Network Virtualization: The Next Step for Cloud Services?

Grazed from Midsize Insider. Author: Doug Bonderud.

Server virtualization is a given for most midsize businesses. Any company running on a shared public cloud stack understands that while their data lives alongside information from other customers, there is no communication and no diffusion of data across hypervisor partitions. The result is a single server taking the place of multiple servers and portioning out resources as needed. While it is easy to argue for cloud computing as the final step in the virtual chain, the emergence of viable network virtualization technologies may be changing this landscape again.

Not So Smart?

Virtualized networks are not new. As a recent Forbes article notes, they are needed to operate multiple guest operating systems (OSs) on most physical servers; but this first-gen network virtualization technology is not particularly bright. Author Kurt Marko describes the infrastructure as "rather dumb devices, really more bridges than switches, and completely isolated from and ignorant of the underlying physical network topology they operate on." New technologies aim to bolster virtual network intelligence using overlay software, tunneling protocols such as VXLAN or NVGRE and software plug-ins that permit hypervisor oversight. In short, network virtualization is getting schooled…

Why does this matter to midsize IT professionals? It matters because the use of an abstraction layer between apps and hardware means that virtualized networks can be created and maintained without substantial capital expenditures. Just as server virtualization allowed companies to skip purchasing and instead rent space and computer power, the network equivalent lets businesses use existing technologies as a gateway to more sophisticated networking protocols…

Read more from the source @ http://midsizeinsider.com/en-us/article/network-virtualization-the-next-step-fo

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