As netizens and consumers of the World we are all daily users of the Internet and of shared computing resources. Equal access and general availability of the Internet is emerging as a human right, with a raging global debate about net neutrality. However, no similar debate has yet emerged on the equal access to standardized, […]
Keep Your Friends Close And Your Enemies Closer
Oct 4, 2013 By
The concept of co-opetition — the combination of competition and cooperation — doesn’t go back quite as far as 400 BC when China’s Sun-tzu made his famous statement about friends and enemies, but it certainly seems timely when considering the recent developments surrounding the entity known as VCE (Virtual Computing Environment). The Richardson, Texas-based company, […]
Bullish On 400Gbps Router, But SDN Slighted Again
Jul 16, 2013 By
Soaring network demand has been merrily forecast for years, with Cisco’s most recent predictions finding that global IP traffic, which has increased fourfold over the past five years, will increase threefold over the next five years. It appears that, somewhat reluctantly and with more than a few reservations, the networking giant has thrown its support […]
WAAS Happening?
Oct 11, 2012 By
According to Cisco’s Mark Lohmeyer, rumors of WAAS’ demise have been greatly exaggerated. “Cisco is fully committed to the WAAS business.” Given the growing WAN optimization prospects for the foreseeable future, that commitment shouldn’t come as a surprise. Questions about the networking giant’s commitment to WAAS (Wide Area Application Services) – its software/hardware WAN optimization […]
Self Service: The Most Understated Reason Why SDNs Will Rock Your World
Aug 22, 2012 By
As I noted previously, two surveys give different pictures about SDNs. My take: every enterprise will adopt SDNs, but lower hardware prices will not be the biggest reason. Here’s why: To hear proponents tell it, Software Defined Networks (SDNs) are going to commoditize switching and routing, moving all the expensive intelligence software created by the infrastructure […]
Choosing a Virtual WOC
Aug 16, 2012 By
In my last blog I pointed out that the network is the last major component of IT to be virtualized. However, recent events, such as VMware’s acquisition of Nicira for US $1.26 billion, are dramatic proof-points that network virtualization is gaining traction. Given what has happened to other components of IT, such as servers, that […]
WANop Gears Up For Tomorrow’s Networks
Aug 1, 2012 By
As the economy continues to struggle, the news for IT networks and WAN optimization has been mixed. Almost half – 45% – of networks will be totally obsolete within five years, while Q1 data center equipment sales rose 17% with Fibre Channel (FC) and Ethernet products turning in impressive performances, growing 52% and more than […]
Virtualization: Coming Soon To A Network Near You
Jul 26, 2012 By
The virtualize everything movement is well underway, but other than servers, which started getting virtual back in the 1970s with IBM (VM and MVS), and really took off in the 2000s with VMware, virtualizing storage, networks, desktops, applications and infrastructure has been more about vendor push than customer pull. While the proportion of server workloads […]
