Zeus Kerravala
Author Archives: Zeus Kerravala
- Home → Author's archive:
Zeus Kerravala
0
VeloCloud and Aryaka in a two-horse race for SD-WAN leadership
Research firm IHS Markit recently released its Data Center Network Equipment market tracker report for Q4 2017 by analyst Cliff Grossner, which includes Software-Defined WANs (SD-WAN). I don’t normally comment on other industry research, but I have tremendous respect for Grossner, and his quantitative numbers are among the best. So, I felt a deep dive into his findings on the SD-WAN market was worth the effort.Also read: Why 2018 will be the year of the WAN It’s important to note that Grossner’s numbers include SD-WAN appliance and control management software revenue and not services, so his numbers will be smaller than other firms, such as IDC, which has the market pegged somewhere in the billion-dollar range. Neither is better than the other, per se; they’re just different.To read this article in full, please click here
0
Aerohive SD-WAN solution simplifies management of multi networks
Most people think of Aerohive Networks as a Wi-Fi vendor, which makes sense given most of the company’s revenue comes from selling wireless access points into businesses. In actuality, Aerohive is a cloud management vendor that has applied its expertise in that area to wireless LANs. About year ago, the company introduced its software-defined LAN (SD-LAN) solution that includes wireless APs and wired switches, enabling its customers to manage the entire campus network from the cloud.This week, Aerohive extended its reach into the WAN with the release of its SD-WAN solution that can be managed through HiveManager, the same cloud management tool used for its SD-LAN products, giving customers a single console for managing the WAN, wired network and wireless APs.To read this article in full, please click here
0
Aerohive SD-WAN solution simplifies management of multi networks
Most people think of Aerohive Networks as a Wi-Fi vendor, which makes sense given most of the company’s revenue comes from selling wireless access points into businesses. In actuality, Aerohive is a cloud management vendor that has applied its expertise in that area to wireless LANs. About year ago, the company introduced its software-defined LAN (SD-LAN) solution that includes wireless APs and wired switches, enabling its customers to manage the entire campus network from the cloud.This week, Aerohive extended its reach into the WAN with the release of its SD-WAN solution that can be managed through HiveManager, the same cloud management tool used for its SD-LAN products, giving customers a single console for managing the WAN, wired network and wireless APs.To read this article in full, please click here
0
Arista brings the benefits of leaf-spine to routing
About a decade ago almost all data centers were built on a traditional three- (or sometimes more) tier architectures that used the spanning tree protocol (STP). That prevented routing loops but also deactivated all the backup links, which accounted for almost half the ports in large environments. This caused organizations to significantly overspend on their networks.Leaf-spine networks, on the other hand, have only two tiers, are much flatter and use something called ECMP (equal cost multi-pathing). So all routes are active, creating a much more efficient network that more agile and costs less.Also on Network World: 10 Most important open source networking projects The traditional three-tier data center was designed to scale up, which was the key requirement in the client/server era. Leaf-spine is optimized for rapid scale out, which has become critical in data centers today, as more and more traffic is moving in an East-West direction. To read this article in full, please click here
0
Arista brings the benefits of leaf-spine to routing
About a decade ago almost all data centers were built on a traditional three- (or sometimes more) tier architectures that used the spanning tree protocol (STP). That prevented routing loops but also deactivated all the backup links, which accounted for almost half the ports in large environments. This caused organizations to significantly overspend on their networks.Leaf-spine networks, on the other hand, have only two tiers, are much flatter and use something called ECMP (equal cost multi-pathing). So all routes are active, creating a much more efficient network that more agile and costs less.Also on Network World: 10 Most important open source networking projects The traditional three-tier data center was designed to scale up, which was the key requirement in the client/server era. Leaf-spine is optimized for rapid scale out, which has become critical in data centers today, as more and more traffic is moving in an East-West direction. To read this article in full, please click here
0
DDI is a critical component of IoT success
The Internet of Things (IoT) era has finally arrived, and businesses need to be prepared for a world where everything is connected.I’m an analyst so I’ll support my proclamation that IoT is here with data: There are currently 25 billion internet-connected devices, and that will double by 2020 and then grow to 80 billion by 2025. ZK Research However, there’s a more basic way of understanding where we are in the adoption cycle: IoT has become the norm, not the exception, according to companies I talk to. IT and business leader no longer look at me like I have three eyes when I say, “IoT.” In fact, in many conversations with them, the term IoT never comes up — yet they are connecting things. Companies are connecting more things because it makes their businesses run better, and over the next decade, this trend will accelerate.To read this article in full, please click here
0
DDI is a critical component of IoT success
The Internet of Things (IoT) era has finally arrived, and businesses need to be prepared for a world where everything is connected.I’m an analyst so I’ll support my proclamation that IoT is here with data: There are currently 25 billion internet-connected devices, and that will double by 2020 and then grow to 80 billion by 2025. ZK Research However, there’s a more basic way of understanding where we are in the adoption cycle: IoT has become the norm, not the exception, according to companies I talk to. IT and business leader no longer look at me like I have three eyes when I say, “IoT.” In fact, in many conversations with them, the term IoT never comes up — yet they are connecting things. Companies are connecting more things because it makes their businesses run better, and over the next decade, this trend will accelerate.To read this article in full, please click here
