The disappearance of the physical appliance.
Us guys, we like our things – our cars, computers, gadgets, you name it. We like tangible stuff that we can touch and hold, none of this touchy, feely stuff. So what’s the deal then with the future of our network gear? Are we destined for “manly” physical appliances or are we going for those “pansy” virtual appliances?
A panel this week at Interop tried to answer that question. Virtualization pundits are of course sold on the touchy feely stuff and for good reason. Deployments can be completed in minutes for organizations familiar with virtualization (err, that’s like everyone these days). Appliances can be moved between locations through software. As server platforms improve, so will virtual appliance performance
“We don’t have any use cases where we found that you absolutely need to have a physical appliance,” said Certeon CTO and Vice President of Engineering Donato Buccella. “There isn’t a single place where we would say, ‘Oh, this cannot be done with software.'”
But given that our industry is dominated by us Y-Chromosomes, is there really no hope for box pushers? Not quite. Case in point is the branch office:
“You have something that you can take out of the box and have big labels on it that say ‘plug this in here,’ and you get up and running,” Riverbed Chief Scientist Mark Day said. “Compliance issues, institutional culture and other extenuating circumstances also contribute to the continued need for WAN optimization appliances in a physical form.”
The reality, though, is that even in the core network both delivery models play a role. If my experiences at Silver Peak System have taught me anything it’s that virtual appliances can meet the needs of even the core of today’s enterprise networks. Where convenience and ease of installation are important, delivering virtual appliances in preconfigured servers is a viable solution.
But in either case the Intellectual Property (IP) of today’s networking equipment should be in the software, not the hardware. Today’s Intel- and AMD- based servers afford us enough MIPS to do what custom ASICs could only do years ago. A properly architected off-the-server solution can deliver top performance and scale. It’s up to IT buyers to choose the delivery model that fits best in their environment.
Which type of appliance are you going to deploy and wherein the network? I’d like to hear it below.
