SDN and OpenFlow in 2013 – A Look Ahead

In 2012 OpenFlow discussions turned into SDN ones. Related although different in significant ways, both OpenFlow and SDN drove a significant level of attention in the networking industry as Nicira’s Acquisition and Cisco’s moves served to establish the commercial value of SDN. In 2013, we are witnessing serious momentum in terms of discussions and start-ups around SDN. However, the questions remain as to which solutions will be successful and which solutions will become available in the market place first?

The Art of Efficient ADC Administration – Develop Once, Apply Multiple Times

It’s no secret application delivery controller (ADC) services are often perceived as complex to master and administer. Although they may use the latest ADC device, many ADC deployments only use basic layer 4 load balancing. It can be challenging to find an ADC champion who can really take advantage of the most advanced capabilities of an application delivery solution and maximize its business benefits.

A Better Way to Deploy Applications in Today’s Data Centers (Part 1)

Today, organizations need to support all types of end users that access services and applications in the data center. This means longer and more complicated application deployments on the ADC.

To successfully deploy an application on the ADC, one needs a lot of specific knowledge about the application. For example, you need to know what health checks to do, what should be synched to the backup device, acceleration enhancements and more. The applications require a significant testing phase and there are many parameters on the ADC that need to be monitored in the day-to-day operations.

A Not to be Missed Event for the Virtualization Community

June 26th through June 29th the Red Hat community will be converging upon Boston for the Annual Red Hat Summit/ JBoss World. The event, held at the Hynes Convention Center, will be jam-packed with exhibitors and the top cloud and virtualization professionals in the technology industry, representing more than 80 Red Hat strategic partners. With over 1,800 attendees there will be plenty of opportunity for learning about and networking with the vendor and user communities.

Key Trends Impacting the Next-Gen Data Center – Part 2

In the first part of my blog series, I shed light on the key trends that impact the next-generation data center including consolidation, virtualization, connectivity, convergence and green IT. In this part, it’s time to discuss what are the best-of-breed solutions to address these trends in the most cost-effective way. I chose to start with data center consolidation and virtualization not only because I believe they’re the prominent ones – but also since they go hand in hand together. So here we go: