Lane15 tackles InfiniBand management

April 10, 2001 —

Lane15 Software, an InfiniBand management start-up, is beginning to offer glimpses of what it is doing.

The company will produce management software to monitor the fabric in InfiniBand networks. InfiniBand is a specification for faster I/O systems that uses a switched fabric to replace overwhelmed PCI devices. It is expected to ship early in 2002, along with Intel's 64-bit Itanium processor.

Austin, Texas, Lane15 will first market this software to OEMs for incorporation into their InfiniBand routers, switches, servers and other I/O devices. The company will create software agents that can be placed on these devices, making them capable of monitoring.

Lane15's software provides real-time proactive information before crashes occur, CEO Alisa Nessler claims. Lane15's management software will report to traditional management frameworks such as the Tivoli Management Environment or Hewlett-Packard OpenView.

When users start to buy InfiniBand products next year, Lane15 will focus on software that lets network administrators manage the portions of the network consisting of InfiniBand-based devices.

In InfiniBand there are 16 channels that can be used for communication; they are numbered 0 through 15. The 15th channel is reserved for management information, thus the company's name.

CEO Nessler, a fellow out of Austin Ventures’ Entrepreneur in Residence Program, started Lane15.

Network World