Network connections

Inside Track: Back to basics approach pushing enterprise network market

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(Image: Stockfresh)

10 September 2014

Cloud operating model
“Modern datacentres need to break away from the hierarchal multi-tier designs to the newer flatter design which removes layers of networking infrastructure” Davin Cody_HP_web
HP Ireland : Davin Cody
Significant efficiencies and savings can be realised by Irish organisations through SDN and Hybrid Cloud but they need to be wary. By deploying Open Standards technologies such as OpenFlow (The Openflow protocol, the foundational element for building SDN solutions as defined by the Open Networking Foundation) and OpenStack (Cloud Operating Model) organisations are putting themselves on the right track to realise those savings for their on premise services. But more importantly if they look to consume external services by aligning themselves with providers who have adopted these open standards technologies it will reduce the risk of lock in for the organisation and ease migration from on-premise cloud to various off-premise cloud providers. This gives the IT department more control of their services.At an infrastructural level, improvements at the compute and storage layer mean that services can be spun up in minutes with a number of clicks. However at the network layer the fundamentals remain the same and to effect changes within the environment, there are a number of manual interventions required through a Command Line Interface (CLI). Modern datacentres need to break away from the hierarchal multi-tier designs to the newer flatter design which removes layers of networking infrastructure. In addition, by using Openflow based SDN designs, organisations can eliminate the dependence on intelligence at the individual switch level and push it up the stack into a separate management plane. This new network environment will result capital savings in addition to dramatic operational benefits and increased IT agility.
Networks as a service
“By unifying storage, data networking, and network services, this ensures architectural flexibility and consistent networking across physical, virtual, and mixed hypervisor cloud environments” David Kinsella_Datapac_web Datapac : David Kinsella, CTO
Software defined networking (SDN) looks set to become increasingly important when deploying network infrastructure now and in the future. With the next generation of networks and architectures requiring more flexibility and adaptability, SDN enables more intelligent network architecture deployment.With the adoption of virtualisation and cloud platforms increasing, SDN gives network administrators and providers the ability to prioritise and manage traffic more effectively and cost-effectively without having to touch individual switches.By unifying storage, data networking, and network services, this ensures architectural flexibility and consistent networking across physical, virtual, and mixed hypervisor cloud environments. This also ensures improved management and troubleshooting capabilities in data centre environments.Also, with IaaS, SaaS and PaaS all gaining popularity, SDN could well pave the way for NaaS — networks as a service. This will offer organisations further flexibility in the way they receive and utilise their network infrastructures and applications, helping to deliver further efficiencies and savings.While SDN is becoming more mainstream, we would advise any Irish business looking at network deployments to consider SDN carefully as part of their organisation’s wider infrastructure, cloud, and data centre platform and policies. Seek external advice as necessary to guide your business through the challenges and opportunities associated with SDN and similar evolutions in network infrastructure.

Managed service providers like Datapac can provide expert, independent advice to organisations as they look to implement next-generation data centre platforms, including networks, applications, storage, virtualisation and private cloud resources. Make sure your business is fully informed too so that it can optimise all opportunities in this area.

 

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