This week Vikram Mehta of IBM offered his top ten attributes for a smart network fabric. His attributes can be turned into questions about system network architecture. As you assess your data center networking essentials, these questions might be worth keeping in mind.
- Is your network standards-based, allowing you to adapt and scale with equipment from multiple manufacturers? (Open and Interoperable)
- How fast is your data center? Is it prepared to meet the performance demands of big data, cloud computing, and virtualization? You should have at least 10 GB Ethernet on the server and in the access and aggregation layers. (High Speed)
- Are you using ultra-low latency switches that support the same connection speeds across all port combinations? (Low Latency)
- Have you implemented equipment that support Data Center Bridging to eliminate packet loss? (Loss-less)
- How flat is your network? Are you implementing designs for a shortest path network fabrics to support virtualization and cloud computing?(Flat)
- Are your network policies migrating dynamically from server to server within the virtualized data center or private cloud? (Virtualization Aware)
- Does your network have linear scalability so that network capacity can grow incrementally as new switches added? (Scalable)
- Can the network administrator easily configure and manage virtual networks, controlling traffic on a per-flow basis? (User Control)
- Can network devices be managed, configured, provisioned and tracked like a single logical device? (Unified Management)
- Is your network designed to minimize lifecycle costs? (Low Lifecycle Costs)
Whether you’re planning a new data center or update the current architecture, Integracon can help you think through the challenges of data center networking. Integracon partners with companies like IBM to deliver the best solutions for your situation. To discuss your challenges with Integracon, contact us at 865-330-2323 or live chat via our Integracon Contact page.
Advertisement
