Advertisment

And you thought networks are Tonsils already?

author-image
Abhigna
New Update

BANGALORE, INDIA: Arrector Pili or Sinus Pockets or Wisdom Teeth or Coccyx. Traditional switches or obsolete routers or protocols from dinosaur-age or tangled-about cabling or hardware. There comes a point when some of us can just not wiggle our ears the way our forefathers did. Evolutionary heritage or baggage?

Advertisment

Just some years back, a stand-up-conversation on networking (if it happened, that is) at a busy conference usually accommodated an in-passing mention of words like WAN or router or latency rates. Today, not only such networking-topped-conversations hijack time, coffee and interest from other subjects but they also manage to drape in new-fangled words like SDN (Software Defined Networking), network virtualization, Open Compute application-provisioning, network complexity and what not.

Can that also mean that networking technology has finally managed to emerge out of the shadow of ‘it's-just-plumbing' condescension? Is it no more a back burner item for IT folks? Prakash Krishnamoorthy, Country Manager, HP Networking, HP India fields that query with poised optimism when he explains that it is not just a bandwidth issue but about agility now.

This change can have its triggers in the way concepts like Cloud requite networking to be compatibly-on-the-edge or those like mobility are changing such backstage areas from cost centres to business enablers. Has that changed networking from a recumbent errand-boy to a strongly incumbent Man Friday?

Advertisment

He offers one more interesting pipe to smoke here. Something not so technical. India is witnessing an undercurrent in its corporate layer where offices are now being spread out or remote work is embraced thanks to rising real estate costs and the changing nature of business. It can not suffice to wire just one office for some 12 to 15 managers, or pipe up WAN and data centres on one premise, as he aptly reasons. Hence, between client compute device and a branched-out and much-more-mobile workforce, the concept of wireless infrastructures is sharply getting into the spotlight.

Didn't a study by Dimension Data predict how almost half of present enterprise networks are fast going obsolete? It would be a matter of just five years before we might see the vestiges.

That incidentally pops one thought. If Darwin really cracked it all well and if evolution works this way, is it not possible that in some species, a vestigial organ may re-invent itself to the point of being ‘the' brain that actually runs the whole show better than the earlier organ? What if a forgotten appendix becomes strong and overwhelming enough to function as a power-house as new relentless environments demand gutsier, invincible abilities from this age's homosapiens? What if networking becomes the card that can change the game completely in an era where IT is thought, supplied and consumed in an entirely new DNA?

Advertisment

We can either indulge in guess-making here or take a pause and talk to someone who at the centre of the storm as it happens. Let's find out what Justin Chiah, APJ HP Networking Category Team Manager, is making of these whirlwinds.

Tell us what is catching your attention in a broad sense when we say the word ‘networking'?

Our strategy has been to look at big trends in the market. Ubiquitous networks are in buzz. New shifts are driving a lot of change on network infrastructures as we enter the world of mobility, cloud, social media, Big Data and so on. The way IT is managed today is new. Networking was always the fabric that connects infrastructure, software and environments. Today IT is at a breaking point and the complexity has to be addressed rightly. Let's say when you decide to virtualise your infrastructure, a lot is happening on the networking side too.

Advertisment

 

How much is changing with converged infrastructures?

IT is not a service or cost centre any more. There is a need for agility and readiness for big forces like BYOD (Bring Your Own Device). The right infrastructure has to be in place to take care of these forces as well as ensure scalability, security and productivity. That requires a holistic, converged view. Network has to provide a robust back-end here.

Advertisment

Does that also mean that elements like open networking switch, projects like Open Compute, OpenFlow standards and the changing contours of networking complexity can be taken in stride without disturbing what you have been doing so far?

Open nature projects are being pushed by a lot of folks and even Academia in the US is integral to this change to solve a lot of issues. Complexity can be removed by shifting to a centre point. Open Flow projects allow a lot to be done.

So even SDN is good news?

Advertisment

I think of it this way. If you are struck in a traffic jam, in a normal routine you would be able to see only five or six cars ahead or behind you. But imagine if you could see the road from ten thousand feet above. Yes, open networking is being affected by SDN. Today you can provision networking for a new strategy, as each application has its own networking requirement. Device-by-device configuration and more agile networks, and even automation of provisioning become possible. SDN can make applications run even as the network changes. Today applications need more than approximate answers from networking. HP is adding its force to this jigsaw with a lot of hope.

Federated IT is coming of age. How exciting is your attempt with VMware here?

This is apt because as companies embrace cloud and mobility, manual network configuration has proven time and resource intensive, as well as error prone. Network virtualization offers a centralized control plane, but does not automate configuration and provisioning of physical network devices. HP and VMware, Inc. are collaborating to deliver the industry's first federated network solution. This is designed to provide customers unified automation of, and visibility into, their physical and virtual data center networks, enabling business agility and improving business continuity. This solution will federate the HP Virtual Application Networks SDN Controller with the VMware NSX network virtualization platform to provide customers with an integrated approach to automating their physical and virtual network infrastructure. In short, a centralized view, unified automation, visibility and control of the complete data center network, improving agility, monitoring and troubleshooting.

Advertisment

Would it be right to interpret Project Moonshot as something very relevant on networking market here?

That project at HP was about maximizing computing resources and a brilliant evolution on the road to new workload environments. Networking comes into picture when we think of the need for agility that any ultra dense farm might lead to. So new generations of ports for increased server footprint or single hop-on-to-core-switch kind of flat networks, and more - all that cascades down to this side of industry too.

What is different on HP's plate for Indian CIOs from what others are offering?

Indian CIOs do not have any different problems, when we see how they are thinking about modernisation of infrastructure or struggling with aging data centres or postponement of refresh cycles. HP's technology is all about simplification. Like a reference course on SDN or contexts like economics of networking or application-aware networking. It's about the right approach and the right answer.