Posted by on Mar 27, 2013 in Blog | 0 comments

Data centers have been struggling to cope with growing virtualized data traffic, and network virtualization is the solution, according to a new report from Heavy Reading Service Provider IT Insider, an independent research organization that analyses emerging telecom trends. The report, “Network Virtualization Comes of Age in the Data Center”, examines network virtualization in the data center, focusing on the importance of network virtualization, and the technologies and protocols that support it.

The need for change has become particularly pressing in large-scale data center environments that are provisioning, migrating and tearing down thousands of virtual machines every minute. “Network virtualization technology is clearly of most practical use in solving virtual machine scalability issues in larger data centers run by telcos, cloud service providers and Internet companies,” said Martin Courtney, author of the report and analyst at Heavy Reading.

Some of the key findings of the report include:

  • Data center networks are struggling to cope with the explosive growth in virtualized data traffic.
  • Cloud service delivery demands a more scalable, flexible network that is easier to manage.
  • Network hardware vendors are focusing their efforts on virtual network overlays and software-defined networking (SDN).
  • Virtual network overlays are built on a confusing mix of standardized and proprietary protocols and platforms.
  • SPB, TRILL, LISP, ARMD, VXLAN, NVGRE, STT and MLAG all have backing from different vendors.
  • The underlying technology remains immature, and the market has seen few customer deployments.
  • Adoption forces changes in the way vendors design and sell L2/L3 switches.

 

CLO Inside Track: It’s not news that virtualized data traffic is expanding exponentially and data centers are rapidly reaching the overload point.  The most logical response for large cloud service providers like telecom carriers and other data service providers has been to embrace virtual network overlays and SDNs.  But in the wild frontiers of early-stage adoption and proprietary standards, many of these solutions are simply not ready for prime time.  However, as robust, open standards-based approaches take hold, network virtualization will better address the needs of organizations as well as carriers.

 

(For additional information contact: Heavy Reading, 303-997-9135, www.heavyreading.com)