IT Roadmap

Cloud is Not a Matter of If, But How Much and How Fast

During the last 18 months, Cisco has been conducting customer round tables and research to uncover the themes driving enterprises to transition their network storage and compute infrastructures to the cloud. One of Cisco's forecasts, based on this information, is that 15% of IT workloads will migrate to a cloud-based infrastructure by 2013.

In this video, Chris Osika (Senior Director of Cisco's Internet Business Solutions Group Sevices Provider Practice) shares 4 emerging themes in relation to the cloud:

In summary, the four themes are:

1. Sheer Impact. In the past, it could take up to 45 days to provision a server. Now, companies are reporting an hour or less with data center virtualization. That's a pretty dramatic change.


2. Organizational Change. Companies are addressing the need to re-align in a functional way to take advantage of of virtualization and cloud. When they do so, they are able to enact a fully holistic business transformation.


3. The Ability to Flex. Virtualization with cloud computing not only allows companies to flex compute and storage resources, but to flex the network to reap rewards of economy.


4. Virtual Desktops (VDI) Enter the Discussion. Whereas in the past, the discussion of VDI was limited, it's now included in conversations about the impact cloud computing can have on the overall enterprise.

Do these themes ring a belll with your company? What other themes do you see emerging  in relation to accelrating your company's presence in the cloud?

6 Levels of Opportunity with Virtualization

It's easy to get lost in the world of virtualization. After all, the word is increasingly being applied to all sorts of situations and applications.

Recognizing the problem, Daniel Kusnetzky of the 451 Group has created an accessible framework that sorts out the various layers of virtualization that deserve our consideration. Each level of the model represents a different opportunity to implement virtualization.

According to Kusnetzky, virtualization can be applied to address "performance, reliability/availability, scalability, consolidation, agility, a unified management domain or some other goal." As he explains, each level offers different benefits:

• Access Virtualization — hardware and software technology enabling just about any device to access just about any application. While the application can see the device, the device knows how to display it. Special purpose hardware may be necessary on each side of the network connection to enhance performance, enabling many users to share a single client system or allowing a single individual to see multiple displays.


• Application Virtualization — software technology enabling applications to run on many different operating systems and hardware platforms. This usually means that the application has been written to use an application framework. It also means that applications running on the same system that do not use this framework do not get the benefits of application virtualization.


• Processing Virtualization — hardware and software technology that hides physical hardware configuration from system services, operating systems or applications. This type of virtualization technology can make one system appear to be many or many systems appear to be a single computing resource to achieve goals ranging from raw performance, high levels of scalability, reliability/availability, agility or consolidation of multiple environments onto a single system.


• Storage Virtualization — hardware and software technology that hides where storage systems are and what type of device is actually storing applications and data. This technology also makes it possible for many systems to share the same storage devices without knowing that others are also accessing them.


• Network Virtualization — hardware and software technology that presents a view of the network that differs from the physical view. So, a personal computer may be allowed to only “see” systems it is allowed to access.


• Management of virtualized environments — software technology that makes it possible for multiple systems to be provisioned and managed as if they were a single computing resource.

While these technologies have been available in various forms for almost three decades, they are now widely available for industry-standard applications. Such availability is clearly contributing to the ongoing wave of virtualization that is transforming IT.

Is Your Network Ready to Enable the Virtual Office?

Teleworking is on the rise, creating new challenges and opportunities for enterprises committed to the promise of borderless networks.

Consider a few projections and estimates:

• Number of teleworkers by 2011: 112 million
• Percentage of employees that work outside the corporate HQ: 90%
• Average amount saved per year on fuel by employees who work one day at home: $500
• Average commercial real estate savings per year for a full time teleworker: $22,000 

Considering the challenges of the current down economy and the clear savings associated with telework, it seems likely that teleworking will become an attractive approach for more and more organizations in the coming years. It’s certainly attractive to workers seeking schedule flexibility and better work-life balance.  They want to save time and costs on commuting.

While there may have been concerns in the past about the ability of teleworkers to build trust with their colleagues and effectively collaborate, the maturing of technology over the years has addressed many of these concerns. Rich communication and collaboration capabilities – matched with convenience and cost savings – have dramatically shifted the equation in favor of telework.

The question is: What will it take to successfully implement, manage and secure robust networks and IT resources that will support the move to a virtual office environment?

 

One thing that’s clear is that teleworkers, full- and part-time home office workers, mobile contractors, and executives will expect the same rich array of network services – including data, voice, video and various applications – they could expect to access at a corporate office. 

But that won’t be enough. New telework solutions must also meet the requirements of IT. They must simplify the process of providing rich network services to remote locations.  Deployment and integration must be simple as well, making it easy to scale with the demands of the enterprise. Moreover, security must be uncompromising, ensuring traffic controls and identity management can be strictly enforced.

Finally, it’s critical to ensure the business objectives of the organization are addressed. Solutions must drive measurable productivity gains and cost reductions while facilitating greater agility.

Telework has been called a “quiet revolution,” but it’s clear it won’t remain quiet much longer.

