Dec Network Evolution

evolution
december 2011 / vol. 2 / n0. 6
Network
building the infrastructure to enable the changing face of it
the reality CheCk issue

In this end-of-year issue, we take stock of what we reported over the year and gauge whether the changes in technology that we predicted have actually taken place.
n a ce dat flat oa t ove lm wil Yo u
t e r.
time to change the Blades on your

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Where evolving network concepts come together
a blog post by rivka gewirtz little
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are we finally in the age of the flat network? Sort ofo
Can enterpriSe wireleSS lanS replaCe wired networkS? not quite
Can your WLAN keep up with the tablet explosion?

research firm
fCoe at the edge iS here; endto-end StrategieS are imminent
why bother with end-to-end fCoe? an edge Strategy workS juSt fine
Canalys reports that the enterprise wireless LAN market has grown by 35% due to the influx of wireless-only devices. I could report this as good newsand it is for the top five WLAN vendors: Cisco, Meru, Motorola, HP and Aruba. But for network managers, the numbers should signal a different message: Youd better shake a leg if you dont already have a plan in place to grow your WLAN to handle the tablet and smartphone storm. If your mobility plan is centered around halting or even limiting the influx of personal devices on your network, think again. BYOD programs are imminent. Whats more, if you believe that the WLAN is a secondary network built to provide Internet access in common spaces, its time to rethink your wireless strategy. The same Canalys report notes that tablet shipments
will grow to more than 113 million in 2015 from 45 million units in 2011, and smartphone shipments will increase to 864 million from 455 million units in the same period. Once these wirelessonly devices flood the enterprise, the WLAN will either handle themor completely melt down. But building a mobility program goes further than finding the right mobile device management tool. It is just as important to build a secured WLAN with the capacity to handle bandwidthhungry applications such as video and VoIP. As Jared Griffith, CTO of systems integrator Cinergy explains: Its about protecting mission-critical applications. That comes down to good old-fashioned wireless LAN engineering, he said. When I build this network, I have to build it based on the applications that are going to be on the network, not for coverage. If you build a network for coverage and then add 50 devices to it, it slows the network down, if not crashing it completely. Whats your plan? n
rivka gewirtz little is the Senior Site Editor for techtarget networking media.
network evolution e-zine december 2011
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a blog post by ivaN pepelNjak
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Myth of VM mobility and follow-the-sun data centers

a particularly snarky comment about an article that touted inter-data-center VM mobility as the ultimate tool to reach the 100% availability heavens (this is why that argument is totally invalid), someone asked me why I dont believe in workload mobility, disaster avoidance and follow-the-sun data centers. I am positive that some businesses have the need for all three, but live VM migration isnt the right tool for any of them. Lets focus on the most bizarre of the three ideas: using VM mobility to implement follow-the-sun data centers. The underlying business requirements are sound and simplemoving the servers closer to end users reduces latency and long-distance bandwidth requirements. However, you cannot reach this goal by moving virtual machines around data centers; you simply cant move a running virtual machine over long-enough distances. The maximum round-trip latency supported by vSphere 4.0 is 5 msec. While the timing requirements have been relaxed a bit in vSphere 5.0, the maximum round-trip latency is still 10 msecway too low to implement the
after i made
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follow-the-sun model. After all, you need more than 100 msec to get from Central Europe to Ireland, let alone across the Atlantic. Even if you were able to move a running VM between continents, youd still face a number of other challenges. Bridging over such distances is out of question; most layer-2 protocols (like ARP) would time out when faced with round-trip delays measured in hundreds of milliseconds. You might be able to support the VM mobility with LISP, but even that approach has a number of drawbacks until someone implements LISP within hypervisor soft switches. So, is it impossible to implement follow-the-sun data centers? Of course not. The Googles of the world solved the problem more than a decade ago using DNS-based load balancing (or anycast) between data centers and local load balancing within the data center. You can also use Amazons EC2 cloud and create elastic resources based on geographic load distribution. Both approaches do have one thing in common: they rely on properly architected scale-out applications. In short, if would be nice if some of the high-level consultants took some time to check product data sheets and laws of physics (like the speed of light) before selling totally impractical marketectures, but I dont expect that to happen any time soon. n
Ivan Pepelnjak, ccie no. 1354, is a 25-year veteran of the networking industry.
The legacy approach to networking in the data center - stacking switches as far as the eye can see, will never meet todays data center demands. The solution isnt about adding another switch, its about an entirely new approach to networking.
To learn more, visit juniper.net/connect
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expert adviCe from lisa phifer
Navigating cellular vs. Wi-Fi

