| |
DATA CENTER CONSOLIDATION,
VIRTUALIZATION AND MANAGEMENT
A greater need for more efficient management
of processing, storing and network capacity
is needed, which is leading to data center
consolidation
Data center consolidation—with greater
pooling of processing, storage, and network
capacity—is driving a greater need
for more efficient management of these resources.
New network and switching topologies are
being introduced to permit data center “virtualization,”
effectively creating virtual backplanes
between resources. This, in turn, requires
enterprises to harness multiple types of
switching (e.g., Ethernet for LANs, Fibre
Channel or iSCSI for storage networking,
and/or Infiniband for server interconnection)
and alternate switching architectures/topologies.
This Cross-Cutting Concern will
address:
- How enterprises may choose
to migrate to a “3-box” data
center configuration, consisting of back-end
storage arrays, blade servers for applications,
and an “application front-end”
for functions like server load-balancing,
security, XML acceleration, message switching,
and session performance optimization
- Whether some functions
should be off-loaded to more “intelligent”
network switches and routers or deployed
in stand alone data center applications
- The role of networking
devices in applications
- The latest developments
in higher speed Ethernet and building
wiring, such as the new augmented Category
6 cabling
- Which incumbent suppliers
should been considered tactical in light
of the impending consolidation/virtualization
shift
|
