion unified storage business, sees as a major shift in enterprise switching requirements. The growing adoption of the Server SAN model is reducing organizations’ reliance on standalone arrays and, by extension, the networks that connect them to the rest of the data center. Or as he put it in a statement, “Fibre Channel (SANs) are dying,” which is leading storage traffic to be moved onto the main IP backbone.

Automating mundane tasks like migrating virtual machines can potentially make it much easier for administrators to address this growing network load. Plexxi plans to make the new integrations available within a month.

Image via Wikimedia