Interop Preview: Networking Rules The Dynamic Data Center update from May 2009

Networking is about to become the darling of the data center, and there are plenty of reasons why. IT initiatives such as cloud computing, data center consolidation, green computing, virtualization, and unified communications all rely on a network that delivers smart, reliable, and agile services.

Your network in a few years won't be the static infrastructure it is today. This year's Interop will showcase a number of conference sessions to get you up to speed on new strategies in networking, data center design, and operations. Vendors will be announcing and demonstrating the latest products for network management, orchestration, and connectivity.

Propelled by virtualization and cloud computing, IT should be less concerned with running the network as a service and more concerned with delivering applications to end users and customers. John McAdams, CEO of F5 Networks and Wednesday's keynote speaker said, "Done right, IT drives your business' competitive advantage. IT infrastructure should allow you to instigate disruptive changes in your markets by affecting the speed, the cost, and the scale of innovation itself."

Tuesday's "A Comparison Of WAN Optimization Controllers" session and Wednesday's "How Networks Can Assist Application Delivery" should provide insights into how you can turn these technologies and strategies into disruptive changes for your business.

Some of the biggest networking challenges over the next two to three years will manifest in the data center. Data center consolidation and virtualization are radically altering the data center because more computing power is being squeezed into less space.

Dave Stevens, CTO of Brocade, summed it up: "Data center consolidation has a cascading effect into higher-density racks which will require a higher concentration of faster network ports -- 1-GB switch ports will be replaced by 10-GB switch ports."

The increased port density is leading to a wave of top-of-rack and end-of-row switches that will be announced at Interop. These switches offer a high volume of 1-Gb and 10-Gb ports and high-bandwidth uplinks to the end-of-row or central switch. Many of the new switches have features built in to support virtualization such as integration with VMWare's management server.There is also pre-standard support for what will eventually become Converged Enhanced Ethernet (CEE), what Cisco calls Data Center Ethernet (DCE), and what the IEEE has dubbed Data Center Bridging (DCB), all of which can merge storage and data onto the same high-speed, lossless, and reliable network fabric. This leads to a dynamic data center.

If you haven't been keeping current with the impending changes coming your way, Tuesday's "Forecasting: How To Determine What Your Next-Generation Data Center Requires" conference session, which will arm you with the information needed to manage your data center, should be on your list of must-see talks. Wednesday's "Retrofitting Today's Data Center For Better Capacity And Efficiency" session will provide insights into how to maximize the efficiency of your current data center and address the increased power and cooling demands a dense data center requires. The green aspect this year is less about altruistic goals and more about reducing power and cooling requirements, which result in lower operating costs.

Virtualization promises to change not only the data center layout, but its processes as well. Virtual machines installed on physical machines and the ability to move them at will are powerful tools to manage computing capacity and maintain availability. But to be efficient, automation will be required. Tuesday's "Managing Virtualization With IT Process Automation" session describes the ins and outs of automating server provisioning, network configuration, and maintenance.

Finally, the Trusted Computing Group has been making strides in getting vendors to implement their NAC specifications. "To increase security and decrease cost, we must integrate our security systems with open standards. We'll show how the Trusted Network Connect standards can provide pervasive security across the enterprise," said Steve Hanna, co-chair of the TCG Trusted Network Connect working group. In its booth, the TCG will be demonstrating interoperating products from numerous vendors and will discuss how the TNC specifications can be used throughout the network.

Learn more about all the latest products and technologies at TechWeb's Interop Las Vegas, May 17-21. Join us (registration required).