SGI and Kasenna have developed an open standards-based server platform targeting cable VOD deployments. In 2003, the server will incorporate Kasenna's High Performance Networking (HPN) option for Gigabit Ethernet deployments, resulting in a price of $150 per stream.
The platform combines an SGI Origin 300 server and two SGI TP900 storage subsystems to create a six-rack unit VOD solution that will deliver 480 video streams with Kasenna HPN software, which for MSO's means over 3,000 streams. The two companies plan to incorporate Kasenna's High Performance (HPN) option for Gigabit Ethernet deployments next year, resulting in a price of $150 per stream. Gigabit Ethernet allows the output of over 900 MB of video, or around 240 video streams per port. The SGI/Kasenna VOD server ships with two GigE ports.
As MSO's move toward mainstream deployment of VOD services, SGI and Kasenna (a spin off of SGI) expect an enthusiastic industry response to its new VOD server. The companies say that even more important than a price breakthrough is that open system pricing continues to drop with the price of processing power and storage. MSO's starting a three year plan to roll out VOD services can gain from their solution in years two and three as the price/performance of SGI's open hardware servers and storage continue to improve.
Open file systems for the storage of VOD lets a range of storage solutions including SAN, JBOD and RAID and a hybrid architecture including network-attached storage. SGI and Kasenna think that MSO's leveraging available architectures using these solutions will benefit from the storage price/performance decrease.
