Infrastructure simplication
productivity, right-sizing your network can help you achieve both of these goals. Justification is an important step in evaluating expected financial and other benefits in relation to near-term implementation costs,” he explains. Bharwaj says that a right-sized infrastructure can cut network capital and operations costs significantly―up 76 percent, according to analyses done by Aruba. There are also green benefits to simplification, too, meaning that justification for upgrading should be manageable. According to Bhardwaj, the implementation process should include installing a pervasive wireless network and removing surplus equipment that is no longer needed. The wireless point is echoed by Alcatel-Lucent’s Youssef, who says that the concept of unified access is really beginning to take hold across the IT world, simply because it makes things easier. “Unified access is quickly becoming the premier strategy, which involves the unification of the LAN and WLAN security policies and management that were previously separate silos of configuration and administration. Furthermore, in order to fully take advantage of BYOD mobility and security trends, consideration needs to be given to a fully converged solution of voice, LAN, and WLAN technologies, ensuring that the user ultimately has a seamless user experience across all three domains,” he says.
FEATURE
“By simplifying the network, businesses can lower costs, streamline solutions, deploy applications faster and decrease the possibility of downtime. One third of all network downtime is a result of human error, a problem that can be prevented with the simplification and upgrade of network software.” David Hughes, Senior Technical Manager, MEA, CommScope
Software-defined simplification Naturally, when talking about network simplification, the relatively new concept of the software-defined network (SDN) has to be brought up. SDN has promised much when it comes to managing and automating networks, though, in the Middle East at least, the technology is still taking baby steps. But this does not mean that it shouldn’t be considered with a network upgrade.
“Unified access is quickly becoming the premier strategy, which involves the unification of the LAN and WLAN security policies and management that were previously separate silos of configuration and administration.” Ahmed Youssef, Business Development Manager, MEA, Alcatel-Lucent
“Technologies such as Fabric-based networks and eventually SDN are a great example of eliminating legacy troublesome protocols, such as spanning tree and PIM, and replacing them with a standards-based architecture such as Shortest Path Bridging (SPB IEEE 802.1aq). This allows instant service provisioning, live virtual machine movement between data centres, and simple and scalable deployment of multicast applications such as CCTV and IPTV,” says Avaya’s Al-Shakarchi. According to CommScope’s Hughes, SDN can work in line with a cloud computing strategy, which can help to increase accessibility while at the same time reducing power consumption. The technology can also reduce on downtime: “When deploying SDN, the legacy infrastructure is reviewed, and can be slowly incorporated on the new system. SDN allows for bilateral communication between wired and virtual devices, and decreases the opportunity of downtime. SDN not only helps to simplify existing networks, but continues to make network growth and application deployment fast and simple,” he says. It sounds great, but this does not mean that every business in the Middle East is set to jump on the SDN bandwagon. Indeed, according to Hani Nofal, Director of Intelligent Network Solutions, GBM, the region is still set to play host to more traditional-style networks for a while yet. “We expect to see the expensive network hardware remain relevant in the future. Furthermore, we will start seeing different software-controlled network services that will be driven by custom-built interfaces or application programming interfaces. These will make the hardware smarter and more agile to the specific needs of an enterprise,” he says.
www.cnmeonline.com
december 2013
Computer News Middle East
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