InfiniSwitch, founded in September 2000 and based in Austin, Texas, had received a total of $30 million from investors including Bessemer Venture Partners, OneLiberty Ventures, Newcogen Group Inc., Columbia Capital, TL Ventures, and Moore Capital Management (see InfiniSwitch Bucks Boost InfiniBand).
The demise of Fabric Networks is yet another sad tale for InfiniBand, which has been one of the most disappointing emerging technologies in recent memory. Once hyped as a high-speed, low-latency replacement for multiple computing and network interconnects, InfiniBand has been relegated to the corners of the high-performance computing market. Other InfiniBand companies that have gone belly-up so far include Paceline Systems, which sold its intellectual property to Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT), and OmegaBand (see Motorola Acquires Paceline's Assets and OmegaBand Is InfiniBusted).
Meanwhile, other IB startups, including Banderacom Inc. and VIEO Inc., have distanced themselves from the technology after it became clear that InfiniBand would not bloom as quickly or as widely as first thought (see Banderacom Abandons InfiniBand and VIEO Vamps Up $5.5M).
Major technology vendors have also backed away from InfiniBand. Last year IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM), Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC), and Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) all cancelled their InfiniBand product plans (see IBM Kills InfiniBand Chip, Intel Bails on InfiniBand, and Microsoft Backs Off InfiniBand).
At the same time, Sun Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW), Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL), and IBM's server group remain bullish on InfiniBand's ability to cluster servers together (see Server Vendors Hold IB Pep Rally). Hoping to carve out a piece of this market are surviving InfiniBand switch startups InfiniCon Systems Inc., Topspin Communications Inc., and Voltaire Inc., as well as InfiniBand silicon supplier Mellanox Technologies Ltd. (see Sun, Topspin Team on Infiniband, InfiniCon Shrinks Switches, Voltaire Mates InfiniBand & iSCSI, and Mellanox Ships 100K IB Ports).
To realize the benefits of cloud-native software, an application must actually be cloud-native—designed to run in the cloud, interacting with disaggregated cloud services, fully manageable as code—to deliver the expected benefits.
By combining resources and expertise, the AI-Enabled ICT Workforce Consortium will offer a blueprint for how industries can adapt to an AI-dominated future.
IT leaders should heed the guidance of cybersecurity insurance providers who think businesses should prioritize security education, incident preparedness, regular internal audits, and ongoing vulnerability scanning and patching.
