Harley Stowell

Who Will Lead the Infrastructure 2.0 Boom?

Greg,

another great piece with deeper amplification on the challenges of moving from 1.0 to 2.0.

The approach we have taken is focused on virtualizing infrastructure technologies by developing a system that abstracts infrastructure services (SOA). At the core common language policies (business policies) define the relationship between network users and applications, "who needs access to what". Once policies are created, automated configuration directives are generated to configure infrastructure services (which are known to the system) to support the policy across an array of required services (routing, VPN, VLAN, NAC, QoS, etc). This core functionality automates the labor intensive processes ranging from business requirement (policy) to network configuration enabling dynamic infrastructure responses to changing requirements.

"It is easier to create a server and move it with virtualization, yet the network required the same manual configuration tasks to keep up. The lesson: system automation needs to be accompanied by network automation; or dynamic systems require dynamic networks. That is essentially the case for Infrastructure 2.0."

The quote above is particularly relevant. We are developing a Virtual Center Agent (VMware) that "listens" for changes in virtual machine environments and automatically re-configures infrastructure services based on policy as changes to VMs are made, providing a solution to the problems outlined above. An example of a step toward 2.0.

Clearly the path to 2.0 is complex in terms of problem sets and technology echo systems as you outline. But with standards proliferating and system architectures opening, I am an optimist that your vision will become a reality hopefully sooner rather than later.

Regards,

Harley

PS. Thanks for directing me to Infoblox we have a good conversation underway.

Chambers Is Right: The Recession Will Drive Tech Innovation

Thanks Greg, who should reach out to at Infoblox?

Regards,

Harley


On Nov 05 08:59 PM Greg Ness wrote:

> Harley:
>
> Thanks for your comments. Feel free to drop us a line at Infoblox.

>
>
> Thx
> Greg

Chambers Is Right: The Recession Will Drive Tech Innovation

Greg,

I am the CEO and founder of an early stage company in Massachusetts, LineSider Technologies and I have been following your articles and analysis regarding the direction of the IP networking with deep interest.

We have been working on tackling the cost, complexity and static constraints of IP networks through the development of virtualization software for infrastructure technologies and services. The Infobox diagram “Core Players and Requirements” I agree is a key representation of areas where technology innovation is required to deliver the promise of flexible/automated IP networks as you describe in 2.0.

As you point out, the primary technology domains that need to be managed are network, application and endpoint (which I am assuming includes network users and groups managed in AD or Radius for example). In all the domains IP address criteria are among the critical identifiers for network connectivity, routing, switching security service and There-for configuration. As you also point out managing IP address schematics is significant cost center, configuration is still manual and labor intensive driving high network TCO.

The approach we have taken is to innovate and build a policy engine that has knowledge of network systems and services running on them (routing, switching, VPN, FW, QoS, etc) , network users through LDAP and applications via VM software integration. This system allows business requirements defined at an end user level (the business) to dynamically automate configurations and adapt infrastructure automatically based on changes defined at a user and application level.

Traditional methodologies for network management are labor intensive and forces a management architecture executed from the device up to application and endpoint user level, (as you point out in the cost analysis for address management). By taking the approach of automating infrastructure from Business Policies infrastructure services are automated in response to a single policy request which remains durable in the network system. This approach not only virtualizes infrastructure but automates it delivering significant TCO reductions. Accordingly the operational cost structure of delivering cloud services becomes manageable for providers and enterprises alike.

Clearly network environments require a complex ecosystem of systems to provide quality, secure and highly available services. Most of the systems require integration to support dynamic changes and traditional management / monitoring functions. This is an arena as you also point out, where standards are critical.

I would propose that the intelligence required to move toward the dynamic, lower cost infrastructure necessary to support 2.0 and applications of “2.0″ such as Cloud Computing resides in part in the area of infrastructure virtualization.

The good news is there are small companies like ours working hard on the problem along with the leaders like Google, Cisco, Microsoft, EMC and IBM etc. I could not agree more that the area of innovation and productivity gain you are focusing on here represents an extraordinary new market segment in IP networking.

Harley Stowell

Recession Induced Network Innovation on Its Way

Greg,

I am the CEO and founder of an early stage company in Massachusetts, LineSider Technologies and I have been following your articles and analysis regarding the direction of the IP networking with deep interest.

We have been working on tackling the cost, complexity and static constraints of IP networks through the development of virtualization software for infrastructure technologies and services. The Infobox diagram “Core Players and Requirements” I agree is a key representation of areas where technology innovation is required to deliver the promise of flexible/automated IP networks as you describe in 2.0.

As you point out, the primary technology domains that need to be managed are network, application and endpoint (which I am assuming includes network users and groups managed in AD or Radius for example). In all the domains IP address criteria are among the critical identifiers for network connectivity, routing, switching security service and There-for configuration. As you also point out managing IP address schematics is significant cost center, configuration is still manual and labor intensive driving high network TCO.

The approach we have taken is to innovate and build a policy engine that has knowledge of network systems and services running on them (routing, switching, VPN, FW, QoS, etc) , network users through LDAP and applications via VM software integration. This system allows business requirements defined at an end user level (the business) to dynamically automate configurations and adapt infrastructure automatically based on changes defined at a user and application level.

Traditional methodologies for network management are labor intensive and forces a management architecture executed from the device up to application and endpoint user level, (as you point out in the cost analysis for address management). By taking the approach of automating infrastructure from Business Policies infrastructure services are automated in response to a single policy request which remains durable in the network system. This approach not only virtualizes infrastructure but automates it delivering significant TCO reductions. Accordingly the operational cost structure of delivering cloud services becomes manageable for providers and enterprises alike.

Clearly network environments require a complex ecosystem of systems to provide quality, secure and highly available services. Most of the systems require integration to support dynamic changes and traditional management / monitoring functions. This is an arena as you also point out, where standards are critical.

I would propose that the intelligence required to move toward the dynamic, lower cost infrastructure necessary to support 2.0 and applications of “2.0″ such as Cloud Computing resides in part in the area of infrastructure virtualization.

The good news is there are small companies like ours working hard on the problem along with the leaders like Google, Cisco, F5, Microsoft, EMC and IBM etc. I could not agree more that the area of innovation and productivity gain you are focusing on here represents an extraordinary new market segment in IP networking.

Harley Stowell