When we think about networking, we think about things that go bump in the wire—things that place bumps in the wire. Such things could be switches, load balancers, firewalls, routers, gateways, etc. The list is not all that long, thankfully. Things that put bumps in the wire are at odds with software-defined networking (SDN). SDN …
TVP Tag Archives
dvSwitch — Curse Your Inevitable Betrayal!
I will admit, I was surprised recently to discover that VMware has announced the end of life of its third-party virtual switches (vSwitch). These have been a part of the vSphere ecosystem for many years now. This relationship with other vendors seems to be coming to a close.
Cloud: The Great Disaggregated Everything
As I’ve thought about how to implement high-performance, very large-scale networks within a secure hybrid cloud, I have come to the conclusion that the cloud works best with disaggregated network functions. This is the goal of network function virtualization, or NFV, but the real problem is knowing what functions to virtualize and how to do …
Continue reading “Cloud: The Great Disaggregated Everything”
Hyperconverged Design: Limit CPU Consumption by Limiting Storage Performance
I am intrigued by the design decisions that are made as products are developed. I find it amazing how often problems are solved in completely different ways in different products. Sometimes these decisions show up when you are not expecting them. I encountered one such example at a vBrownBag TechTalk presentation at the OpenStack Summit in …
Continue reading “Hyperconverged Design: Limit CPU Consumption by Limiting Storage Performance”
On SDN
Many of these posts talk about network functions virtualization (NFV) rather than software-defined networking (SDN). NFV is a subset of SDN that is more specific, and it is applicable to a higher level of the application stack. Whereas SDN is aimed at the network layers, NFV is aimed at manipulating the data. The idea of …
On Enterprises and Service Providers
“Service provider” and “enterprise” are often seen as opposites in networking circles. (For the purposes of this article, “enterprise” means “business” rather than “large business.”) I’m fortunate to have worked closely with both service providers and enterprises. The contrast is indeed sharp. Service provider networks are the product to be sold; they need to be fast, responsive, …