Gregory Ness

IT Needs to Innovate or Consumerize

Dan:

Great points. Now if today's CIO can see the power of mobility/flexibility and the network as the critical enabler they could avoid the Maginot effect (over investment in legacy architectures).

Thx
Greg

IT Needs to Innovate or Consumerize

BeachRider:

Great comment and input. Thank you.

Greg

Are Today's Networks Turning into Yesterday's Factories?

James:

Great point. The carriers certainly have their own issues as well. Some of the SPs have watched Google assault their yellow pages revenue streams and now opportunities to monetize services.

Thx
Greg

Infrastructure 2.0 Outlook: Timing Is Everything

I think there are at least two approaches. You invest in the service providers or htose who sell equipment/solutions to them. For service providers its a question of who can deliver "real" cloud services (versus the marketing hype). This in itself is a lively discussion on tech blogs/Twitter etc. For the suppliers of gear/solutions its a matter of who you think will deliver the best solutions (the cloud switches/meash/automat... and be designed in by the service providers.

It is very messy at this point placing bets on who will win. The point of this article was to suggest that a big shift is coming and there are a set of milestones that one could follow to help guide a strategy. I think that Cisco, Arista (privately held) and VMware are hte furthest along to delivering on the promise of I2.0, but they certainly don't have it wrapped up. Citrix has been complementing their legacy middleware expertise and base with some great acquisitions and has IMHO been building a solid ecosystem. Yet I think VMware has led when it comes to enterprise go to market. They were the first to embrace the power of virtualization security, even during the early stage one virtualization deployments; and IMHO they were also faster in building relationships with the network equipment/security leaders.

That being said, the fruit of those relationships has been long time coming. I attribute to the challenges "binding" virtual and physical infrastructure and engaging network teams. When that happens (and by whom) will be IMHO all that matters.

I'm not making investment advice... but rather offering a perspective on tech trends that could be game changers. One cannot rule out Microsoft or Amazon either... because of footprint (MSFT) and business model compatability (AMZN).

All opinion.

Greg


On Oct 15 11:29 AM mws wrote:

> Mr. Ness,
>
> May I ask what you perceive to be the best way to invest in this
> "groundbreaking" technology. Are you a proponent of the "Citrix Ready
> Open Networking Program" and its partners: Ankeena, Apere, Arista,
> Dell, Fujitsu, HP, Intel, Joyent, Oracle, SoftLayer, Trend Micro
> and Vyatta?
>
> Thanks in advance for any insights you can give both myself and other
> readers.

On the Future of Networks and Moving Data Centers

Thanks Ryan and Mark!

G

On the Future of Networks and Moving Data Centers

User:

Thanks for the question. I didn't know the answer so I forwarded it to Mark Thiele wo did. Here is his answer:

"If we look at available disk technology today we'll see that spinning disk is reaching a plateau of capability. Size is great, but performance can't keep up. The impact of this trend in disk is that we will have enormous capacity, but potentially reduced performance with higher overhead. While in the SSD market the technology is still fairly new, and we can expect to see continued rapid improvements in size, performance and cost. I believe we can expect to see the application of Moore's Law to this new branch of technology in the storage family of products. Lastly SSD is generally more efficient from a power perspective, so we can expect to see a strong drive in this direction going forward."

Thanks!
Greg

On the Future of Networks and Moving Data Centers

Michael:

Good point. There are longer term fixed factors as well. Those factors would drive your initial selectoion of sites. Then there are short term fluctuations/changes that would drive movement. The fatsre you can react the better you perform over longer periods.

Thanks
Greg

Virtualization Demands Will Drive the Next Network Revolution

Jades:

You know... you should be paying me for these kinds of plugs tied to the column. :)

Greg

Cambrian Cloud Explosions Coming

Phil:

Or a mesh of data centers around the world...

Thx!
Greg

Virtualization Demands Will Drive the Next Network Revolution

Wisdom:

I think the network equipment vendors who focus on dumb pipes will face shrinking habitats and increased competition from the likes of Huawei and cloud providers. IMHO the second stage of virtualization will create more load requirements. The question would be the use of dumb versus smart beyond the enterprise network and the clouds.

G

Virtualization Demands Will Drive the Next Network Revolution

Dave:

I don't provide investment advice. Each of these companies has their own internal financial dynamics, etc which I don't track as I'm tech-foocused. I'm long VMW, SVVS, AMZN, SNDK and am watching CSCO as their UCS evolves. I'm not betting that they'll dominate but rather that as a set they'll have a disproportionate advantage based on their market positions and technology. I like SNDK because of the rise of flash memory; SVVS because of their cloud savvy and VMW because they seem to understand hte importance of the network and phase 2 virtualization. I think AMZN is also well positioned. Again, I'm looking at tech withj a 1-2 year horizon.

Thanks,
Greg

Virtualization Demands Will Drive the Next Network Revolution

Good luck! Let us know how it goes.

Thx
Greg

Storms Ahead for Cloud Computing Start-Ups, Well-Entrenched Players?

Saasy:

Thanks for your comments. Great point.

Arun:

I haven't been following SAP that closely. AT htis point I think Oracle is more interesting given recent acquisitions and Ellison's decade-old netbook vision.

Thx
Greg

New CIO Acronyms: DNS, DHCP, IPAM

John and anon:

About 8 years ago I was at VoiceCon with an IT director who presented a business case for enterprise VoIP deployment across about a dozen offices (I was with ShoreTel at the time). The moderator blasted the preso by saying that VoIP was a toy that would never be seriously deployed within the enterprise. He knew because he had more than a decade of experience managing legacy PBXs (he was in the mix and he knew better).

The tech world is particularly interesting because it is filled with a broad spectrum of personalities with an equally broad range of outlooks; and many of the champions of new technologies work for the companies enabling change. They vote with their feet by choosing a company, technology, team etc. They share their opinions with those who will listen.

I realize that there are plenty of techies who think the network is a dumb bus, a mere pipe. Some may even think IT isn't strategic anymore ala Mick Carr. Some will outsource their IT (they see it as a simple business case decision), others will embrace IT and transform it, carefully evaluating new technologies on a case by case basis.

Rather than lob generalizations that I only speak well of partners (F5 for example is not an Infoblox partner nor VMware, Citrix or Juniper), or practice the fine art of "gobbledygook" why not argue with the theme of my posts: that the network is strategic and will be more strategic as enterprises move to virtualization and cloud; and that network intelligence, automation and management will become more important as networks get more complex and endpoints and systems more mobile?

This came up during a panel I was on yesterday at Interop's Enterprise Cloud Summit. We talked about the downside risks of cloud (security, compliance, unplanned downtime, lock-in, etc) and many of these issues are relevant to the networking industry and how networks adapt to cloud architectures. This point will likely be made Thursday at the FIRE conference by VMware's (not a partner) Director of Operations.

BTW- I have nothing against HP; I think they're an excellent company now facing a new and more dynamic competitive landscape. I just don't see them as particularly visionary today when it comes to cloud computing, especially relative to Cisco (yes, a partner), F5 (not a partner) or Juniper (not a partner). I think Citrix (not a partner) is getting more interesting regarding the cloud.

But these are just my opinions. You can take them or leave them.

Thanks for your comments
Greg

New CIO Acronyms: DNS, DHCP, IPAM

User:

Some CIOs are more comfortable with keeping critical infrastructure in-house, especially if they can use dns appliances, etc to reduce costs and boost availability. If its not a big decision point (infrastructure = plumbing = boredom) then it might be worthwhile taking a new look. That being said you don't need my approval to outsource and dismiss DNS, etc as old news.

Thanks for the comment!

G