Software Defined Networking is at the center of many discussions and debates regarding networking, and right fully so. It means many different things to many different people, and there is a lot of confusion and discrepancy in the term.  You can ask 10 different people what SDN means, and you will get 10 different answers. If you ask me, SDN is today what cloud was five years ago.   I won’t attempt to define what exactly SDN means, but what I will say is that like cloud, the value of SDN will clarify itself over time with powerful use cases and meaningful applications.  Case in point, at the Spring 2014 Open Networking User Group (ONUG) meeting in New York City, the ONUG board of directors proposed nine different use cases that were most likely to be in an RFI/RFQ in the next 12 months.  From these use cases, the IT business leader community at ONUG chose Software Defined WAN as the most critical use case in open networking today.

While the idea of SDN in general is exciting and powerful, most companies are in the planning stages of their SDN and automation vision.  Most believe it will take at least two to three years to architect and realize the benefits of automation across the enterprise.  What’s driving SDN is the promise of the following benefits:

1. Management: Manual -> Automated Networks
2. Configuration: Box Centric -> Network Wide
3. Speed/Agility: Weeks/months -> Minutes
4. Interoperable: Closed system -> Open System

Currently, there are very few, if any, companies who have completed their SDN strategy.  Partially because it’s quite complex with many permutations, and partially because it’s so important to get it right.  While planning for SDN and automation in the enterprise, there are two key things to consider:

1. SDN applications must add value to the existing network today
2. SDN applications must be able to integrate into the customer’s vision for SDN and automation.

There will be a transition between beginning and end state, but any SDN tool being considered must show value on the network as it is currently deployed and allow for integration with future architectures and platforms.  If these considerations can be met, there is a clear reason to begin deployment today.  Companies desire a mature solution in global production that enables value through SD WAN, meeting all of the benefits above, not just the promise of those benefits.   Glue Networks can provide these benefits. Read More »

Tags: Glue Networks, Gluware, IWAN, ONUG, SDN

For years, many IT organizations have been addressing slow application performance by adding more bandwidth. With broadband speeds available at over 100 Mbps, and the future of Fiber-optic at 1 Gbps, you would think bandwidth would solve all our application problems. However, many organizations are quickly learning that bandwidth on its own is not the answer, especially when it comes to the branch office.

So what is the problem? While connections are getting faster, branch offices still need high reliability. We all know downtime can be very costly. The Aberdeen group estimates that downtime can cost a company, on average, over $160,000 per hour.  And, some hours are more costly than others. For example, if your CEO is talking to shareholders during an earnings call and the network goes out – I would imagine that would cost someone their job.

There are several factors to consider on why “throwing bandwidth at the problem” is not enough. First, let’s consider the impact of data center virtualization. Over the past decade, organizations have been consolidating applications to their data centers. While IT has benefitted from cost savings, applications have moved further away from users. This has resulted in a delay in application response times, which is felt strongest by branch users. Read More »

Tags: #IWANWed, applications, bandwidth, Intelligent WAN, IWAN

Food for thought

The other day, I went to the café to grab my lunch and notice something that got me thinking of an IT problem we’re going to see more and more.

I’m not a soccer sport fan but of course I am aware of the 2014 FIFA World Cup™ event that is happening.

Anyways, I saw a guy watching a live stream of the game between Iran and Nigeria on his mobile device and it got me thinking “I wonder how much bandwidth this thing is taking?”

All major sports event like the Superbowl, World Cup, NBA Finals, PGA tour, Olympics, etc. are streaming LIVE games and many people around the globe are watching the World Cup during business hours as its always 9 to 5 somewhere. Read More »

Tags: application experience, AVC, bandwidth, IWAN, mpls, online streaming, optimization, PfR, video, world cup

The long awaited Cisco Live in San Francisco is only four days away.  There is a lot in store for our customers including hundreds of technical sessions, keynotes from executives and industry guests, product and solutions demos at World of Solutions and more.

One of the most important topics, in my opinion, that I believe you should tune into is on Intelligent WAN.  As you come to Cisco Live and are exploring various technologies that will help your organization scale and grow for the next 3-5 years, what element is most crucial?  How about the branches and stores throughout the city, country or world that is growing rapidly, not just in terms of sheer count but also by size?  The number of employees working there is growing; the number of customer engagements is increasing; and the number and type of users are exploding.  You need an intelligent WAN that can adjust to the demand, meet the high user expectations and be the foundation of innovation needed at the branch.

To learn more about Cisco Intelligent WAN, please join us for the following activities.  We would love to hear your feedback on how Intelligent WAN can help your business and IT organization. Read More »

Tags: #CLUS, Akamai, Cisco Live! 2014, Intelligent WAN, IWAN

If you have a Cisco Integrated Services Router (ISR) in your branch – which most companies do – you won’t want to miss the April 23^rdwebinar on hidden capabilities of the ISR.

These routers are the Swiss army knife of networking, and come loaded with so many features that it is almost impossible to know all of them. I cannot count the number of times I found myself saying “wow, I didn’t even know that the ISR can do that.” This is because IOS is a very mature operating system with about 30 years of customer experience and feature enhancements. I don’t think that there is any other company in the world that can say that they have 30 years of customer experience in this field.

Routing has evolved tremendously over those years. We’ve moved from access routing to full integrated services to an all-in-one converged branch solution. Our leadership in this space was recognized just two weeks ago, when a new Cisco routing solution won the Best of Interop for Networking. Read More »

Tags: acronyms!, best of interop, ISR, ISR 4451-X, IWAN