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By Siemens Enterprise Communications

The contact center landscape is experiencing significant changes, both in the business model itself and its underlying technology. The ability to access telephony and applications over the Internet has increased the flexibility of the contact center workforce, introducing a new trend: the work-at-home agent. Driven by a greater need for both flexibility and cost control, cloud contact center solutions (also known as hosted contact centers) are seeing double-digit growth rates. Cloud contact centers provide a number of business benefits: improved business agility, decreased capital expense, and lower total cost of ownership (TCO). This white paper provides a best practices for exploiting cloud base contact centers securely, with compliance controls and built-in disaster recovery.

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By Broadcom

Private and public cloud applications, usage models, and scale requirements are significantly influencing network infrastructure design. Broadcom’s StrataXGS® architecture-based Ethernet switches support the SmartScale series of technologies to ensure that such network infrastructure design requirements can be implemented comprehensively, cost-effectively and at scale. This set of innovative and unique technologies, available in current and future StrataXGS Ethernet switch processors, serves as the cornerstone of Ethernet switch systems from leading equipment manufacturers worldwide.
 
This white paper explores the network infrastructure virtualization requirements in private and public cloud networks, and how such requirements affect the design of data center network switches. It also describes features that are enabled by Broadcom’s Smart-NV (Network Virtualization) technology, part of Broadcom’s SmartScale series of technologies, engineered specifically to meet current feature and scale requirements of private and public cloud networks. Smart-NV encompasses comprehensive best practices for today’s high-performance data center switches, and addresses evolving needs of next generation cloud implementations.

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By Cisco Systems

Providing a work-your-way solution for diverse users with multiple devices, anytime, anywhere
Today’s CIO must deliver innovative business solutions and give employees more freedom to work the way they want – all while reducing IT complexity. Consumer devices have proven to be a cost effective and attractive way to keep employees engaged and productive, but many organizations struggle with securely introducing these devices into the network. Securing corporate data, applications, and systems is essential to any BYOD strategy, and IT organizations need to ensure a secure experience from both a device and network access perspective. As corporations develop an any-device, anywhere strategy, IT needs to know who is on the network, the location of the person, and the type and status of the device. This white paper provides a strategy for implementing BYOD securely.

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Ruckus Wireless is an innovation machine having pioneered technologies such as SmartMeshing, BeamFlex, SmartCast and now ChannelFly. These innovations have differentiated Ruckus in the enterprise and service provider markets with outstanding results. Ruckus is also involved in the IEEE and WiFi Alliance where new Wi-Fi standards such as gigabit WiFi or 802.11ac, and 7 Gbps 802.11ad are being developed. Bill Kish, Ruckus’s CTO, is my guest as we talk about Ruckus’s unique architecture to product differentiation and development. Bill shares his view of the next three years in the wireless technologies. It’s a must listen for network architects in the enterprise and service provider markets.

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Ruckus Wireless has been firing on all cylinders. It’s the fastest growing Wi-Fi supplier on the planet in the enterprise wireless market and owns the largest market share in the carrier Wi-Fi space. Ruckus, an Enterprise supplier latecomer, achieved the highest year-over-year revenue growth of all WLAN suppliers worldwide, growing over 134 %, according to Gartner’s Enterprise WLAN Equipment Market Share4Q11 report. For the second year, in the Service Provider Wi-Fi space, Ruckus was identified as the 2011 market leader with a 26.7 % share of Wi-Fi mesh node shipments, according to Dell’Oro. Very few firms can serve both service provide and enterprise market well; Ruckus is one of those firms. Selina Lo, CEO of Ruckus Wireless, joins me to talk about its business strategy and recent growth. Since recording this podcast, Ruckus announced its IPO plans; this could be one of the last times that you will hear Selina Lo talk for 20 minutes on its business strategy until after the IPO. Enjoy…it’s a great listen.

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By Lucinda Borovick and Richard L. Villars of IDC

In today’s IT marketplace, Big Data is often used as shorthand for a new generation of technologies and architectures designed to economically extract value from very large volumes of a wide variety of data by enabling high-velocity capture, discovery, and/or analysis. IDC believes that organizations that are best able to make real-time business decisions using Big Data will gain a distinct competitive advantage over those that are unable to embrace it.
As Big Data efforts grow in scope and importance, the network (both within the datacenter and across the WAN) will play a critical role in enabling quick, sustainable expansion while also ensuring these systems are linked to existing mission-critical transaction and content environments.

