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Greg Ferro

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VCE Chooses Cisco SDN Over VMware NSX

September 27, 2013 10:39 AM

VCE, maker of integrated Vblock systems, will use Cisco's Application Centric Infrastructure for SDN. So what about customers who want NSX?

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News

WAN Encryption Tops the Agenda After NSA Revelations

September 24, 2013 11:00 AM

Whatever trust customers had in the security of WAN connections from service providers is gone. Encrypt now, and consider less-expensive Internet connections instead.

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News

SDN Doesn't Mean Cheaper Networking

September 23, 2013 05:04 PM

The most common prediction about SDN is that networking will get cheaper. It won't. Here's why.

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News

WAN Acceleration Slows Down

September 09, 2013 10:57 AM

A new report shows the WAN acceleration/optimization market is shrinking. WAN optimization won't go away, but don't look for growth either.

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News

VMware NSX Caution Signs

September 04, 2013 10:30 AM

VMware's network virtualization platform makes a strong bid to be the SDN architecture of choice, but sticky issues must still be resolved.

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News

Cumulus Networks: The Pros and Cons of Decoupling

August 26, 2013 05:11 PM

Startup Cumulus Networks makes a compelling argument for separating network software and hardware, but the case isn't closed.

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News

VMware NSX: Game Changer for Data Center Networks

August 26, 2013 01:38 PM

VMware's network virtualization product, NSX, may upend data center networks the same way the hypervisor changed servers.

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News

SDN Is Not a Technology, It's A Use Case

August 07, 2013 12:55 PM

Software defined networking is not a discrete technology, but rather a set of use cases that require a variety of technologies to meet customer needs.

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News

Cisco Aims To Increase Services Business

July 12, 2013 05:35 PM

Cisco announced plans to grow its services business by 9% to 11% in the next 12 months. Look for more cloud services that resellers can package for customers.

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News

Cisco Accelerates SDN Strategy with Dynamic Fabric Automation

July 02, 2013 04:52 PM

Cisco's Dynamic Fabric Automation integrates legacy physical networks with virtual devices. It's a sensible SDN strategy for a networking incumbent, but customers should wait until we know more about Insieme.

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News

Cisco Catalyst Refresh Gives Customers Just What They Want

June 25, 2013 04:41 PM

Cisco announced a new Catalyst switch line and several product upgrades at Cisco Live, including expanded support for its ONE SDN initiative, but the company is sticking with familiar territory.

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News

Cumulus Networks Casts a Shadow On Cisco Strategy

June 19, 2013 03:40 PM

Startup Cumulus Networks announced a Linux-based network operating system that runs on commodity hardware. It could mean clouds ahead for Cisco's proprietary profit engine.

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News

New SDN Technology Challenges VMware, Cisco

April 02, 2013 11:50 AM

A new SDN competitor is challenging VMware, Cisco and others. Nuage Networks, an Alcatel-Lucent venture, has announced Virtualized Service Platform (VSP), an SDN technology that employs virtual switches and network overlays.

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News

VMware's NSX End Game Is Hybrid Clouds

March 15, 2013 03:54 PM

NSX, VMware's data center network virtualization platform, is really about public and hybrid clouds, where VMware has plans for growth. Here's why.

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News

Cisco's ONE Controller Debuts; Targets SDN

February 04, 2013 02:46 PM

Cisco's SDN architecture gets its keystone with the launch of the Cisco ONE Controller, a software package that supports OpenFlow and its own onePK APIs. Cisco also announced support for hybrid clouds with its Nexus 1000V product and the Nexus 6000, a new data center switch.

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News

Cisco Nexus 6000: First Impressions

February 01, 2013 04:18 PM

I got a sneak peek of the Cisco Nexus 6000 switch series at Cisco Live. It's packed with 40-GbE ports, multicast support and solid core Ethernet capabilities that will translate into speed, simplicity and scale. The Nexus 6000 means Cisco finally "gets" cloud networking.

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News

VMware's SDN Dilemma: VXLAN or Nicira?

January 31, 2013 08:02 PM

VMware has invested in two overlay network approaches: the VXLAN standard originally conceived by Cisco and STT, drafted by SDN startup Nicira. VMware acquired Nicira for more than a billion dollars. Which will VMware choose? Here’s my take.

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News

Cisco’s Spending Spree: An Analysis

December 06, 2012 07:07 AM

This November Cisco bought three companies in the space of about 10 days. I’ll examine whether these purchases are part of a larger strategic move, or simply the result of internal competition among Cisco’s business units.

