Networking & Security trends for 2009: Juniper

Outlook 2009

Networking & Security trends for 2009: Juniper

Nagendra Venkaswamy, MD, Juniper Networks, India, looks at the key trends during 2009 in the network and security spaces

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Nagendra Venkaswamy, Managing Director, Juniper Networks, India, on the top networking and security trends for 2009!

The year 2009 is expected to be filled with uncertainties. And against this backdrop of economic uncertainties, environmental pressures and tighter budgets, technologies and trends that help company lower their costs, like virtualization and consolidation, will still be deployed. Investments in Network and Internet Security will continue as the impact on the business can be devastating to a company in these times should there be a breach especially since security threats have been reported to have increased in recent times. In addition, some organizations will supplement that with identity management and access control to tighten their information security.

Consolidation of data centers, virtualization, and possibly, adoption of cloud computing and unified communications, will mean placing heavy demands on security solutions to deliver performance and scalability and this is where technologies like, for example, the Dynamic Services Architecture, is able to address. Consolidation and virtualization will extend to security solutions as well in an effort to reduce security appliance sprawl besides reducing costs in power and cooling in the data center.

Finally, the recent events that unfolded in Mumbai & Bangkok will raise the focus on not just security and connectivity, but continued access to information and data. In this aspect, ICE (In-Case of Emergency) capabilities, disaster recovery and business continuity will be top of minds with many CIOs.

Here are six broad trends which are likely to gather momentum as we move into next year:

Network and data centre consolidation
“This has already reached fever pitch. Organisations have been focusing on this as a key way to reduce operating expenditure, but many networks are still far too complex. The year 2009 will see a shift in focus to look across the entire organisation and really address complexity."

Network virtualisation
“There is a perception that server virtualisation is ahead in this regard, but we’re already seeing a number of customers look at the cost and space savings available with this technology. The challenge is getting the server teams and network teams together to break down some of the communication and education barriers to help businesses really streamline their data centres. 2009 will be the year that the network is the next to get the virtualisation treatment.”

Green networking
“While it’s been on the agenda for some time, 2009 is likely to see quantifiable metrics for efficiency and power consumption becomes a core element to RFPs. To date it’s been a nice to have with vague, unquantifiable goals. There are now testing standards (which Juniper is leading with testing vendor Ixia) that allow more rigorous demands to be placed around the green credentials for networking equipment.”

IPv6
“It appears on these lists every year, but as the number of available IPv4 addresses rapidly dwindles, 2009 may just be the year that the industry really starts to embrace IPv6. The year 2008 saw an uptake in interest, but only a few real implementations. It’s not going to suddenly replace IPv4, but we’ll certainly see an increase in deployments as operators and companies look to future proof their networks.”

Network Operating Systems
“Maximising network and server resources depends on using them more effectively and this needs proper management. The network operating system is a key way to achieve this and as such it is likely to emerge as a more important part of the buying decision in 2009. This will see new battles emerging among the main network vendors to differentiate and help customers reduce operating cost. It’s certainly an area that Juniper is making significant investment with JUNOS forming a core part of the business strategy.”

Network intelligence and policy control
“Companies are looking to leverage a lot more multiplay applications which will lead to an increasing mix of video, voice and data flowing over networks. Dealing with these multiple traffic types is certainly achievable with only modest networks, as long as they have enough intelligence built in. In 2009, the mechanism to achieve this level of intelligence, through advanced application aware networking, is likely to emerge as a key focus area for businesses.”

©CIOL Bureau