Will Virtualization Neutralize the Network?
August 26 2009 by 
Greg Ness (Infoblox)
A series of blogs began a speculation about the impact of virtualization on the network. It’s certainly fair to suggest that the network has had little impact on first stage VLAN virtualization, or virtualization-lite. The real question, however, is whether or not virtualization (or VMotion specifically) will stay contained within ever denser VLANS.
F5 Networks MacVittie blogged about it recently, suggesting that VM density was becoming the standard measure of IT efficiency. We all know how that story will end.
At Infoblox we were already planning a webinar with Nemertes, Cisco and VMware for late September on virtualization and the network, so this topic was of natural interest. We don’t think you’ll be disappointed given the lineup of experts which Andreas Antonopoulos has assembled: Chris Hoff, Mark Thiele and Richard Kagan.
Webinar: Virtualization and the Future of the Network
The webinar will talk about where virtualization stands today and the importance of flexibility, motion and scale as well as the coming shift to more opex-centric virtualization deployments. It will then define the network and vendor context and the difference between public and private cloud.
The team will then discuss the business case for various decision paths, with opportunities, risks and rewards, plus small versus large (static versus flexible) and the impact of these choices on the network. It will also talk about the strategic role of core network services as virtualization shifts to more opex-centric models.
Attendees will get action plan takeaways and be asked an occasional poll question about their deployments, etc. At least that is where we are today as far as event planning goes. The event is scheduled for Sep 23rd at 8AM Pacific.
This lineup is particularly interesting because VMware has led on the networking issue, especially when it comes to network security. They’ve been on the forefront of embracing the network and making it relevant to virtualization and cloud. Having a Cisco cloud executive on the panel (especially after the breakthrough Cisco launch of UCS) makes things even more interesting.
You can follow Chris Hoff’s blog here, and Mark Thiele’s blog here. Andreas has been contributing to Network World for years and was among the first to talk openly about virtualization and network security. Chris was among the first to uncover the need tor new thinking around virtualization security. Mark Thiele and Richard Kagan were on the Future in Review panel that set in motion the upcoming (invitation only) SRI Infrastructure 2.0 blackboard session.
Stay tuned for a great webinar on a very timely topic for network pros and architects.
I am a senior director at Infoblox. You can follow my comments in real time at www.twitter.com/archimedius. Or you can join the Infrastructure 2.0 conversation at the new Infra20.com blog.
Posted in Dynamic Infrastructure | Virtualization | Cloud Computing | Networking | Security | Intercloud | 
4 comments
Sep 2, 2009 at 12:00 PM
Greg, I've been reading thru the posts on this topic, and another question came to my mind.
Is it likely that -- due to this evolution -- an eBay like company will emerge that will create an online global market for VMs that will be bought and sold (in real-time) as a commodity?
Is this the ultimate destiny of an open Intercloud model?
Sep 2, 2009 at 12:12 PM
David:
Thats a pretty interesting idea. I think it would require a tremendous amount of automation and would only work with particular kinds of apps. The idea reminds me of something out of a sci fi novel I started recently.
I think there will be two kinds of clouds, 1) strategic and 2) lowest cost service.
Companies and goivernments will build strategic clouds (interclouds) for applications where their knowledge, infrastructure etc adds unique value (security, vertical expertise, specialization) and low cost clouds where apps and services are thought of as a commodity. Your suggestion would seem to fit the commodity app bucket.
BBidding seems problematic because I would expect demand to be high in the short term... versus allowing for an auction. So it might be closer to a buy now than bid and wait model.
I think the goal of open intercloud would be to enable universal, just-in-time IT. Maybe with what your suggesting people could bid for anticipated extra capacity (days / weeks ahead) versus buying capacity purely on demand. I would tend to defer to someone with more data center exptertise to answer...
Thx
Greg
Sep 2, 2009 at 3:42 PM
Greg, agreed manual "bid and wait" would create unwelcome management overhead.
However, if each VM was assigned an alert "agent" that monitored bids -- based upon pre-defined thresholds -- within the available capacity marketplace then the buy process could be somewhat automated.
BTW, over time, the line between strategic and commodity may be a very fine one indeed. Once CIOs are more familiar and comfortable with Infrastructure as a Service, then just-in-time IT potentially becomes second nature.
Sep 2, 2009 at 3:49 PM
My gut instinct is that we'll see a robust market develop with a wide variety of approaches. Cisco's James Urquhart mentioned htat it could be similar to how the transport industry has evolved, with a variety of shipping/warehousing models.
Automated bidding... interesting. Someone might be doing that with Ebay today....
Thx!
Greg