Blog discussion opens up sticky issue for equipment suppliers
An interesting post from Gregory Ness, a senior director at Infoblox, posits that virtualization could neutralize the network and network equipment vendors. Ness points off to a discussion on the issue with Doug Gourlay, newly-installed VP of marketing at Arista Networks; Omar Sultan of Cisco; and Lori MacVittie of F5.
Ness proposes that server virtualization — creating multiple virtual servers without adding physical servers — has largely left the network behind. The cost, space, capacity and automation benefits of server virtualization are outstripping the capabilities of the network to support the increased load and utilization:
Imagine an operator at a 40s era switchboard trying to keep up with a moving cellular caller throughout the day? Imagine the cost of populating enough switchboards to manually track callers? That is the essence of the challenge that virtualization poses to the network today. More change, more complexity and more endpoints will drive more pain into a network that is manually managed.
Ness goes on to state that this is why vendors are scrambling to build up their portfolio of “connectivity intelligence” for the virtual machine world to dynamically link applications, enpoints and networks. But he also asserts that there are not enough bodies to throw at the problem.
That’s why network vendors must become proficient in the nuances of VMotion, the ability to move VMs across VLANs and physically dispersed data centers for scale and operational efficiency, Ness states. The promise of VMotion — scaling data center operations without building massive new data centers — will require network hardware vendors to immerse themselves and their products in this capability:
While networking vendors have been on the sidelines for the spread of virtualization-lite, they will be front and center as VMotion is unleashed. That level of dynamic movement will require new investments in automation and management, especially around addressing.
Most of the larger vendors do have products or plans in place to address virtualization and VMotion — Cisco’s Unified Computing System is an example as is Arista’s vEOS operating system. Those that do not are already behind and heading for extinction.
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