The buzz about Cisco and their new approach of Unified Computing is building. As far as I’m concerned, it can’t arrive soon enough. The exact details are still pretty closely held, but from looking at Cisco Blog Post (Introducing Unified Computing to the Data Center) it is clear that Cisco is looking to make a big step in virtualizing the data center network.
This could be huge, in that it could fill in the last piece of the virtualization trinity. Server virtualization is now mainstream in the data center. The consolidation benefits are unquestioned and the ability to dynamically move workloads between compute resources is compelling if still a bit complicated. Storage is virtualized at some level on a wide scale, especially in the more modern architectures like Data ONTAP.
But the network has been a barrier to true dynamic mobility of applications and data since the VM typically has to make some assumption about a physical network address. On the storage side, volumes on iSCSI or file systems on NFS or CIFS are more dynamically addressed but they generally tend to stay in one place. This could change with a unified computing approach and systems like NetApp Data ONTAP 8 where volumes will move dynamically between nodes in a storage cluster but still be accessible at the same address.
Virtualizing the network with a unified computing approach frees up the last bond that had to be managed that tied applications and data together. In some ways, it is like the transition from a home phone number (tied to your house) to a cell phone number (always with you). Most people now are more easily accessible by cell since their “address” (phone number) moves with them. This kind of freedom of motion with continuity of access has transformed our day-day lives.
In future network-based unified computing environments, VMware’s VMotion and NetApp’s Data ONTAP will bring a level of dynamic agility to the modern data center. When apps and data are not tied to physical systems, yet the network still finds them, is a situation that simplifies maintenance and change management dramatically. This approach could be a great partner to NetApp Unified Storage. Both focus on lowering the cost of operation of the data center and increasing the ability of the infrastructure to rapidly adapt to new business requirements.
It could get interesting...