0
The future of storage: Pure Storage CEO Charlie Giancarlo shares his predictions
Earlier this year, Pure Storage announced Charlie Giancarlo as CEO. Prior to leading Pure Storage, Giancarlo was a managing director and senior advisor at Silver Lake Partners.If Giancarlo's name is familiar to you, it should because he held a number of executive positions at Cisco, including chief technology officer and chief development officer, which is where I got to know him. Many people, myself included, consider Giancarlo one of the masterminds behind Cisco’s meteoric rise, as he was one of the architects that moved the company into new markets, such as ethernet switching, VoIP, Wi-Fi and TelePresence.Also on Network World: Get ready for new storage technologies and media The one thing I always found impressive about Giancarlo is that we could be discussing the latest business and stock market trends and then a few minutes later transition into how the silicon inside a router was designed and the technical differentiation it creates. To read this article in full, please click here
0
The future of storage: Pure Storage CEO Charlie Giancarlo shares his predictions
Earlier this year, Pure Storage announced Charlie Giancarlo as CEO. Prior to leading Pure Storage, Giancarlo was a managing director and senior advisor at Silver Lake Partners.If Giancarlo's name is familiar to you, it should because he held a number of executive positions at Cisco, including chief technology officer and chief development officer, which is where I got to know him. Many people, myself included, consider Giancarlo one of the masterminds behind Cisco’s meteoric rise, as he was one of the architects that moved the company into new markets, such as ethernet switching, VoIP, Wi-Fi and TelePresence.Also on Network World: Get ready for new storage technologies and media The one thing I always found impressive about Giancarlo is that we could be discussing the latest business and stock market trends and then a few minutes later transition into how the silicon inside a router was designed and the technical differentiation it creates. To read this article in full, please click here
0
What do John Chambers and crickets have in common? The IoT
Earlier this year, Cisco announced the man who turned it from a small router company into the world’s dominant network vendor, John Chambers, was exiting his post as executive chairman of the board and it turned the mothership fully over to Chuck Robbins. This raised the question: What has Chambers been up to? Retired?Also on Network World: IoT catches on in New England fishing town Hardly. I met with Chambers near the end of his tenure as CEO, and he most emphatically stated he was not retiring. There are many things I admire about Chambers, but two of his more notable attributes are that he has a knack of catching market transitions and he has a burning desire to change the world. In fact, under Chambers, Cisco put together perhaps the best Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program in the industry, and that legacy has carried over in the Chuck Robbins era.To read this article in full, please click here
0
Manage user performance, not the network, with machine learning-based tools
Over the past decade, network management tools have evolved from being fault based to performance based. This has become a critical element in running infrastructure because faults don’t matter as much.That might seem like a strange thing to say, but consider the fact that critical infrastructure such as switches, routers, Wi-Fi access points and servers are deployed in a way to protect against outages. Infrastructure is built so redundantly today that any hardware device can go down and its likely no one will notice.Also on Network World: 7 must-have network tools A bigger problem is managing user performance. Often users calling about a certain application not working well, but when the engineer looks at the dashboard, everything is green. Performance problems are much harder to diagnose and can kill employee productivity. To read this article in full, please click here
0
Manage user performance, not the network, with machine learning-based tools
Over the past decade, network management tools have evolved from being fault based to performance based. This has become a critical element in running infrastructure because faults don’t matter as much.That might seem like a strange thing to say, but consider the fact that critical infrastructure such as switches, routers, Wi-Fi access points and servers are deployed in a way to protect against outages. Infrastructure is built so redundantly today that any hardware device can go down and its likely no one will notice.Also on Network World: 7 must-have network tools A bigger problem is managing user performance. Often users calling about a certain application not working well, but when the engineer looks at the dashboard, everything is green. Performance problems are much harder to diagnose and can kill employee productivity. To read this article in full, please click here
0
Riverbed enhances its SD-WAN performance monitoring platform
Digital transformation is on every IT and business leader’s radar today. The path to it, though, may not be simple. While many industry pundits like to call out the likes of Uber and AirBnb, those digital natives didn’t have to worry about disrupting an existing business.To help mainstream businesses make that jump to a digital organization, Riverbed launched two new solutions at its Disrupt customer event last week in New York City.Enhanced network performance management The first is a new version of its network and application performance management platform, SteelCentral, enabling IT staff to better understand digital experiences. This aligns with a new movement among the NPM/APM vendors to shift to digital experience management (DEM), providing visibility into customer or worker experience regardless of whether the infrastructure is on premises, in the public cloud or in a hybrid environment.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
0
Riverbed enhances its SD-WAN performance monitoring platform
