EDITOR’S QUESTION
Taj ElKhayat
Regional Vice President,
Middle East and Africa at
Riverbed Technology
In recent years, the Middle East has seen
an exponentially growing amount of data
from a variety of devices. Organizations
are challenged with having to cope
with a large number of connections,
at reduced capital and operations
expenses. SDN promises speedy service
provisioning, network flexibility plus
other additional efficiencies such as
lower OpEx and CapEx costs. The Middle
East therefore, like other geographies, is
looking to realise these benefits.
Currently, enterprises in the region are
investigating SDN, and in some cases
implementing their initial projects into
this area. Although this may be a case
of dipping their toes in the water, as
technology becomes more conventional,
then there will be acceleration into this
area. A few early adopter companies are
utilizing elements of SDN, however it
will be a little while before this is wider
practice across the region.
Like all technologies that are perceived
as ‘new’, there is always a lag in their
adoption. With the perceived risk
outweighing the potential benefits,
we will have to wait to the mid-term
before we see the majority implement
these technologies widely through their
organization.
With the data center at the heart
of the IT engine, if there should be
any problems, the results could be
catastrophic; both in terms of reputation
and with cost. Therefore, we see the
adoption of these technologies in niche
locations within the enterprise and rarely
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in areas supporting business critical
applications and processes.
I believe that in order to see true
benefits, organizations should not stop
short by looking at SDN as their final
destination of interest. SDN presents
some intriguing opportunities and is an
intermediate step to a more-significant
destination: the software-defined data
centre (SDDC). Indeed, the SDDC is
the real prize, creating opportunities
for organizations to achieve new forms
of flexibility that have so far eluded
traditional data centre practices. While
SDN has some interesting technical
characteristics, it is properly understood
as a prerequisite and component of
SDDC – a means to an end, rather than
an end in itself.
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