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Q: How do we make the cellular vs. Wi-Fi decision for connecting enterprise mobile devices? a: Cellular (3G/4G) data networks are ideal for on-the-go connectivity over a wide area. However, weve all experienced weak cellular signal indoors, which can cause slow or dropped data connections. Although outdoor Wi-Fi networks are available in some areas, most Wi-Fi hotspots are designed to cover a well-defined indoor space, such as a hotel, conference center, airport or airplane. As such, decisions about cellular vs. Wi-Fi depend first on location and mobility. Increasingly, we will connect wireless devices to both network types and we may even roam automatically between them. By default, most smartphones prefer using Wi-Fi, falling back to cellular only when Wi-Fi is disconnected. However, employers may want to exert a wireless connection control plan. IEEE 802.11u amends the standard implemented by Wi-Fi clients to facilitate cellular/hotspot network roaming. In a nutshell, 11u will let clients discover Wi-Fi hotspots, learn about the services they offer, and transparently authenticate themselves based on agreements between net-
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work operators. User preferences and IT-configured policies are expected to play a role in this. Although 11u should bring broader interoperability and transparency, policy control over wireless roaming isnt new. For years, cellular operators and roaming Internet providers like iPass have offered proprietary connection managers that can enforce preferences and rules, such as auto-launching a VPN tunnel when connecting to a hotspot. Typical corporate network restrictions might require an active VPN tunnel, a host firewall that blocks everything else (including NetBIOS), and recently updated anti-malware. If these criteria are not met, Wi-Fi hotspot connections may be disallowed, forcing clients onto cellulareven when doing so is slower or more expensive. Corporate policies can also be used to contain costfor example, preventing high-bandwidth applications from connecting over cellular or blocking data when roaming onto a foreign cellular network. These are just a few examples of corporate network restrictions placed on wireless clients, based on network type. There are many platforms through which to define and enforce policy. But dont start with a platform start by defining policies that reflect business needs and risks. n
Lisa Phifer owns core competence inc., a consulting firm specializing in network security and management technology.
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a blog post by shamus mCgilliCuddy
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Is it time for RIM to move on from BlackBerry?

to move on, no matter how much you have invested in something. This summer Freakonomics Radio ran an episode titled The upside of quitting, which poked holes in the old adage winners never quit and quitters never win. Many people, the program argued, are unable to recognize that they have committed themselves to an endeavor that is failing. The more sunk costs someone has in such an endeavor, the less likely he or she is to give up on it. No matter how hard it might be to admit it, sometimes it pays to just walk away and try something new. And here we have Research In Motion (RIM), inventor of the once mighty BlackBerry, so popular a device that users dubbed it the CrackBerry. The BlackBerry was THE enterprise mobility device of the pre-iPhone era. A reliable platform for mobile email, contacts and calendars that offered mobility managers centralized control and rock-solid security, the BlackBerry made RIM a tech superpower. That era of dominance is over. The ever-steepening decline of the BlackBerry, along with recent disasters like
sometimes it pays
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RIMs global service outage, have a lot of people writing RIM obituaries. Its prompted me to ask myself: Is it time for RIM to walk away from the BlackBerry? RIM was almost too successful with the BlackBerry brand. The device is a household name while no one aside from IT managers and tech media know who RIM is. Mainstream marketing of any RIM device is pegged to the BlackBerry brand, not RIM. RIM is a BlackBerry company. What else can it be? We may find out the answer to that question soon. Android and Apple iOS devices have destroyed the BlackBerrys share of the consumer mobile device market, and now its eating into RIMs sweet spot: Enterprise mobility. Enterprise Management Associates
The BlackBerry was THE mobile device of the pre-iPhone era and it made Research In Motion a tech superpower.
(EMA) just announced that more than 30% of large enterprises (10,000+ employees) who are current BlackBerry users plan to migrate to a different platform within the next year. In its press release, EMA said:
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This represents a significant reduction from the platforms current domination of the large enterprise market space with 52% of mobile device users in that demographic actively using a BlackBerry device as part of their job function. RIMs mobility architecture remains sound (despite the recent outage) but the company has struggled to keep pace with innovation in the device market. When Apple upended the smartphone industry with the iPhone in 2007, RIM responded with the BlackBerry Storm, an ill-fated try at a touchscreen smartphone that failed to catch on. Then Apples iPad blew up the touchscreen tablet market and RIM responded with the PlayBook, which enjoyed strong early sales but got panned by gadget reviewers who said the software wasnt fully baked. They also questioned RIMs requirement that PlayBook users tether the tablet to a BlackBerry via Bluetooth in order to access native email and calendar applications. A nice security feature for enterprise IT, but ultimately limiting to users who were already impressed by the elegance of the iPad and some of the better Android tablets. Amid news that retailers were slashing PlayBook prices in October, gadget bloggers jumped on speculation by an investment analyst who suggested RIM had given up on the device, a rumor that RIM vehemently denied. Then came Octobers service out-
age which turned 70 million BlackBerrys into bricks for several days. This has been a PR and customer service disaster, which prompted publications to come up with cute headlines like RIMs Outage: Nail in Coffin? and
RIMs mobility architecture remains sound but the company has struggled to keep pace with innovation in the device market.
Is Research In Motion the walking dead? Its clear that the BlackBerry is in serious decline. Does it pay for RIM to stick it out and keep investing in it? In a market where Windows Phone 7, Android and Apple iOS are all winning over users, does it make sense for RIM to evolve the BlackBerry OS like this? We saw Palm try to do this with WebOS. That didnt go so well. Nokia walked away from Symbian and embraced Windows Phone 7. Should RIM walk away from BlackBerry? How would you do that. give up on the brand that defines your company? At this point, is it the BlackBerry user experience that RIM can hang its hat on? Or is it its middleware (BlackBerry
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Enterprise Server) and its network operating centers (NOCs)? Is RIMs strength in its devices or its architecture? Last May RIM announced that it was extending BlackBerry Enterprise Server support to Android and iOS devices. Perhaps thats where RIMs future lies. Incorporate non-BlackBerry devices into the architecture that won the hearts and minds of IT managers everywhere. Build value there. Sink R&D into that, not the next-generation BlackBerry. Its not clear that going in that direction will be enough. The market for a mobility architecture might not be as large as one for a hot, new smartphone, but at least its a new direction that might work. Its just a question of whether RIM wants to let go of device that it has so much invested in. And BlackBerry neednt give up
on devices, either. Instead, it could develop Android or Windows devices that are completely tied into the RIM architecture? Can RIM do that? Does it want to?
Sometimes it pays to move on, no matter how much youve invested in something.
Sometimes it pays to quit. It doesnt have to mean defeat. It can mean that youve decided to fight another battle that you think you can win. n
Shamus McGillicuddy is the news director for techtarget networking media group.
top 5 Network iNvestmeNts of 2011

