Networks Europe Jul-Aug 2018 | Page 45

OPINION

switches to these hyperscale data centres , and the resulting intelligence , efficiency and high performance is now well-proven . Your own business might not yet need 100G performance , but it no longer makes sense to buy 10G now that the cost of 25G is on a par with it .

2 Open networking In a traditional static network environment the one-stopshop approach is efficient and reassuring . But today ’ s business environment demands agility and an infrastructure that can be extended and optimised to meet less predictable changes . Sometimes that means choosing best of breed , or sometimes the most cost-efficient , solutions . An open and fully disaggregated networking platform is now vital for scalability and flexibility as well as achieving operational efficiency .

3 Converged networks A fully converged network will support compute , communications , and storage on a single integrated fabric . To grow a traditional network it was necessary to scale it up by the disruptive process of installing further resources into the existing fabric . This is like growing a business by recruiting training and accommodating extra staff , whereas in today ’ s business environment it ’ s often more efficient to outsource skills to meet sudden demand . Hyperscale networks are designed to scale out disaggregated hardware , so you can add units of CPU , memory and storage independently – and an integrated , scalable , and highperformance network is the key to achieve this .

4 Software defined everything The hardware required for a converged network is fully integrated with software to orchestrate a virtual environment optimised for the needs of each specific application . The software controller enables the system to be managed from a single screen , and software automation removes most or all of the burden of manual commissioning and ongoing management . Software

defined networking , storage , and virtualisation – or software defined everything ( SDX ) – transforms what would have been an impossibly complex aggregate into an intelligent and responsive whole .

5 Cloud software integration It goes without saying that you ’ ll want your new hyperscale network to be fully integrated with popular cloud platforms such as OpenStack , vSphere , and Azure Stack . It should also support advanced software defined storage solutions such as Ceph , Gluster , Storage Spaces Direct , and VSAN .

One integrated whole These five key factors show that we have come a long way from the enterprise ’ s traditional static data centre , and this is the way to go . The ‘ Super 7 ’ may be way ahead of anything most enterprises can even dream about , but many more companies will be facing similar pressures for flexible and efficient scalability . A retail or food chain going international could be taking on millions of new customers . There are numerous IoT initiatives that will manipulate terabytes of data flooding into their systems and a company needs massive in-house capability to run and evolve new algorithms . The result could be disastrous unless the systems are designed to scale to meet the needs of the business while maintaining performance and reliability .

A recent example was provided by Vault Systems , a company that delivers ASD certified Government Cloud to Australian federal , state and local government agencies and their partners that manages sensitive data at the highest levels of security . The company wanted an open , flexible 100GbE network that would at the same time maintain its high level of security . They chose a supplier of hyperscale network solutions to the tech giants , but one that also provides for high-performance computing , enterprise data centres , cloud , storage and financial services that don ’ t have a hyperscale budget or resources . n

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