Arthur Cole

Network orchestration is emerging as a key element of software-defined architectures, and while nobody ever said it was going to be easy, it is proving to be even more complicated than many had hoped. On the one hand, orchestration requires a sophisticated software layer that can track network resources and pull them together in some […]

Now that the enterprise has gained a little experience pushing select applications and services out to the cloud, it’s time to start thinking about integrating this new infrastructure into the overall data environment. This usually calls for the data center to become more cloud-like, and most organizations are well on the way to making this […]

The enterprise seems anxious to push containers into production environments, but networking issues keep getting in the way. The challenge is to deploy containers in a way that provides the isolation they need to function as their own self-contained data environments while still maintaining effective connectivity. A proper networking interface should take care of this […]

Bandwidth considerations in the enterprise are diverging across two distinct development paths, and while they are not mutually exclusive— in fact, they lead to the same destination—they nonetheless throw a wrench into what would otherwise be a fairly straightforward progression from today’s network infrastructure to the broader, more dynamic environments of the future. For a […]

The coming year is going to be a big one for networking. SDN will go mainstream, allowing the enterprise to finally break free of the confines of bricks-and-mortar infrastructure to develop geographically distributed infrastructure in a significant way. Contrary to popular opinion, however, this effort will require a fair bit of new physical infrastructure, at […]

Most enterprises have come to realize that they are not on the cloud, but on many clouds. This is both an opportunity and a challenge. A distributed architecture is more resilient to failure and can often deliver services to users faster than a centralized infrastructure. But achieving this requires the enterprise to take a closer […]

The enterprise data environment is making its way across a broad array of wired and wireless architectures, both within the data center and over the wide area. So it is small wonder that organizations are turning to virtual private networks (VPNs) to pair the flexibility of dynamic data functionality with thorough security and high performance […]

The virtual desktop has gotten a bad rap over the years. It’s been described as weak on performance, lacking in customization and the source of so much stress on data infrastructure that it ends up costing more than the desktops it replaces. But the truth is that problems with the virtual desktop originate in the […]

The more things change, the more they stay the same. It’s an old saying, and rather trite, but it is becoming increasingly appropriate as data center infrastructure makes the transition from a hardware- to a software-centric footing. Cisco, Juniper, HP, and the open vs. proprietary SDN battle A case in point is the issue of […]

By now, it’s almost a given that software defined networking will usher in a revolution in the design and development of data infrastructure. Environments will become leaner and cheaper both to implement and to operate, and enterprise infrastructures themselves will improve the productivity of both data users and the data itself. And yet, as we […]

Networking has always posed vexing challenges for the enterprise, even in the old days when entire data environments were confined on-site infrastructure. Now, with the front office looking to integrate branch offices, colocation providers, partners, suppliers and even customers under a unified, cloud-based infrastructure, the distributed enterprise is creating entirely new levels of network complexity. […]

Every new technology is fueled by a vision, a new world of future possibilities that can’t even be imagined if things stay the same as they are now. The trouble is that these visions tend to gloss over the often painful and convoluted process of getting from here to there. This is where we’re at […]