which of the following technologies do you expect to invest the most in during the next 12 months?
1 Wireless/Wi-Fi networks 2 iP telephony 3 network management tools and appliances 4 LAN and access switching 5 Application delivery (wAn optimization, application acceleration & load balancing)
Source: networking PrioritieS Survey, techtArget, inc., JAnuAry 2011, n=2190 i.t. mAnAgerS
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2011 Research In Motion Limited. All rights reserved. BlackBerry, RIM, Research In Motion and related trademarks, names and logos are the property of Research In Motion Limited and are registered and/or used in the U.S. and countries around the world. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Welcome to the next generation of mobile device management

Introducing BlackBerry Mobile Fusion. Available early 2012, BlackBerry Mobile Fusion brings together: Market-leading BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0.3 management capabilities for BlackBerry smartphones New management capabilities for BlackBerry PlayBook tablets built on BlackBerry Enterprise Server technology Mobile device management for smartphones and tablets running Android and iOS operating systems BlackBerry Mobile Fusion will also support future generations of BlackBerry operating systems. Get the details Join us for a free webcast where our BlackBerry experts will help you understand how BlackBerry Mobile Fusion will change the way you manage mobility within your organization.
www.blackberry.com/mobilefusion
Move up to MORE
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Hotspot 2.0 primer

hotspot 2.0 (hs 2.0)
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was developed by the Wi-Fi Alliance and the Wireless Broadband Association to enable the seamless handoff of traffic between cellular and Wi-Fi networks without requiring additional user sign-on and authentication. Over the years, various vendors have developed technology that automates hotspot log-on, but these attempts have been fragmented and are mostly not interoperable. Hotspot 2.0 relies on the newly approved IEEE 802.11u protocol to enable communication between capable devices and access points (APs) that allow for automated network discovery, access authorization and provisioning. An 802.11u-capable mobile device would locally store operator profiles and network preference policy. Once this device finds out an 802.11u-capable AP, it sends a query using Access Network Query Protocol (ANQP) seeking information about available operators, roaming partners and EAP authentication in the hotspot. The 802.11u AP would use Generic Advertisement Service (GAS) to provide Layer 2 transport of the advertisement protocol frame between a mobile device and a server in the carrier network. The AP would then relay the servers response back to the device, and if theres a match, automatically authenticate and connect the user. The provisioning process also allows
for Quality of Service mapping, or mapping between differentiated services code point (DSCP) markers to over-the-air Layer 2 priority on a perdevice basis, facilitating end-to-end quality of service. Why should enterprises care about Hotspot 2.0? Most enterprises are focused on building wireless LANs that can be optimized to handle a storm of personal and corporate devices and be
Enterprises are looking to introduce supportive cellular coverage inside the campus.
optimized to deliver multiple multimedia applications, including voice and video. Yet as enterprises grapple with handling the mobile device influx, they are looking for ways to introduce supportive cellular coverage inside the campus. That would require seamless roaming between Wi-Fi and 3G or 4G networks. Additionally, enterprises would like to extend their campus Wi-Fi coverage to cellular networks so that users can leave the office while using an application and not lose connection. Hotspot 2.0 trials are underway and Hotspot 2.0 certification test beds will be available in 2012. rivka gewirtz little
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the reality check issue
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flat oa t ove ill m w Yo u
t cen ata
e r.
the reality CheCk issue

