Tom Nolle
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Tom Nolle
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Network availability: Are you your own worst enemy?
My early enterprise surveys from 30 years ago showed that the largest reported source of network outages was human error. Today, that’s still the case, and in fact human error leads any equipment or transmission cause by a larger margin today than it did 30 years ago. This, despite the fact that enterprises say they’ve invested significantly in improving, simplifying, and automating network operations. The old saying, “We have met the enemy and they are us,” sure seems to apply.If you ask network operations professionals, most will tell you that the problem is that network complexity is growing faster than operations management can cope with. Most, but not all. Operations management believes that acquisition and retention of qualified network experts is a big part of the problem. Some technical pundits think network technology itself is to blame. Almost everyone things that more automation is the solution, but some wonder if our automation tools are just adding another layer of complexity when complexity is the big problem to start with. Hot news: They’re all correct.To read this article in full, please click here
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What are virtual routers and how can they lead to virtual data centers?
OK, you’re a CIO and when you go down to the data center, you see racks of routers, each with a maze of cabling. When you hear “virtual routers” you think of all of that gone, replaced by mystical router instances floating about somewhere in the ether, and you smile.Or you’re a CFO who gets a bill for hundreds of branch routers, each picking your pocket on service charges and maybe software licenses. You hear “virtual routers” and think of all those little hands going out of your pocket, and you smile.To read this article in full, please click here
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What are virtual routers and how can they lead to virtual data centers?
OK, you’re a CIO and when you go down to the data center, you see racks of routers, each with a maze of cabling. When you hear “virtual routers” you think of all of that gone, replaced by mystical router instances floating about somewhere in the ether, and you smile.Or you’re a CFO who gets a bill for hundreds of branch routers, each picking your pocket on service charges and maybe software licenses. You hear “virtual routers” and think of all those little hands going out of your pocket, and you smile.To read this article in full, please click here
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Network security depends on two foundations you probably don’t have
You’ve done everything to secure your network, and you still face threats. That’s what most enterprises say about their network security, and they’re half right. Yes, they still face threats, but they’ve not done everything to address them. In fact, most enterprises haven’t really implemented the two foundations on which real network security must be based.When I ask enterprises whether they’ve done a top-down analysis of network security, they usually say they do it every year. When I ask what’s involved in that assessment, they say they look for indications that their current strategies have failed. They build another layer, which is kind of like putting a second Band-Aid on a cut.To read this article in full, please click here
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Network security depends on two foundations you probably don’t have
You’ve done everything to secure your network, and you still face threats. That’s what most enterprises say about their network security, and they’re half right. Yes, they still face threats, but they’ve not done everything to address them. In fact, most enterprises haven’t really implemented the two foundations on which real network security must be based.When I ask enterprises whether they’ve done a top-down analysis of network security, they usually say they do it every year. When I ask what’s involved in that assessment, they say they look for indications that their current strategies have failed. They build another layer, which is kind of like putting a second Band-Aid on a cut.To read this article in full, please click here
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Why it makes sense for Broadcom to buy VMware
Why the heck would a hardware and chip company like Broadcom buy a software company like VMware?Wall Street and industry analysts haven't exactly jumped with joy over the pending deal, after all. Companies sometimes do stupid things; that seems to be the consensus. But with this deal, that may not be the case at all. Broadcom may be responding to the fundamental shifts in the industry, both in computing and in networking. [ Get regularly scheduled insights by signing up for Network World newsletters. ]To read this article in full, please click here
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Why it makes sense for Broadcom to buy VMware
Why the heck would a hardware and chip company like Broadcom buy a software company like VMware?Wall Street and industry analysts haven't exactly jumped with joy over the pending deal, after all. Companies sometimes do stupid things; that seems to be the consensus. But with this deal, that may not be the case at all. Broadcom may be responding to the fundamental shifts in the industry, both in computing and in networking. [ Get regularly scheduled insights by signing up for Network World newsletters. ]To read this article in full, please click here
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Redefining NaaS: It’s the internet