Virtualization Offers More than Scale

Explosive growth of data and processing requirements is driving the need for a new architectural approach to IT infrastructures. The approach of mapping single servers to specific applications simply cannot meet the increasing demands for resources and dynamic response to business needs. Data center virtualization is the solution.

Virtualized architectures offer scalable and cost effective processing platforms. However, that just scratches the surface. Beyond the obvious benefits of scale, virtualization offers:

• Agile response:  Dynamic businesses require quick response. Thanks to virtualization, IT teams can respond to new user and business demands for applications, services and more. Changes in applications, workflows, software revisions, desktop configurations and more are straightforward to deploy and immediately available across the entire infrastructure.


• Reduced capital and operating costs:  Virtual platforms deliver new levels of utilization and performance. Servers that were once 30% utilized reach 80% plus within a virtual infrastructure. With this increase in ROI, costs for power, space and capital are reduced. Management costs are also dramatically reduced, allowing IT staff to focus on innovation and next generation services instead of day-to-day system and resource management.


• Business Continuity:  Virtualized architectures offer affordable alternatives to traditional redundant data centers. Virtual resources act as backup resources across the infrastructure, enabling planned and unplanned downtime with minimal, if any, impact on service delivery.

Virtualization isn’t a new concept. Service providers offered virtualized access to outsourced applications and services nearly a decade ago. Today, a wide number of vendors offer virtualization software, off-the-shelf hardware components and networking solutions that enable an IT staff to integrate and create a virtualized data center.

But the benefits of virtualization are not all in place, yet. The movement to blade servers and storage appliances improves overall ROI while simplifying management. Reduction to costs is important – but there is more to come.

The ultimate benefits of virtualization will come from an automated, ‘lights out’ approach to delivering IT services. Early tools for automation are being deployed by a number of independent vendors. The rewards from virtualization will continue to increase as these tools come to market, are improved and refined, and as they reach ‘standard’ levels for interoperability.

Still, for the near-term, the best approach to data center virtualization is to work with partners who are experts in the design and deployment of virtualized infrastructures.

It’s clear that the time for virtualization is now. The opportunity to improve results from reductions to capital expense, ensuring business continuity and improved agility that enables IT to quickly meet business needs are definitely within reach.

Answer 5 Questions to Ensure Your Network Supports Virtualization

Implementing data center virtualization and virtual server networks isn't as simple as install and done. One of the pivotal components is your network infrastructure. Although virtualization offers significant benefits when it comes to server and desktop deployment, management and utilization, the network requires some updates in business networks to be most effective at supporting the increased demands of virtualization.

Network optimization is critical in virtual environments.  If networks are not properly architected, with the required tools for management, virtual infrastructures can result in less efficiency and more cost. Something every IT department is tasked to avoid.

Following are 5 Questions to answer when planning network support for a virtual infrastructure:

• How will the change affect staffing requirements, and what will be the cost of added complexity, such as increased downtime to accomplish the migration?


• How will you manage your virtual network? While there might be fewer physical switches and routers, a virtualization strategy often means more logical, virtual devices that also have to be managed. Many traditional networking tools may not spot problems unless specifically created for a virtual environment.


• How will you simplify network management? Does your tool allowing IT professionals to interact with a virtual network in much the same way that they would interact with a physical network, such a product should make supporting server virtualization similar to what they already do.


• Can you scale to manage more and diverse devices? Moving to data center virtualization almost always decreases the number of physical servers, but the number of virtual storage servers, for example, can more than double. [International Data Corporation]


• How will you automate network tasks? Virtualization doesn't affect what network managers do, per se. But it does increase how often management tasks must be performed, while requiring more advance planning for capacity and network load balancing. Automation of these tasks is a key to improved efficiency.

Most experts agree that network planning is one of the most critical aspects of any Data Center Virtualization project.  That’s why having a partner that understands how business networks and virtualization work together is critical to success.

Don't Forget About Your Network

The uptake in data center and server virtualization requires that IT rethink their data center networks.  Virtualization requires a new approach  - and perhaps a new vendor choice.

Network optimization is a key issue when it comes to virtualization.  Why? Because virtualization increases server utilization, which in turn increases traffic - creating I/O congestion from the edge devices all the way into the data center.  Within the data center, network demand is geometrically increased as virtualized workloads are distributed across multiple servers. 

Vendors are targeting the network needs of virtualized data centers with a variety of solutions.  These divergent approaches to delivering next generation data center networks can be confusing – and proprietary.  Consequently, choosing the right virtual vendor can be more difficult than ever. 

It’s unclear today which vendor will dominate the virtualized data center network market. What is clear is that IT needs to be smart when selecting next generation technologies:

1. Integrated is better than standalone. Virtualization requires tight integration and scalability between the network and the virtual server architecture.  Buying separate products and knitting them together may be lower cost up front – but will most likely by higher cost in the longer term thanks to the ongoing management overhead to continually tune the products to work together.  Not to mention the finger pointing.  Solutions that are designed to work together from the network through the virtual server architecture will improve initial deployment and ongoing management (and productivity).


