It’s the end of the year, and a good time for thinking back. I’m thinking back to a dark past long ago, when physical servers ran server operating systems, and ran applications—when those servers plugged into a switch, and each endpoint was a single server. The network team could see every device, endpoint, or switch, …
Continue reading “Docker: Where Does It Leave the Network Admin?”
For the last eighteen months, VMware has been pushing NSX as the third pillar of its software-defined data center (SDDC). NSX has three big selling points that VMware promotes: taking control of the network, automation and orchestration, and microsegmentation. The first two are standard SDDC fare: first, pull the function into software, abstract where necessary, and orchestrate to bring …
“SDN” is the current buzzword. Well, to be fair, “SDDC” (software-defined data center) is, but SDN is still a cool kid on the block. However, who outside of Silicon Valley and the Fortune 500 companies truly knows the details of a software-defined network?
We have all drunk the Kool-Aid. Software-defined networking (SDN), network functions virtualization (NFV), or both will save the world. They decouple us from the shackles of legacy networks to allow a utopia of business-driven requirements to freely flow, delivering value and freeing the network, application, storage, and infrastructure teams to have weekends off and time …
Continue reading “Managing and Monitoring Performance in SDN / NFV”
On October 3, Chinese ICT company Huawei announced that Dr. Anthony C. K. Soong, its chief scientist for wireless research and standards in the US, has joined the board of directors of Open Platform for NFV (OPNFV), an open-source reference platform intended to accelerate the introduction of new products and services.
Despite all of the rapid innovation and the incredible rate of change in technology, there are some things that you can count on. One of those things is that the transition from hardware to software is a cyclical one, and if you look at any one segment of the market long enough, that becomes apparent. …
