Chambers: Virtualization Is Here

LAS VEGAS -- Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) president and CEO John Chambers made the data center a big theme in last night's keynote address here at the Networld+Interop tradeshow in Las Vegas.

Addressing a packed conference hall with his famous southern drawl, Chambers warned attendees that their data centers will be coming under increasing pressure in the future. He says, "There will be requirements for huge storage of information and better utilization of servers."

He also said that virtualization and network-wide security are here to stay, and that they mandate more thought about the overall architecture of networks.

"Your ability to better use your storage and better use your server capability is all in the architectural play."

Not surprisingly, given Cisco's recent announcements with IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM), Chambers said virtualization will become increasingly important (see Cisco Goes On-Demand With IBM ).Chambers said that getting the most out of a data center's underlying architecture requires a highly coordinated strategy that can link with new products as they come onto the market.

Some attendees confirmed the virtualization trend. Calvin Ng, of SFA Inc., says, "The idea about the data center is that you get away from having individual files in individual locations – as a user, that's what I would want."

Chambers' thoughts on how firms should tackle the next generation of viruses and worms also came into play. He says, "Security in the future will be an architectural play, not pinpoint products – if you have pinpoint products, people will find a way around the firewall, or a way around your VPN capability."

— James Rogers, Site Editor, Next-gen Data Center Forum