its easy for
the IT press, analysts and even users to get caught up in vendor marketing hype. We go to conferences and hear phrases like flat networks or network convergence, and suddenly every analyst report, article, blog and show-floor conversation centers on these topics. Whether they are worth the discussion gets proven out over time. Sometimes the buzz represents actual shifts in technology, and we are able to give our readers the basic information they need to consider their next networking investment. Other times things go in a different direction. In this end-of year Network Evolution eZine, we take stock of what we reported over the year and gauge whether the changes in technology that we predicted have actually taken place. Specifically, we look at three of the hottest topics of the year in networking: the move to a flat data center network, the realities of converged storage and data center networking, and the concept of moving to a unified wired and wireless network. The good news is that all of these topics cover important technical challenges that our readers are still struggling to solve every day. But all of these topics have also taken slightly different twists in their evolutions than we expected. Heres what we learned. n
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are we fiNally iN the age of the flat Network? sort of

Many engineers agree that data center network topology must change in order to support virtualization, but its going to take a lot of testing before most jump into a flat network. by rivka gewirtz little aNd shamus mCgilliCuddy
In the first quarter of this year, our Network Evolution eZine reported that enterprises were poised to deploy flat data center networks. Most network equipment vendors were working toward executing their professed visions. What have we found almost a year later? Vendors are releasing products, but network engineers interested in the technology face lengthy trials and proof-of-concept processes. For now, it appears that engineers will take incremental steps to change their network topologies and many will only go partially flat.
editor reality check:
been talking flat networks ever since virtualization began stretching the limits of legacy data center network architecture. Network engineers are listening, but they have been slow
NetworkiNg veNdors have
to fully invest in such wholesale change. Conceptually, flattening the network means moving away from the use of spanning tree and a three-tier architecture that is optimized for the north-south traffic of a client-server data center paradigm. Experts say that virtualization demands large Layer 2 domains with low latency, any-to-any server connectivity. This year almost every traditional networking vendor rolled out flat data center fabric strategies. Despite the 18 months of marketing buzz that preceded these rollouts, general availability of the end-to-end architecture from these vendors is just now hitting the market, and its difficult to find customers who have actually bought in. We asked Cisco, Juniper, Brocade, Dell
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Force10, Avaya and Alcatel-Lucent to connect us with customers who have implemented flat data center networks or who are even trialing the technology, but only Brocade was able to produce a reference customer by press time. This is a challenge to the industry considering that vendors need reference customers to demonstrate a track record of success and to convince the majority of data center network architects to revolutionize their network topology. I hear a lot of people talk about [flat networks], but I havent seen a lot of people doing it, said Mark Thiele, executive vice president for data center technology at Switch, a Las Vegas-based data center colocation and cloud services company. People are nervous about doing anything to these environments that might introduce risk. Thiele, who is also founder and president of the non-profit data center industry community Data Center Pulse, said he has talked to only two people who are even in the proof of concept stage with flat networks, both with Junipers QFabric. He estimated that only 1 to 5% of companies will have flat data center networks in production next year, with another 5 to 10% in the proof of concept stage. The quickest adoption will come from companies that have the most to gain, such as those that are building large-scale
infrastructure, especially massive Web-facing companies like social media sites and online gaming companies.
ArchItectS wILL ALter ArchItecture A LIttLe bIt At A tIMe
The slow uptake of flat networks and data center fabrics is nothing more than the normal adoption cycle, according to Vince Conroy, CTO for FusionStorm, a Cisco channel partner that specializes in enterprise data center solutions and managed services. Customers, he said, will take baby steps to changing their networking architecture first. FusionStorm has worked with many clients in deploying the first phase of Ciscos Unified Fabric architecture, which consists of Nexus 5000 switches aggregating pods of Ciscos Unified Computing System server chassis. Customers are tending to start more at the access layer. They want to converge [storage and data] fabric at the access layer today, Conroy said. Adopting large, flat Layer 2 domains will be secondary. FusionStorm has deployed this technology within its own data center. The solution provider is slowly expanding its use of these technologies within a larger legacy infrastructure that includes an aggrega-
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tion layer and core consisting of Ciscos Catalyst 6500 switches. The next step for FusionStorm and for many of its clients is to implement a large, flat Layer 2 domain within the data center network using Nexus 7000 switches and technologies such as Ciscos TRILLbased FabricPath, he said.