Your network vendor has probably already told you that network as a service or NaaS would improve your network and bottom line. They’ve probably told you that they offer a NaaS strategy. The first statement is true, and the second is fast becoming irrelevant, because the fact is that you have a better, vendor-independent, NaaS option already. It’s called the internet.The definition for NaaS that’s recently taken hold is financial more than technical—NaaS is a strategy for expensing network technology rather than building networks from capital purchases. Some vendor NaaS is little more than the equivalent of an auto lease, which lets companies expense cars rather than make capital purchases. Others could add in management services or usage pricing. Is this really NaaS? Uber is driving-as-a-service, not auto leasing. If we want network-as-a-service, we have to look at something that’s really a service.To read this article in full, please click here
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Look to Google to solve looming data-center speed challenges
When you think of data-center networking, you almost certainly think of Ethernet switches. These gadgets have been the foundation of the data-center network for decades, and there are still more Ethernet switches sold into data-center applications than any other technology. Network planners, though, are starting to see changes in applications, and those changes are suggesting that it’s time to think a bit harder about data center network options. Your data center is changing, and so should its network.To read this article in full, please click here
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Look to Google to solve looming data-center speed challenges
When you think of data-center networking, you almost certainly think of Ethernet switches. These gadgets have been the foundation of the data-center network for decades, and there are still more Ethernet switches sold into data-center applications than any other technology. Network planners, though, are starting to see changes in applications, and those changes are suggesting that it’s time to think a bit harder about data center network options. Your data center is changing, and so should its network.To read this article in full, please click here
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Suprise! The internet of things doesn’t necessarily include the internet
When the now-familiar concept of the Internet of Things (IoT) was new, what we really were envisioning a massive deployment of “things”, mostly sensors, connected directly to the internet and, like the internet, available to many companies to form the basis for new applications. Neither the business model nor the privacy/security issues of that approach were easily validated, so we’ve fallen back to something that largely takes the internet out of IoT. But what replaces it?Answer: The Network of Things or NoT, and if you’ve never heard of that concept, you’re at the first step of understanding the problem.To read this article in full, please click here
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Private 5G: The 4 things that determine if you need it
By this time, you’ve probably read so many stories about enterprises adopting private 5G networks that you feel like a student who finds out they’re not one of the cool kids. Can you ever hold your head up in a tech conference and admit you’re not running private 5G yet?Take heart! Maybe you’re not supposed to be. The best wireless network technology for an enterprise depends on four things: devices, spread, privacy, and mission.5G is a cellular network technology used almost exclusively by telcos, but you can buy equipment to build your own 5G network, and even get hosted 5G from cloud providers like Amazon. You can use open spectrum so you don’t need to bid at an auction for a license. There’s a lot of excitement about private 5G, but in that excitement it’s easy to forget that you could have adopted private 4G/LTE long ago, and that Wi-Fi is still the most popular wireless technology of all. You’ve got to look at the four factors just mentioned to decide whether you want to read about private 5G or adopt it.To read this article in full, please click here
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MPLS, SDN, even SD-WAN can give you the network observability you need
What do router networks and a preschool have in common? A lot more than you think. Read on for the answer.To the average enterprise, “network” means “router network”. It’s not that there aren’t other things in the network, but that the whole of enterprise networking is about building IP connectivity. We’ve invented a bunch of terms to describe the elements of our IP networks, and it seems like we’re adding new ones every day. As we do, a growing number of enterprises are finding that they don’t know as much about their networks’ operation as they need to; they don’t have “observability”. [ Get regularly scheduled insights by signing up for Network World newsletters. ]To read this article in full, please click here
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Basing network security on IP addressing: Would it be worth it?
Why is it that over 90% of enterprises tell me that they expect to spend more on security over the next three years, and almost 60% say they expect to spend less on networking? We obviously think that network technology is getting more efficient, more competitive. Why isn’t that the case for security? The short answer is that enterprises have been chasing acronyms and not solutions.Acronym-chasing comes about because by nature, security is hard to plan for. The average network expert finds out there’s an issue because some higher-up reads or hears about a breach. Maybe they do a quick search, and they find out that what they really need is SASE. Or maybe they need SSE, which we’re told is SASE without SD-WAN. In any event, what happens is that there’s pressure to add this new thing on, and that creates another layer of protection...maybe. Complication and cost? Surely.To read this article in full, please click here
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IP addressing could support effective network security, but would it be worth it?