Digital transformation is on every IT and business leader’s radar today. The path to it, though, may not be simple. While many industry pundits like to call out the likes of Uber and AirBnb, those digital natives didn’t have to worry about disrupting an existing business.To help mainstream businesses make that jump to a digital organization, Riverbed launched two new solutions at its Disrupt customer event last week in New York City.Enhanced network performance management The first is a new version of its network and application performance management platform, SteelCentral, enabling IT staff to better understand digital experiences. This aligns with a new movement among the NPM/APM vendors to shift to digital experience management (DEM), providing visibility into customer or worker experience regardless of whether the infrastructure is on premises, in the public cloud or in a hybrid environment.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
0
Riverbed enhances its SD-WAN performance-monitoring platform
Digital transformation is on every IT and business leader’s radar today. The path to it, though, may not be simple. While many industry pundits like to call out the likes of Uber and AirBnb, those digital natives didn’t have to worry about disrupting an existing business.To help mainstream businesses make that jump to a digital organization, Riverbed launched two new solutions at its Disrupt customer event last week in New York City.Enhanced network performance management The first is a new version of its network and application performance management platform, SteelCentral, enabling IT staff to better understand digital experiences. This aligns with a new movement among the NPM/APM vendors to shift to digital experience management (DEM), providing visibility into customer or worker experience regardless of whether the infrastructure is on premises, in the public cloud or in a hybrid environment.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
0
Riverbed enhances its SD-WAN performance-monitoring platform
Digital transformation is on every IT and business leader’s radar today. The path to it, though, may not be simple. While many industry pundits like to call out the likes of Uber and AirBnb, those digital natives didn’t have to worry about disrupting an existing business.To help mainstream businesses make that jump to a digital organization, Riverbed launched two new solutions at its Disrupt customer event last week in New York City.Enhanced network performance management The first is a new version of its network and application performance management platform, SteelCentral, enabling IT staff to better understand digital experiences. This aligns with a new movement among the NPM/APM vendors to shift to digital experience management (DEM), providing visibility into customer or worker experience regardless of whether the infrastructure is on premises, in the public cloud or in a hybrid environment.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
0
Aerohive and Dell EMC announce OEM relationship
Cloud Wi-Fi vendor Aerohive Networks has signed an original equipment manufacturing (OEM) agreement with Dell EMC to distribute its Wi-Fi hardware and its HiveManager NG Cloud Management Platform.In addition to product distribution, the relationship includes joint sales, marketing, support and services. It will also bring together Aerohive’s innovative products with the massive power and scale of the Dell EMC channel and services.Also on Network World: 9 tips for speeding up your business Wi-Fi Dell and Aerohive have a relationship that goes back to 2015 when Dell become a global reseller partner for Aerohive’s products. The following year, the two companies collaborated and enabled HiveManager NG to manage Dell’s N-series wired switches, as well as the Aerohive APs, giving customers a true “single pane of glass.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
0
Cisco aims to simplify multi-cloud deployments
One general rule of thumb I have with respect to technology deployments is that the solution to a problem should be simpler than the original problem itself. Unfortunately, we often forget that in IT and have significantly more problems after implementing a solution than we did before. Virtualization is a great example of this. Early in the rise of VMware, server admins would often tell me that the number of virtual machines and complexity was significantly higher than it was pre-server consolidation. Eventually, the good folks at VMware built vCenter, and it brought some manageability to large VMware shops.Also on Network World: 6 steps for a future-ready cloud storage strategy The same thing can be said for cloud computing. Many businesses adopt cloud so they can simplify and speed up development cycles. If all the company did was shift all of their on-premises data, compute cycles and development tools to a single cloud provider, it might indeed make things simpler.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
0
Cohesity makes it easier to manage secondary storage
The rise of hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) has been well documented over the past few years. The technology greatly reduces the operational overhead required to run workloads such as VDI and remote office/branch office workloads. The turnkey nature of HCI makes it easy to deploy and simple to operate while guaranteeing great performance. Recently, I ran across a company called Cohesity that brings the benefits of HCI to an area I had never considered it for — secondary storage. I understand that the topic of secondary storage may be boring, but it’s one of the biggest pain points for companies.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
0
Extreme completes Brocade acquisition, finishing a remarkable turnaround story
Extreme Networks today announced that it has completed the acquisition of Brocade’s data center switching, routing and analytics business, completing one of the most remarkable and unlikely turnaround stories in tech history.In the technology industry, rising from the ashes is very rare. Once a vendor, no matter how big, starts to slide, it generally has a bad outcome. Consider all the giants in networking alone that went from 800-pound gorillas to a puff of smoke seemingly overnight. Names including Lucent, Nortel, 3Com, Cabletron, Marconi and Fore Systems, once seemingly mighty powers that could never be toppled, are now all gone. Some vendors have avoided that fate by going private to revamp the company without the pressure of meeting Wall Street expectations every quarter. Recent examples of this are Polycom, Riverbed, Dell and Solar Winds.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here