FLAt networkS cALL For extenSIve teStInG And new deSIGn SkILLS
ernment agencies, ISPs and large media companiestest out QFabric. Some have expanded out their proof of concept because they want to do their due diligence with other vendors that are coming out with
Engineers are finding that implementing network fabrics and large Layer 2 domains requires extensive planning and testing. FusionStorm will test several specific factors in its evaluation of a flat, Layer 2 network. Were going to be looking for No.1, manageability and security, because in our particular case, we need the ability to segment customer environments since were doing hosted clouds for customers. Whether it is fully dedicated or multi-tenant clouds, we need to have a certain level of security that we can demonstrate to our customers, said Conroy. Were also looking for the ability to do automated provisioning. Over the past several months, Aamir Lakhani, a network architect with a large consulting firm, has been helping his clientsincluding several global financial firms, gov-
Engineers are finding that implementing network fabrics and large Layer 2 domains requires extensive planning and testing.
[flat networks]. Cisco [for example] just announced the new Nexus 3000s and changes to FabricPath, which enables large, flat networks. But they also realize that a flat network isnt a product that you can simply drop into a data center and hit the on switch. Network engineers have a lot of work to do, and need a lot of help before they can put these new architectures into production, Lakhani said. Theyre buying into it, and they might be buying the products that are labeled flat networks, but they lack the knowledge of how to architect it and design it from the ground up. You cant just buy QFabric or FabricPath and have a flat network. It takes a lot of up-front planning.
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With some large data centers, it takes 30 to 90 days of planning architecture and design workto make sure these data centers will support a flat network. Lakhanis clients are testing QFabric for the quality of its core software and manageability. QFabric promises customers the ability to manage hundreds of discrete devices as a single logical entity. Many of Lakhanis customers doubted that this was possible, so theyre pushing the management capabilities of QFabric hard. More importantly, they want to make sure [QFabric] is not dropping packets, Lakhani said. Overall, he estimates that his customers who are trialing QFabric are seeing a 20% increase in performance over legacy architecture from Juniper, Cisco and other vendors.
the SeMI-FLAt network IS More oF A reALIty
Flemish media company De Persgroep has opted for a semi-flator two-tiered networkas opposed to going completely flat, a course that most customers will follow in the beginning. Through mergers and acquisitions, De Persgroep quadrupled in size over the last five years, and the swelling numbers of users and applications far surpassed the capacity and available ports on its
Cisco-based data center LAN. That led Wim Vanhoof , the companys infrastructure manager, to seek network alternatives that would bring 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) throughout the data center and enable Layer 2 networking across the companys two data centers. Vanhoof opted to use Brocades VDX switches and fabric technology. The company replaced its traditional distributed network with a top-of-rack design that could more easily work into a data center fabric and eliminate one layer of the network topology. With a top-of-rack topology, we have servers in each rack, and instead of a patch panel, you have only two cables from each switch to your central switch said Vanhoof. That brought 10 GbE into each rack, he said, and with each server having two switch connections in the rack, it also introduced high availability redundancy. Vanhoofs top-of-rack configuration consists of Brocade VDX switches that use self-discovery and self-configuration to find each other and form a fabric or virtual chassis that tie directly into the aggregation layer. That eliminates the distribution layer, in what Vanhoof calls a mixture of flat network and spanning tree design. Yet getting rid of even one layer of the network had two very notable outcomes: With a flat network, there are
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multiple channels [of connectivity] so the load is spread, said Vanhoof, explaining why there is now more capacity and better performance. In addition, Vanhoof can now push traffic from these enmeshed switches directly into Layer 2, networking between racks and even between De Persgroeps two data centers. Before everything had to go across Layer 3, but now that it goes across Layer 2, its very fast, said Vanhoof. From a network management perspective, Brocades fabric switches can be handled as one virtual switch, eliminating some of the issues that engineers generally have when processing is moved from a central location throughout many racks.
new ALternAtIveS to dAtA center FAbrIcS eMerGe
servers. Server administrators can plug servers with standard 10 GbE NICs or 40 Gigabit InfiniBand NICs directly into the I/O Director. Through Xsigo software, the server
Before everything had to go across Layer 3, but now that it goes across Layer 2, its very fast.
WIM VANHooF infrastructure manager, De Persgroep
While networking vendors went on a flattening frenzy this year, I/O virtualization technology providers, such as Xsigo, have come up with their own take on any-to-any server connectivity by creating server fabric technology. Last summer, Xsigo announced a new IP-based data center server fabric solution built on top of its original I/O Director top-of-rack device, which virtualizes the storage and network connections for