Why is it that over 90% of enterprises tell me that they expect to spend more on security over the next three years, and almost 60% say they expect to spend less on networking? We obviously think that network technology is getting more efficient, more competitive. Why isn’t that the case for security? The short answer is that enterprises have been chasing acronyms and not solutions.Acronym-chasing comes about because by nature, security is hard to plan for. The average network expert finds out there’s an issue because some higher-up reads or hears about a breach. Maybe they do a quick search, and they find out that what they really need is SASE. Or maybe they need SSE, which we’re told is SASE without SD-WAN. In any event, what happens is that there’s pressure to add this new thing on, and that creates another layer of protection...maybe. Complication and cost? Surely.To read this article in full, please click here
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IP addressing could support effective network security, but would it be worth it?
Why is it that over 90% of enterprises tell me that they expect to spend more on security over the next three years, and almost 60% say they expect to spend less on networking? We obviously think that network technology is getting more efficient, more competitive. Why isn’t that the case for security? The short answer is that enterprises have been chasing acronyms and not solutions.Acronym-chasing comes about because by nature, security is hard to plan for. The average network expert finds out there’s an issue because some higher-up reads or hears about a breach. Maybe they do a quick search, and they find out that what they really need is SASE. Or maybe they need SSE, which we’re told is SASE without SD-WAN. In any event, what happens is that there’s pressure to add this new thing on, and that creates another layer of protection...maybe. Complication and cost? Surely.To read this article in full, please click here
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Basing network security on IP addressing: Would it be worth it?
Why is it that over 90% of enterprises tell me that they expect to spend more on security over the next three years, and almost 60% say they expect to spend less on networking? We obviously think that network technology is getting more efficient, more competitive. Why isn’t that the case for security? The short answer is that enterprises have been chasing acronyms and not solutions.Acronym-chasing comes about because by nature, security is hard to plan for. The average network expert finds out there’s an issue because some higher-up reads or hears about a breach. Maybe they do a quick search, and they find out that what they really need is SASE. Or maybe they need SSE, which we’re told is SASE without SD-WAN. In any event, what happens is that there’s pressure to add this new thing on, and that creates another layer of protection...maybe. Complication and cost? Surely.To read this article in full, please click here
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How to build a high-speed network for the metaverse of things
How many people on social media have friends only in their home city? Probably not very many, so we shouldn’t think that when Meta or others deploy a metaverse, the inhabitants will all be drawn from the same place.To be successful, a metaverse has to support dispersed users, and the more successful it is, the more its users can be expected to be dispersed over a wider geography. Today, metro, but tomorrow the world. If, as the metaverse spreads out, latency issues destroy the synchronized behavior of the avatars, then it will lose realism and at some point that loss would constrain growth. We already know how to control access latency, but how do we control massive-metaverse latency? Answer: With Massive Metaverse Meshing.To read this article in full, please click here
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How to build a high-speed network for the Metaverse of Things
How many people on social media have friends only in their home city? Probably not very many, so we shouldn’t think that when Meta or others deploy a metaverse, the inhabitants will all be drawn from the same place.To be successful, a metaverse has to support dispersed users, and the more successful it is, the more its users can be expected to be dispersed over a wider geography. Today, metro, but tomorrow the world. If, as the metaverse spreads out, latency issues destroy the synchronized behavior of the avatars, then it will lose realism and at some point that loss would constrain growth. We already know how to control access latency, but how do we control massive-metaverse latency? Answer: With Massive Metaverse Meshing.To read this article in full, please click here
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Surprise! The metaverse could be great news for the enterprise edge
When you think about the metaverse and the enterprise, do you think about millions of workers buzzing about in a virtual world to do their work? Maybe employees picking Star Wars characters as avatars and fighting with light sabers? CEOs likely blanch at that image; to most, virtual workers implies virtual work, and it’s hard to say how that generates real sales and products. Fortunately, there’s an alternative that depends not on enterprises using the metaverse but on riding its coattails.If you ask enterprises what they think about the next frontier in cloud computing is, the responses are mixed between “the edge” and “IoT”, and of course the latter is really an example of an edge application. Well that frontier may be delayed because service providers would have to make a significant investment in infrastructure just to create an edge/IoT option for enterprises, and most enterprises aren’t willing to start planning for that next frontier until services are available. With buyers waiting for services and sellers wanting proven demand, we could be in for an era of false starts, edge-wise.To read this article in full, please click here