Cloud computing swallowing up branch office hardware
July 16, 2013
Grazed from NetworkWorld. Author: Jon Gold.
The popularization of cloud computing and ubiquitous access to high-speed Internet connectivity mean that the days of the specialized branch office IT appliance are numbered, according to industry sources. Instead of providing apps and services directly to branch offices using dedicated hardware at both ends of the connection, virtualized networks can emulate that functionality across the public Internet.
Before he became F5 Networks’ director of enterprise marketing architectures, Alan Murphy worked for a small startup in Seattle. The company’s branch office, in Austin, Texas, was directly connected across the 2,000+ miles between the two cities by a dedicated link. “100% of that traffic from Austin came back to Seattle before it ever went on the Internet,” he says…
These days, however, it’s often simpler and cheaper to provide apps and services via the cloud than it is to use dedicated branch office gear. While there are exceptions for businesses in certain heavily regulated or non-technical industries, the architectural and functional advantages of the all-online model are difficult to argue with…
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