administrator can then assign network and storage connections via those NICs to physical servers and the virtual machines that operate on them. While network fabrics require network administrators to establish and manage server-to-server traffic, server fabrics place this power directly in the hands of server and virtualization administrators. Once this server-to-server traffic is no longer visible to the Ethernet network, it will eliminate the need for network administrators to manage virtual machines with VLANs. For now, because the technology is so new, its not likely to throw a wrench in the plans of engineers
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who are already considering a change in network architecture but that could change over time. So much of the industry is focused on network fabrics, but we havent seen mainstream computer vendors adopt server fabrics yet, said ZK Research analyst Zeus Kerravala. You need the support of an HP or IBM [for wide-scale uptake]. That said, as IT organization silos come down and data center technology gets rolled into a combined group of networking, compute and storage experts, they may together begin to look at server fabric as a real alternative if its easier to work with, Kerravala added.
FLAt networkS: A LonG Peer revIew LIeS AheAd
Conroy said. Bear in mind that refreshing a data center network is never easy to begin with. Adopting a new architecture just makes the process more
So much of the industry is focused on network fabrics, but we havent seen mainstream computer vendors adopt server fabrics yet.
ZEuS KERRAVALA analyst, ZK Research
daunting, especially since most enterprises arent willing or able to put other technology investments on hold while proving out a new network. Consider how much trouble it is to get a major, large-scale application launched, Thiele said. Then imagine how people will react if you say, By the way, while were launching this application, we want to put in a major new network strategy. n
Vendors will continue to evangelize flat data center networks, and enterprises will listen. But adopting these new technologies is not trivial. Network engineers are evaluating the technology, but they are also waiting for someone else to be the guinea pig. Customers are a little slow to adopt new architectures until they see their peers beginning to do it,
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2011 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
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CaN eNterprise wireless laNs replaCe wired Networks? Not quite
The unification of wireless and wired LANs allows networking teams to consolidate capital expenditures and simplify operations by treating the Ethernet and wireless LAN networks as a single unified infrastructure with an integrated management platform. by Craig j. mathias
Throughout the year, weve reported that wireless networks are finally reliable enough for mission-critical enterprise use. Weve also heard hints that they could even replace wired networks. But here we learn that mission-critical doesnt mean replacement; it means wired and wireless network unification. less network, there must be interconnect and backhaul for all those access points, and, of course, for connectivity as we get closer to the core. Whats more of a reality, however, is the unification of wireless and wired LANs through a common management platform with one console, operating off of the same management databases. Were not all the way there yet, but were getting closer all the time. By unifying network management, engineers can reduce operating expense, a key elementalong with capital expensein computing total cost of ownership. A single view of everything going on in the network from a commonand possibly
editors reality check:
The wireless LAN as an overlay is dead. But waitthat doesnt mean theres any truth to the buzz around replacing wired networks with wireless. In fact, such substitution only really occurs at the edge of the LAN. After all, it takes tons of wire to implement wireless. Even in a wirelets face it:
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mobileconsole means that network operations staff can be more efficient and productive. Whats more, unified databases for security, logging, reporting and compliance add to the reliability of missioncritical LANs. Both network hardware and management software vendors are increasingly responding to this need for a unified solution. While its not reasonable to expect that any arbitrary element of a network from any given vendor can be transparently integrated into a unified networking solution, each new upgrade installation brings more components that are 10 Gbps and above and open for integration into a unified management solution. While vendors are already focusing on unified network solutions, the emergence of new management system standards based on XML will emerge and better define the path for users and vendors. In the meantime, its important to note that unified networking in no way necessarily compromises the fundamental interoperability upon which weve all built our networks
over the years. When unified networking becomes universal, well see lower operational costs, higher productivity, better integrated security, great-
When unified networking becomes universal, well see lower operational costs, higher productivity, better integrated security, greater reliability, improved uniformity of services, easier growth and scalability.
er reliability, improved uniformity of services, easier growth and scalability and much more. Well see a few bumps along the road, but if unified networking is not already in your strategic plans, nows the time to consider change. n
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fCoe at the edge is here; eNd-to-eNd strategies are immiNeNt