2. Avoid vendor lock-in and costly upgrades. As with previous technology advances, proprietary approaches will rule for the first phase of solutions. Each vendor will offer their approach – and over time, will converge to offer open solutions (or integration APIs) to achieve interoperability.  If history repeats itself – market leaders will set the open standards – meaning that buying from an unknown vendor may leave you stranded in your own locked-in world.


3. Double check that roadmap. Ask to see any vendor’s roadmap – as well as for references on their current deployments.  Don’t buy anything without customer evidence of its value.   Ask your network experts to review comprehensive technology roadmaps with each vendor to be sure that vendor is heading in the direction you want to go.

Most importantly – choose a vendor who understands your requirements, your business and can show you successful deployments in customers who mirror your own data center and infrastructure requirements. 

Develop a Roadmap for Evolving Your Network Infrastructure

Many small-to-mid-size companies evolve their networks in an ad hoc manner. They purchase point solutions with more of a focus to addressing an immediate need than in assessing how future needs will impact the choice. Not only does that increase the complexity of the network, but it can also create obstacles to supporting company growth.

By creating a roadmap for evolving your network, you can streamline the complexity as you set up IT staff to more easily manage to future needs. We’ve asked Keith Grieshaber, our VP of Technology to answer a few questions to help you plan for your network’s evolution.

Q. What are the components that should be included in developing a roadmap for network evolution?

KG:  Understanding the business strategic goals and objectives for the company as a whole will set the stage for a technology roadmap.  Once this vision is understood by the technology leadership team, the roadmap can include the appropriate infrastructure and technology.  Some common components that affect today’s technology decisions include cloud computing, security risk mitigation, acquisition planning and much more.

Q. How does IT best determine the role of their existing systems/solutions when developing a network evolution plan?

KG:  The existing systems fit into one of three categories.  They do not meet the existing business requirements, they only meet today’s business requirements, or they have the ability to carry the business into a future that aligns with the long term goals and objectives of the company.

Q. What are the pressing challenges you’re seeing in for today’s IT departments around network development?

KG:  For a company to be successful in today’s world, it has to respond quickly to our ever-changing economical environment.  The technology infrastructure must be ready to support key business objectives in hours and days, not weeks and months to capitalize of business opportunities.

Another challenge IT departments face is partnering with the right technology vendor. It is important to choose a partner that will take the time to learn and understand your business, and help leverage your existing technology infrastructure.  True technology partners will reach the level of a trusted advisor.

Q. What are some of the issues around mobility that must be addressed when combining wired and wireless networks?

KG:  A wireless network is a fluid environment that is susceptible to outside interference.   With that said, the wireless infrastructure must be designed to continually meet the business requirements of the wireless network while maintaining security, control, coverage, and stability.  Today’s wireless requirements are usually serve three to five business objectives (e.g. guest access, voice, video) and they must be balanced with the appropriate security when connected back to the wired network.

IP Telephony is More Reliable Than You Think

Just how dependable are Cisco voice over IP solutions?  This uncertainty is why many people get concerned when they find out they will be using a phone that is attached to the data network. 

These concerns are rooted in several sources.

• Historic network performance – computer networks in general have the persona of being somewhat reliable.  Many consider the performance of an Internet connection as what they could expect of a new IP phone system. It’s the “somewhat reliable” that causes concern.


• Perceived network performance/PC performance – websites, applications or the PC appear to be sluggish at times.  While this could be due to any number of factors, to the typical end user, this is the network.


• Reliable phone systems – there is no doubt the telecommunications industry has created traditional phone systems that are extremely reliable. This minimizes the need to switch because they don’t understand the benefits beyond dial tone.

There is an industry joke that if a network engineer maintains a data network with 95% uptime, he is a hero.  If a telecommunications engineer maintains a telephone network with 95% uptime, he is fired! 

However, given the advancements that Cisco has made in this technology space, systems can now be designed and configured to provide better reliability than traditional phone systems.  The very basic concept of IP telephony allows for tremendous flexibility, scalability, and more importantly, reliability. 

Traditional phone systems have all the functionality built into the PBXs – configuration, call processing, call routing, voicemail, PSTN connectivity, and handset connectivity – to name a few.  IP telephony breaks these functions out into separate devices that can be dispersed throughout the network, as well as duplicated to provide redundancy.  Now you can have a voice gateway with PSTN connection in 2 offices and provide backup PSTN connectivity to each site or have call processors in the 2 locations to provide backup call processing and call routing to ensure that you always have the ability to send and receive phone calls.

Aside from utilizing redundant equipment, most recent voice server applications use the concept of active and in-active partitions.  This now allows for more efficient upgrading of the application but also a fall-back plan if the new upgrade doesn't perform as expected – all with minimal downtime (recall that we are using redundant equipment as well!)

Cisco’s latest development has been to move the voice application servers to a virtual environment.  This not only reduces operating cost, but also provides a robust platform for streamlining the deployment of voice application servers making the switch from a traditional telephone system easier than ever..

So what are you waiting for?  Find out how your company can benefit from Cisco Unified Communications today!

Today's post written by: Nathan Richie, boice.net Network Consultant