Pramodh Menon 

To eliminate the technology islands that are found in today’s IT environment, the infrastructure needs to be more closely linked to, aware of, and responsive to the needs of the applications, resources, and devices connected to it. This cannot be realized without rethinking the network.

Despite enormous IT investments, many organizations find that vital networked resources and information assets remain largely unlinked. In fact, it is not uncommon for organizations to have hundreds of “siloed” applications and databases that cannot communicate with each other. The result is an inability to share information efficiently across the organization. Customer records, for example, cannot be accessed easily by sales, customer service, or purchasing departments without creating different overlay networks that join applications and information. This lack of transparency exists because most IT infrastructures have grown without systematic planning. Many organizations have found that this unplanned expansion has left them with multiple systems and distributed resources that are uncoordinated and underused. These disparate systems are also difficult and costly to manage.

An evolutionary approach to networks
Having a long term view of the network can help global IT organizations correct these problems and address new challenges such as the deployment of service-oriented architectures, Web services, and virtualization. The vision of an Intelligent Information Network (IIN) facilitates this integration of the hardware and software that makes it possible for organizations to better align IT resources with business priorities. IIN is an evolutionary approach rather than a revolutionary approach to the evolving role of the network. By building intelligence into an existing network infrastructure, IIN will help organizations realize the benefits such as reduced infrastructure complexity and cost. IIN will also give organizations the enhanced functionality they need to develop enterprise wide visibility and organizational agility so they can respond rapidly to changing business and market conditions.

Why build intelligence into the network?
To eliminate the technology islands that are found in today’s IT environment, the infrastructure needs be more closely linked to, aware of, and responsive to the needs of the applications, resources, and devices connected to it. And therefore, a need to build an ecosystem with applications vendors, hardware and software giants, such that organizations can integrate business processes tightly with IT and allow computing resources to be dynamically allocated to users as needed.

However, enterprises need to realize that these greater functions can’t be realized without rethinking the network, the foundation on which an IT infrastructure is built. This is because the network is the one element of the infrastructure that touches all others, from the applications and middleware to the servers and users. Therefore, it is in a unique position to not only monitor the transfer of information but also to enforce policies coherently and cost-effectively.

An integrated system, active participation, and enforcing policy with the network are the three distinguishing attributes of an intelligent network. By adding intelligence to the network, the network can actively participate in the delivery of applications and services. Active participation in service delivery makes it possible for the network to effectively manage, monitor, and optimize application and service delivery across the entire IT environment. Network wide intelligence also allows infrastructure wide policies. Enforcing policy with the network lets organizations link business objectives and processes to network rules so they can closely align the IT environment with business goals and more effectively use IT resources to improve business operations. It also gives organizations the ability to adapt quickly to the IT environment to respond to changing business requirements.

How to build an intelligent network
The Intelligent Information Network (IIN) transforms an existing infrastructure with all its interconnected “components” into a single integrated system. This systems approach extends intelligence across multiple products and infrastructure layers and more closely links the network to the rest of the IT infrastructure.

This vision offers an evolutionary approach that consists of three phases in which functionality can be added to the infrastructure as required.

Phase 1- Integrated Transport
Everything—data, voice, and video—consolidates onto an IP network for secure network convergence. By integrating data, voice, and video transport onto a single, standards-based, modular network, organizations can simplify network management and generate enterprise wide efficiencies. Network convergence also lays the foundation for a new class of IP-enabled applications. Early adopters of IP Communications have realized substantial savings in toll charges, maintenance, and support costs. But recent studies reveal that the principal reason for adopting IP Communications isn’t just cost savings; it’s the potential for deploying new applications that transform communications and build competitive advantage. (Source: Sage Research, IPC Productivity Report, March 2005)

Phase 2—Integrated Services
Once the network infrastructure has been converged, IT resources can be pooled and shared or “virtualized” to flexibly address the changing needs of the organization. Integrated services help to unify common elements such as storage and data center server capacity. By extending virtualization capabilities to encompass server, storage, and network elements, an organization can transparently use all of its resources more efficiently. Business continuity is also enhanced because shared resources across the Intelligent Information Network provide services in the event of a local systems failure.

Phase 3—Integrated Applications
With Application-Oriented Networking (AON) technology, Cisco has entered Phase 3 of building the Intelligent Information Network. This phase focuses on making the network “application aware” so that it can optimize application performance and more efficiently deliver networked applications to users.

In addition to capabilities such as content caching, load balancing, and application-level security, Cisco AON makes it possible for the network to simplify the application infrastructure by integrating intelligent application message handling, optimization, and security into the existing network. This integration delivers the information transparency and organizational agility needed to succeed in today’s fast-paced business environment.

Benefits of Intelligent Information Network
The role of the network is evolving. The intelligent network of tomorrow will offer much more than basic connectivity, bandwidth for users and access to applications. The intelligent network will offer the kind of end-to-end functionality and centralized, unified control that will promote true business transparency and agility. Active intelligence within the network is currently providing organizations with benefits such as network wide security system, faster deployment of services and applications, efficient use of computing resources, reduced complexity, and lower total cost of ownership.

With the integration of business processes, applications, and the network, organizations will be able to collect and share data anytime and anywhere, whether it is external information from partners and customers or internal data across business functions, product groups, or geographies. The Intelligent Information Network will make it possible for IT organizations to act quickly and efficiently on that information by adding, removing, or changing business processes to adapt to new market conditions.

      The author is the VP-Commercial, Cisco Systems India & SAARC