The 6 Requirements for Data Center Networks
One way or another, all data center networks exhibit at least 6 different functional areas that their operators need to engineer, implement, and operate with a differing set of needs and requirements. Similarly, in one way or another, most of the available SDN and virtualized network solutions available today or in progress aim to deal with issues in one or more of these areas to improve their functional effectiveness, cost, automated-ness, or integrated-ness. Yet some areas receive an inordinate amount of focus/attention and those areas may not necessarily have the most opportunity for improvement. Let’s take a look at these 6 requirements in order of the opportunity value to bring new levels of effectiveness to data centers.
1) Edge Switching (inter-server or more generically, inter-end point):
Edge switching loosely covers the function of providing switching between end points, whether they be virtual servers, physical servers, storage devices, or terminating services devices (load balancers, firewalls, etc.) It is important to note that in a virtualized server environment, there is typically 2 layers of edge – a set of virtual switches that connect together VMs and a set of physical switches that connect the physical hosts.
Much of the attention and Continue reading
