Thought Leadership on Data Centers and Network Automation

Trends reshaping networks
Network World
January 7, 2011

Server and storage environments have seen a lot of changes in the past ten years, while developments in networking have remained fairly static. Now the demands of virtualization and network convergence are driving the emergence of a host of new network developments.  Here’s what you need to know and how to plan accordingly.

Implementing a Fully Virtualized Data Center
The Data Center Journal
November, 2010

Most IT organizations have implemented server, storage and/or network virtualization to some degree, but to fully realize the benefits of virtualization, IT organizations need to consider adopting all three in an integrated manner.

Ten Ways to Automate Your Network
Virtual Strategy Magazine
October 5, 2010

Data center networks have become increasingly complex with the adoption of virtualization technology. Virtualization has reduced capital expenses by reducing the number of servers and storage devices, but it has also increased the operational expenses as there are dozens or hundreds of VMs and VLANs that must be managed. This rising complexity causes an increase in operational costs at a time when headcounts are fixed. Hypervisor vendors provide many tools for automating server management, but do not generally manage the network devices that support the virtual environment.

One Size Does Not Fit All Data Centers
Data Center Knowledge
September 23, 2010

We often use the term “data center” as a catch-all that addresses any computing environment, but the reality is that the architecture of a data center varies considerably depending on the applications that it is designed to serve. And because one size does not fit all when it comes to data center networks, it can be difficult knowing how best to evolve the data center architecture to ensure that it scales to handle the increasing load as end users continue to demand higher performance for rich media or other applications.