With 10 GbE, data center bridging and FCoE-ready switches and adapters shipping, the only question left is this: Why not converge? by stuart miNimaN
Networking vendors may promise that end-to-end Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) is ready for prime time, but users are still largely torn. FCoE supporters say that IT shops can start with the technology at the edge, but very soon convergence will occur throughout every rack. Yet disbelievers say that Ethernet is not nearly reliable enough for storage traffic and that running end-to-end FCoE requires way too much engineering. In this point-counterpoint feature, two storage and networking experts, Stuart Miniman of the technology forum Wikibon and Stephen Foskett of Gestalt IT and Tech Field Day, take on the issue from opposing views. Read both and see which side you support.
editors reality check:
cios have a
huge challenge in the
face of explosive growth in data and applications: They must control not only the cost of IT infrastructure, but also deal with diminishing power and space availability. What does that mean for IT shops? It means the need to look at fundamental architectural changes, including the convergence of storage and networks. Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) is finally ready to meet that challengefirst at the edge but very soon in the rack. The IT community has worked for decades to deliver a single network for all infrastructures, but specific application requirements have spawned the development and adoption of multiple networks, including Ethernet for general networking, Fibre Channel (FC) as the primary storage network and
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InfiniBand for low latency and highperformance computing (HPC) environments. Yet this can change. With the general adoption of 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) across enterprise data centers and the emergence of data center bridging (DCB), convergence to Ethernet as a single network is now viable. An added advantage is that DCB gives administrators the knobs to deliver Quality of Service (QoS) for all trafficincluding general LAN traffic, plus storage options like iSCSI and FCoEover a single network.While neither FC nor InfiniBand are likely to disappear in the next five years, new or expanded data centers should give strong consideration to converging on an all-Ethernet environment starting at the edge. For FC customers, FCoE is a path toward converged networking. The standard for FCoE was ratified in 2009 and a broad spectrum of products have been deliveredincluding those from Cisco, Brocade, Intel, HP, NetApp, EMC, Juniper, Dell and others. Adoption today is predominately in embedded solutions, such as blade servers, that are at the server-edge of the data center. This is the natural progression of technology adoption, especially in the risk-adverse storage world. FCoE at the edge is a simple deployment with a simple
financial justification. But FCoE wont stop at the edge. Adoption is expected to increase in rack and stack servers. While servers and storage that support FCoE have been around for over a year, multi-hop FCoE configurations only started shipping a few months ago. Multi-hop solutions face challenges in that despite conforming to the standard, architectures vary greatly among vendors. Yet this does not mean that there are stability issues; rather it means that some of the same switch-to-switch interoperability challenges seen in FC will carry over to FCoE. FC customers typically standardize on a single vendor, and FCoE switches do have broad interoperability support with host adapters, storage arrays and FC switches. While no storage administrator clamors for a new protocol, there is no need to fear FCoE, which is built with much of the same architecture as FC. As more of a companys switches and adapters are convergence-readyboth Ethernet ports that can support FCoE and FC ports that can change personality to Ethernet/FCoEthere will be increased pressure from management to move toward a single network. The good news with FCoE is that storage knowledge doesnt go away with a move to an all-Ethernet environment. n
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why bother with eNd-to-eNd fCoe? aN edge strategy works just fiNe
It takes way too much engineering for end-to-end FCoE to work, and vendor products are woefully inadequate. by stepheN foskett
have watched storage and networking vendors twisting and turning to convince the world they have delivered end-to-end FCoE. In fact, the products theyve released are largely inadequate. Whats more, theyve never addressed the burning question: Why bother with an end-to-end strategy when FCoE at the edge is more practical? Its important to first note that moving enterprise storage traffic to Ethernet networks seems like a match made in hell. The SCSI protocol requires delivery of packets that are lossless and in order, but Ethernet was designed for best effort delivery. This wont cut it for storage, which is a high-volume payload, swamping adapters and switches with I/O. But the lure of commodity-driven
all year i
pricing and order of magnitude faster roadmap performance is too enticing to ignore, so the storage networking industry has left it to the engineers to figure out how to make Ethernet an appropriate transport mechanism for block storage. Fitting the square peg of storage into the round hole of Ethernet required quite a bit of engineering: The FCoE frame format and FCoE Initialization Protocol (FIP), established in 2010 as FC-BB-5, laid the groundwork, while data center bridging (DCB) extensions brought flow control and queue management to transform Ethernet into a reliable transport mechanism. This bulked up version of 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) functions surprisingly well in practice, and was quickly put into production at
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the edges of existing Fibre Channel SANs for blade server attachments. This is the essence of edge-only FCoE, and it delivers a one-two punch of flexibility and performance at a reasonable cost. Most large IT shops are perfectly happy using Fibre Channel at the core and Ethernet at the edge. But network switching vendors wont be content until they convert the whole SAN to Ethernet, so they spent 2011 crowing about end-to-end FCoE, even though products that shipped are a mixed bag of pre-standard and proprietary technologies. Their Ethernet fabric approaches range from functionalbut-funky to standardish-butexperimental to laughably-limited. And implementation of FC-BB-5 is decidedly spotty for most vendors. Put simply, end-to-end FCoE is premature. Ultimately, end users will be happier deploying 8 Gb Fibre Channel SANs with a mix of FC and FCoE server connections. They can see how shaky FCoE at the core is at the
present time, and they are perfectly happy holding off on that transition for a few more years. Why would they risk their jobs, and the safety of their data, for a brand-new protocol with limited return on investment?
Most large IT shops are perfectly happy using Fibre Channel at the core and Ethernet at the edge.
Perhaps this controversy is born of a fundamental misunderstanding by the networking industry of the nature of enterprise storage. Storage people are cautious and riskaverse. Adoption of new technologies is slow because storage simply must be reliable. FCoE proponents should be pleased with their foothold at the edge of the SAN rather than pushing aggressively to the core. n
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about the authors
Rivka Gewirtz Little is the Senior Site Editor for TechTarget Networking Media.
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Shamus McGillicuddy is the News Director for TechTarget Networking Media Group.
Network Evolution Ezine is produced by techtarget networking media.
rivka Gewirtz Little Senior Site Editor rlittle@techtarget.com
Craig J. Mathias is a Principal with Farpoint Group, an advisory and systems-integration firm based in Ashland, MA, specializing in wireless networking, mobile computing, and related technologies, products and services.
Shamus McGillicuddy director of news and Features smcgillicuddy@techtarget.com
kara Gattine Senior managing editor kgattine@techtarget.com
Stuart Miniman is an analyst and research lead for networking and virtualization for The Wikibon Project.
Linda koury director of online design lkoury@techtarget.com
Stephen Foskett is an active participant in the world of enterprise information technology, currently focusing on enterprise storage and cloud computing. He is responsible for Gestalt IT, a community of independent IT thought leaders, and organizes the popular Tech Field Day events.
kate Gerwig editorial director kgerwig@techtarget.com
for sales iNquiries, please coNtact:
tom click Senior director of Sales tclick@techtarget.com 617-431-9491
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evolution