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News

SDN Is Business, OpenFlow Is Technology

November 15, 2012 06:14 PM

Software-defined networking (SDN) and OpenFlow aren’t the same thing. We’ll clarify the technical differences and discuss a more important distinction: SDN emphasizes applications that drive network usability and business requirements, while OpenFlow is a technology to link an SDN controller and network devices.

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News

Packets Are the Past, Flows Are the Future

November 14, 2012 04:25 PM

Networking has focused for years on speeds and feeds: how many packets you can handle and how many ports per device. But hosts and applications work with flows, which will force the network to adapt. Here’s why.

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Bio

Over twenty plus years, Greg has worked Sales, Technical and IT Management but mostly he does Network Engineering and Design. Today he works as a freelance consultant for F100 companies in the UK focusing on Data Centers, Security and Operational Automation. He does actual networking during the day and has clouds in his pockets. He believes that cloud computing is just a new focus on technical operations, that software quality is vital and networking is the unrealized future of everything because it's all about bandwidth. At night he finds it cathartic to write about networking at Network Compting and also at his blog . Because someone asked, he also talks about networking at http://packetpushers.net. He is known for practical opinions, technical viewpoints and being graceful when getting it wrong. Mostly.

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Greg Ferro

Editor's Choice

2013 SDN Survey: Growing Pains

In this report, we'll look at the state of Software-defined networking in the marketplace and examine the survey results. We'll also outline what a typical SDN infrastructure looks like in 2013, including a controller, programmable infrastructure, applications and network multitenancy. We'll dig into both OpenDaylight and OpenFlow, two open source initiatives that are shaping SDN from outside. Finally, We'll offer guidance for network professionals on how to approach bringing SDN into their own environments.
Get full survey results now! »

Vendor Turf Wars

The enterprise tech market used to be an orderly place, where vendors had clearly defined markets. No more. Driven both by increasing complexity and Wall Street demands for growth, big vendors are duking it out for primacy -- and refusing to work together for IT's benefit. Must we now pick a side, or is neutrality an option?
Get the Digital Issue »

WEBCAST: Software Defined Networking (SDN) First Steps

Software defined networking encompasses several emerging technologies that bring programmable interfaces to data center networks and promise to make networks more observable and automated, as well as better suited to the specific needs of large virtualized data centers. Attend this webcast to learn the overall concept of SDN and its benefits, describe the different conceptual approaches to SDN, and examine the various technologies, both proprietary and open source, that are emerging.
Register Today »

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How Data Center Infrastructure Management Software Improves Planning and Cuts Operational Cost

Business executives are challenging their IT staffs to convert data centers from cost centers into producers of business value. Data centers can make a significant impact to the bottom line by enabling the business to respond more quickly to market demands. This paper demonstrates, through a series of examples, how data center infrastructure management software tools can simplify operational processes, cut costs, and speed up information delivery.

Impact of Hot and Cold Aisle Containment on Data Center Temperature and Efficiency

Both hot-air and cold-air containment can improve the predictability and efficiency of traditional data center cooling systems. While both approaches minimize the mixing of hot and cold air, there are practical differences in implementation and operation that have significant consequences on work environment conditions, PUE, and economizer mode hours. The choice of hot-aisle containment over cold-aisle containment can save 43% in annual cooling system energy cost, corresponding to a 15% reduction in annualized PUE. This paper examines both methodologies and highlights the reasons why hot-aisle containment emerges as the preferred best practice for new data centers.

Monitoring Physical Threats in the Data Center

Traditional methodologies for monitoring the data center environment are no longer sufficient. With technologies such as blade servers driving up cooling demands and regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley driving up data security requirements, the physical environment in the data center must be watched more closely. While well understood protocols exist for monitoring physical devices such as UPS systems, computer room air conditioners, and fire suppression systems, there is a class of distributed monitoring points that is often ignored. This paper describes this class of threats, suggests approaches to deploying monitoring devices, and provides best practices in leveraging the collected data to reduce downtime.

Cooling Strategies for Ultra-High Density Racks and Blade Servers

Rack power of 10 kW per rack or more can result from the deployment of high density information technology equipment such as blade servers. This creates difficult cooling challenges in a data center environment where the industry average rack power consumption is under 2 kW. Five strategies for deploying ultra-high power racks are described, covering practical solutions for both new and existing data centers.

Power and Cooling Capacity Management for Data Centers

High density IT equipment stresses the power density capability of modern data centers. Installation and unmanaged proliferation of this equipment can lead to unexpected problems with power and cooling infrastructure including overheating, overloads, and loss of redundancy. The ability to measure and predict power and cooling capability at the rack enclosure level is required to ensure predictable performance and optimize use of the physical infrastructure resource. This paper describes the principles for achieving power and cooling capacity management.