The Road to the Cloud Runs Through the Network

Grazed from EnterpriseNetworkingPlanet.  Author: Arthur Cole.

The cloud is emerging as one of the key drivers of network modernization in the data center. Across the board, enterprises are beefing up internal infrastructure to make it easier to provision server and storage resources for stakeholders, and the best way to do that is with a top-flight network.

Private cloud needs drive network infrastructure upgrades in the data center

According to Infonetics, the average spend for enterprise networking upgrades was $1.1 million last year, and if current trends hold, 2014 should see a healthy 20 percent gain. While wireless LAN technology is a top priority, most CIOs report that the need to build private clouds is paramount. This upgrade is being fueled by two main factors: the need to provide services and applications directly to users to stem the flow of data to public clouds, and the desire to ultimately build hybrid networks that can provide both the ease of use and scalability that emerging, data-driven industries require…


It seems that much of the spending these days is on raw physical infrastructure, like new 10 GbE switches and state-of-the-art core and edge systems that support advanced network architectures like SDN and NFV. Oddly, though, these are not prerequisites for the cloud, and, according to top executives at OpenStack developer Nebula, may even be detrimental. ENP’s Sean Michael Kerner buttonholed founder Chris Kemp and CEO Gordon Stitt recently; they said SDN may be overkill for many organizations that simply want to push more data onto the cloud. If you think building a cloud is tough, try doing it on top of a brand-new, and still largely unproven, network architecture…

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