Xsigo Systems, a provider of data center I/O virtualization, has announced that Pixorial has deployed Dell(TM) PowerEdge(TM) servers and Xsigo virtual I/O in support of its ground-breaking online video service where home movies and people interconnect. This architecture enables Pixorial to double its bandwidth, decrease deployment times from days to hours, and increase overall server utilization by 33 percent.

Pixorial's web-based service provides an online destination where friends and families can view, manage, and share their original video content. The service goes beyond online video sharing services by allowing users to produce their videos using easy-to-use editing tools. Videos can then be shared via a high-resolution digital file, DVD disks and through a variety of unique gift options.

"We offer our customers commercial-quality video production capabilities in an online service designed for anyone with an Internet connection. To achieve our goal of combining HD-quality video with consumer-friendly simplicity and pricing required a fresh approach to the IT infrastructure," said Andrés Espiñeira, president of Pixorial. "We built our infrastructure around Dell PowerEdge servers and the Xsigo I/O Director because they provide the technology innovation, performance, value and scalability needed to deliver a revolutionary service at an unbeatable price."

The Xsigo I/O Director, deployed in conjunction with Dell PowerEdge 2970 servers, provides each server with 20Gb of I/O bandwidth, or 2X the data rate of 10G Ethernet. This allows the company to run more virtual machines and gain greater utilization from each Dell server. The Xsigo infrastructure also facilitates rapid capacity growth by allowing IT managers to dynamically add resources that connect any server to any network or storage resource.

"Bandwidth is normally the most difficult data center resource to scale. To avoid bottlenecks, the most common solution is to over-build -- and hence over-spend. We could not do that and expect to offer a cost-effective service," Espiñeira continued. "But with our Dell servers and Xsigo virtual I/O, we can have additional resources up and running quickly. Just add a server, connect one I/O cable, and we're done."

"We are pleased that Pixorial selected Dell PowerEdge servers to power their new online video service," said Sally Stevens, vice president of Platform Marketing, Dell. "Dell PowerEdge servers offer the energy efficiency, price/performance leadership and management simplicity that make them ideally suited for this type of scale-out, design-for-growth kind of environment."

For this offering, Pixorial designed purpose-built content management and rendering applications that run on Linux and the Xen hypervisor.

"Pixorial is at the cutting edge with a unique service that brings industrial-strength IT capabilities to the consumer market to address a real need," said Lloyd Carney, CEO of Xsigo. "Xsigo virtual I/O delivers the bandwidth and management flexibility that Pixorial needs now, and just as importantly offers the scalability that Pixorial will need in the near future to accommodate their rapid growth."