As virtualization-lite creates swarms of increasingly dense VLANs in the data
center, the IT industry appears to be responding by consolidating into
coalitions, including Arcadia (EMC, VMW, and CSCO); HP/COMS; and IBM/JNPR.
Each coalition will likely produce its own "branded container" dedicated to
the simplification and tactical orchestration of growing VLAN empires.
This consolidation takes us back to the 70s when IBM and the BUNCH offered
ever-shrinking choices to smocked IT decision makers. Years later the
network evolved and disrupted the consolidation with new equipment
categories, new solutions and emergent demands soon addressed by a
mushrooming venture capital industry and hordes of tech entrepreneurs.
It seems likely that the cycle of consolidation and disrupt... (more)
Infrastructure 2.0 Journal
For months the infrastructure 2.0 blog has talked about the automation of IT
from a network perspective, including the automation of the network itself.
While few may question the need for network automation most businesses today
still run their networks like they ran their “supply chains” decades ago,
before the network.
This great irony is about to change. He... (more)
It only makes sense that the steam locomotive existed before the completion
of the Transcontinental Railroad. One breakthrough created the need for
another. The power of the VM (virtual machine) introduced unprecedented
mobility and flexibility, albeit within the confines of a VLAN container.
That mobility and flexibility has created new demands for larger, unified and
intelligent net... (more)
Virtualization and cloud computing are promising to change the way in which
IT services are delivered and, in effect, transform computing as we know it
today. I think the promises are likely to come true, if and only if
critical technology issues are addressed.
Nicholas Carr told a recent audience at IDC Directions that "Cloud computing
has become the center of investment and innovation."... (more)
As infrastructure 2.0 is turned on it will represent an irreversible
transformation in the way IT services are delivered.
The timing of product releases, investments and deployments could make all
the difference for a range of companies and organizations.
Those who could be impacted include the cloud vendors (including Google,
Amazon, Rackspace and Savvis), the virtualization [...]
... (more)