DATA CENTRE PREDICTIONS
(web browsers, mobile devices), in the
next decade we will see more data being
processed at the edge.
Consumers will be interacting with IT using
either more sophisticated devices (be it
self-driving cars, drones, AR/VR headsets,
AI, rich interactive interfaces) or more
dispersed and numerous devices (IoT
sensors and actuators, smart tags, etc.).
In 2019 we will take a step further in the
realisation that ‘edge’ is no longer just
an analyst vision, but an increasingly
concrete reality for most IT managers.
This is a long-term and gradual trend, but
a clear shift in awareness is hitting now.
Network
Network management,
management,
infrastructure
infrastructure management,
management,
data
data centre
centre
2019: The year of virtualisation
and automation in enterprise
networking management
In network management, infrastructure
management and the data centre, the big
themes will continue to be virtualisation
and automation, with a jump in enterprise
awareness in 2019. In the past decade,
most areas in IT went through a major
transformation that enabled large service
providers to operate at ‘web scale’ and the
enterprise to drastically improve its levels
of efficiency.
The technology involved included
virtualisation (which decoupled layers
of infrastructure), orchestration (which
allowed vendor-neutral approaches
to management) and DevOps (a
transformation on culture and
operational processes).
If in the 2000s a system administrator
could take care of 30 servers, in 2019 that
number is larger than 3,000, a two order
of magnitude jump.
A persistent incongruence has
been: if every other field in IT has
been transformed by virtualisation,
orchestration, DevOps, why is it that
networking has remained ‘old school’?
18
Issue 01
While other IT silos seem to be collapsing
into a ‘converged infrastructure’, network
remains separate. Is it cultural? Are
networking people more conservative?
THE COST AND
RESILIENCY
DIFFERENCES
BETWEEN OLD-
SCHOOL WAN
NETWORKING
USING MPLS
CIRCUITS AND
ACCESS ROUTERS
AND SD-WAN
ARE CLEAR
AND COMPELLING.
If I am managing an application
infrastructure, I can rely on always-on
network connectivity, apply automation
techniques to reduce the need for human
intervention. If I am managing a server or
storage infrastructure, I can rely on always-
on network infrastructure, apply automation
techniques to increase scale and efficiency.
Now, if I am managing the network
infrastructure, I cannot rely on always-
on networking connectivity. Networking
is different in the sense that it manages
the infrastructure that supports the
automation efforts of all other IT silos.
While virtualisation and orchestration
technologies are now being applied
to networking, it won’t change the
fact that, different from other IT silos,
monitoring, managing and repairing the
physical layer of networking will remain
relevant in the long-term.
In IT infrastructure management,
if I am managing applications, the
network is always there to save me. If
I am managing servers or storage, the
network is always there to save me. If
I am managing databases, the network
is always there to save me. If I am
managing the network infrastructure,
who do I rely on? That’s where Opengear
comes in. We are the last-resort
infrastructure that supports network
infrastructure management.
Software-defined wide-area
Software-defined
wide-area
networking
(SD-WAN)
networking (SD-WAN)
2019: The year of SD-WAN – but
everyone knows that
There is no better demonstration of the
intrinsic dependency of the physical layer
of networking and geography than wide-
area networking (WAN).
In the past couple of years, we have
witnessed a remarkable convergence
of previously disjointed technologies to
address a general problem.
Traffic management and quality-of-service,
data encryption and compression, VPN
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