The Gartner Magic Quadrant is certainly the most iconic graphic ever created by an industry analyst firm. Second on that list is the Gartner Hype Cycle. Personally, I find the naming scheme of the elements of the Hype Cycle to be a bit trite, but […]
Software Defined Networking (SDN)
At the start of the movie Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Lt. Saavik took a test known as the Kobayashi Maru. The test was actually a trap to see how someone would handle a “no-win scenario” where any choice made would lead to […]
In 2017, service providers face a rapidly changing landscape in market trends, affecting managed services for wide area networks (WANs). Consequently, new software defined WAN (SD-WAN) alternatives are negatively impacting MPLS revenues. SD-WANs are also exhibiting a great deal of early adoption and growth potential. […]
In my blog near the beginning of the year, I urged network managers to make a resolution to not stick with the status quo when it comes to evaluating and selecting an SD-WAN solution provider, as it will ultimately prove a bad decision for the […]
In 2016 SD-WANs were the hottest topic in networking. That raises an obvious question that I will use the next two blogs to try to answer. That question is: What changes can we expect to see relative to SD-WAN adoption in 2017? The multi-year SD-WAN […]
When I’m talking with customers, I hear about a lot of challenges their businesses experience with their legacy WANs. In particular, the network architects and administrators talk about the problems their WANs present as applications move from the data center to the cloud. The challenges […]
There is one movie I remember watching with my family during the holidays: “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation”. For those who haven’t seen the movie, it stars Chevy Chase as Clark Griswold, a typical American dad trying to survive the holidays with his family and in-laws. […]
Merriam-Webster defines the word “conundrum” as an “intricate and difficult problem”. This word can most certainly be used in a business context to describe the challenges associated with providing Internet access to branch and remote office workers. Legacy networks provided Internet access to users through […]
Over the last 18 months one of the hottest topics in IT has been software defined WANs (SD-WANs). One of the advantages of SD-WANs is that they enable companies to leverage relatively inexpensive Internet bandwidth. There is no doubt that having additional bandwidth eliminates some […]
In the popular comic strip Peanuts, Linus was always seen carrying his blanket. Clearly, the blanket gave the young lad a sense of comfort and security even in the face of his sister Lucy calling it a “stupid blanket” and constantly urging him to ditch […]