Network Management Strategies for the CIO
Access "With network fabrics, choosing a vendor means commitment"
This article is part of the August 2012 Vol. 3, No. 4 issue of Data center fabric wars
As spanning tree protocol (STP) shows its age in data center networking and Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links (TRILL) and Shortest Path Bridging (SPB) crawl toward true standardization, network architects on the bleeding edge are left to choose between betting the server farm on a single, generally proprietary fabric vendor and waiting for the fabric wars to end. With Extreme Networks, Brocade, and Cisco embracing TRILL, Avaya and Alcatel-Lucent supporting SPB and Juniper backing its own QFabric, it could be a long wait. Despite updates, STP shows it age First conceived of in 1985 by the then-giant Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) and standardized in 1990 by IEEE, STP served as the default for routing meshed local area networks in a way that eliminated dangerous loops, corrected meandering paths and allowed redundancy. But that flexibility came at a cost.“Even with a set of enhancements in various forms over the course of many years, recovery in a spanning tree environment can take a long time,” said Eric Hanselman, research director with the ... Access >>>
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Features
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Data center network fabrics vs. software – defined fabrics
by Shamus McGillicuddy
Are data center fabrics and software defined networks competitive or complementary technologies?
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Deep packet inspection tools: Proxy vs. stream-based
by David B. Jacobs, Contributor
As more enterprises consider deep packet inspection tools, network managers must choose the technique that works best for them.
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Data center network fabrics vs. software – defined fabrics
by Shamus McGillicuddy
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With network fabrics, choosing a vendor means commitment
by Michael Morisy
Can incompatible fabrics be good for data center networking?
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Using wireless network bandwidth monitoring to stay within data caps
by Lisa Phifer, Wireless Expert
Wireless network bandwidth monitoring is important for users who must remain within data caps that are often broken by smartphone/tablets and cloud services.
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With network fabrics, choosing a vendor means commitment
by Michael Morisy
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News
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VMware networking CTO on SDN, OpenFlow and network virtualization
by Shamus McGillicuddy
VMware networking CTO Allwyn Sequeira explains the software-defined data center, the future of OpenFlow and how the company already has network virtualization 'nailed.'
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VMware networking CTO on SDN, OpenFlow and network virtualization
by Shamus McGillicuddy
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Columns
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Point-Counterpoint: Do both SDN and data center network fabrics fail?
by Rivka Gewirtz Little
In this point-counterpoint feature, two network engineers turned-bloggers—Ivan Pepelnjak of IOS hints and Brad Casemore of Twilight in the Valley of Nerds—take opposing sides in the battle of network fabric vs. SDN. Read both, and see which side you agree with.
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Point-Counterpoint: Do both SDN and data center network fabrics fail?
by Rivka Gewirtz Little
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