december 2011 / vol. 2 / n0. 6

building the infrastructure to enable the changing face of it

the reality CheCk issue

n a ce dat flat oa t ove lm wil Yo u

time to change the Blades on your

vi S i Bi l i t y A N d SE c u ri ty W ith O N E FA Br ic FrOM E NtE r ASy S

Want to learn more?

are we finally in the age of the flat network? Sort ofo

Can enterpriSe wireleSS lanS replaCe wired networkS? not quite

Can your WLAN keep up with the tablet explosion?

fCoe at the edge iS here; endto-end StrategieS are imminent

network evolution e-zine december 2011

a blog post by ivaN pepelNjak

Myth of VM mobility and follow-the-sun data centers

are we finally in the age of the flat network? Sort ofo

Can enterpriSe wireleSS lanS replaCe wired networkS? not quite

fCoe at the edge iS here; endto-end StrategieS are imminent

network evolution e-zine december 2011

expert adviCe from lisa phifer

Navigating cellular vs. Wi-Fi

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Can enterpriSe wireleSS lanS replaCe wired networkS? not quite

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a blog post by shamus mCgilliCuddy

Is it time for RIM to move on from BlackBerry?

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network evolution e-zine december 2011

Ride the Wave

Ride the wave with Lilien, an HP Elite Partner.

Technology Solutions That Fit Right Every Time

are we finally in the age of the flat network? Sort ofo

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network evolution e-zine december 2011

are we finally in the age of the flat network? Sort ofo

Can enterpriSe wireleSS lanS replaCe wired networkS? not quite

fCoe at the edge iS here; endto-end StrategieS are imminent

top 5 Network iNvestmeNts of 2011

network evolution e-zine december 2011

Welcome to the next generation of mobile device management

Hotspot 2.0 primer

are we finally in the age of the flat network? Sort ofo

Can enterpriSe wireleSS lanS replaCe wired networkS? not quite

fCoe at the edge iS here; endto-end StrategieS are imminent

network evolution e-zine december 2011

the reality check issue

flat oa t ove ill m w Yo u

are we finally in the age of the flat network? Sort ofo

Can enterpriSe wireleSS lanS replaCe wired networkS? not quite

the reality CheCk issue

fCoe at the edge iS here; endto-end StrategieS are imminent

network evolution e-zine december 2011

the reality check issue

are we fiNally iN the age of the flat Network? sort of

are we finally in the age of the flat network? Sort ofo

Can enterpriSe wireleSS lanS replaCe wired networkS? not quite

fCoe at the edge iS here; endto-end StrategieS are imminent

network evolution e-zine december 2011

the reality check issue