Virtualization and Cloud executives share their predictions for 2014. Read them in this VMblog.com series exclusive.
Contributed article by Pere Monclus, Co-founder and CTO, PLUMgrid
The Cloud Lifts on Network Virtualization
In the past year
networking continued to be one of the key components in the design of
scalable private clouds / automated data centers. With various software defined networking solutions aimed to satisfy the requirements for those environments, 2014 is
the year when the path for enterprise adoption of virtual network
infrastructure becomes a lot clearer. Here are some of my predictions
for the year ahead.
1.
As OpenStack deployments move from proof of concept into production
environments, the focus will shift from functionality to operations:
deployment, management, troubleshooting and monitoring. This will be the
sign of a shift towards maturity. Within this new phase, a set of
partnerships and ecosystems will be developed towards better serving
enterprise OpenStack customers.
2.
The network will still be in flux, but overlay models will be accepted
as the right design for datacenter networks. As the focus shifts towards
production environments and proper operational models and isolation,
the overlay model -- Virtual Network Infrastructure atop the Physical
Network Infrastructure - is becoming the accepted direction. Even
existing networking hardware vendors are embedding overlay technologies
in their offerings. VXLAN adoption will get a boost as VXLAN offload
capable network cards become available. The shift of network features
towards the compute node and away from the fabric will continue. The
emergence of white-box switch vendors will continue to gain steam.
3.
2014 will be the year of security. As more and more automated public
and private clouds go into production, and based on unnerving events and
disclosures in 2013, a renewed focus on security will emerge. Isolation
and policy will be strong themes, and will evolve from being
network-centric to being application-centric. The battle over who will
control the policy frameworks will rage in 2014, and continue through
the coming years as security and policy will be complicated topics.
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About the Author
Before
co-founding PLUMgrid, Pere Monclus was a Distinguished Engineer at
Cisco Systems in the Research and Advanced Development team, where he
led innovation in the areas of cloud, security and converged
infrastructure. Prior to that, he was responsible for the architecture
and technology of network services and their integration with switches
and routers for datacenters. He also led Cisco's Service Enabled Network
initiative, which contributed some of the early thoughts and ideas
behind SDN. He sponsored some of the early work around SDN, including
the SIGCOMM 2008 OF prototype on Cisco's flagship Catalyst 6500
platform.