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Every corporation’s application portfolio is undergoing a massive transition, thanks to mobile and cloud computing plus Web 2.0 applications such as social, peer-to-peer, browser-based file sharing, etc. Clearly there are economic and corporate productivity gains in mobile and cloud computing, but not knowing what applications are flowing over an enterprise network can impact enterprise productivity. Broadcom’s App-IQ technology, which is available as an integrated feature in its latest generation of Enterprise LAN Ethernet switch solutions, promises to provide the enhanced technology for Web 2.0 traffic visibility and control.  Together with integrated WLAN capabilities, these switch solutions form the cornerstone of leading switch OEM products, as they deliver on the promise of mobility and visibility required in current and next-generation networks. I talk with Sujal Das, Director of Product Marketing at Broadcom, about its App-IQ technology and the visibility it provides to IT business leaders to control applications flowing over their networks. 

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While the Lippis Report test were being conducted of the IBM System Network’s RackSwitchtm G8124E, G8264 and G8316 ToR data center switches at Ixia’s iSimCity, Dan Tuchler, VP of Product Management at IBM joined me to discuss the firm’s latest product investment. We talk cloud network architecture, Software Defined Networking and what’s unique about the new G8124E, G8264 and G8316 ToR switches.

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By Cisco Systems

Increase security and reduce risk by using existing technology in a non-traditional fashion.

Security is all about risk mitigation. How much risk is an agency willing to accept, and how much are they willing to spend to lower that risk to an acceptable level?

There are multiple ways to lower risk, such as:

• Increasing situational awareness through continuous monitoring of network, data, hardware and personnel resources.

• Tightening security policies for employees and guests moving within buildings.

• Increasing physical security measures when entering the building.

• Isolating physical networks.

• Using stronger authentication mechanisms (multi-factor authentication).

• Implementing an identity management system.

Unfortunately, these solutions all come at a financial cost and, in some cases, can actually prevent employees from doing their job, impacting their productivity. This paper suggests that by using some non-traditional devices in a security arsenal, and by using the network as the platform, an organization can significantly increase its security posture and reduce risk without requiring significant behavioral engineering or infrastructure costs.

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By Broadcom

This white paper explores the use of Web 2.0 applications in the enterprise, their impact on the performance of the network, and the available solutions in the industry for traffic visualization. It introduces Broadcom’s App-IQ technology, which is available as an integrated feature in its latest generation of Enterprise LAN Ethernet switch solutions. Together with integrated WLAN capabilities, these switch solutions form the cornerstone of leading switch OEM products, as they deliver on the promise of mobility and visibility required in current and next-generation networks. This paper also describes how this technology can help IT managers implement policies for Web 2.0 traffic patterns using cost-effective, power-efficient, network edge and aggregation switches.

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In one of the most candid discussions with Jayshree Ullal, Arista Network’s CEO, she voices her view of Software-Defined Networking as not a market but a set of features. Jayshree views OpenFlow as but one in many APIs becoming available to program layer 2/3 networks. If you’re looking for SDN hype, then no need to listen to this podcast. But if you want a realistic view of this important industry trend, then listen up.

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There are still many manual steps, such as phone calls and emails between IT teams, throughout the life cycle of a virtual machine impeding timely and efficient VM deployment and, ultimately, the expanded deployment of virtual environments and associated benefits. To deliver on the promise of cloud computing’s on demand application availability, tasks need to be automated. Infoblox has launched its Automation Tasks Board tools in the model of a Software-Defined Network to enable IT department members to initiate with the click of a single button multi-step, often-repeated and time-consuming network tasks while providing cross team visibility and auditability. If you want to build a real cloud computing facility, then you need to listen to this podcast.

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By Arista Networks

Data center operators are expanding data centers to deliver virtualized and cloud-based services including business continuity and disaster recovery solutions. These additional service and availability requirements lead to increased bandwidth and greater distances between geographically dispersed data center sites. As new services are added, data center environments that were once fiber-rich can quickly run out of fiber and find the associated cost for adding more fiber to be prohibitively expensive. Cost-effective embedded DWDM and distance extension solutions can reduce complexity, operating costs and enable a rapid delivery of new services. Find out how by downloading this whitepaper.

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By Infoblox

The formal exhaustion of public IPv4 addresses by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority in 2011 occurred at a critical turning point in the history of the Internet—namely, at the moment when the typical Internet host is evolving away from the desktop and to the mobile device. As a result, the entire human population is expected to have online access by 2015. Such scale will only be feasible with the abundance of address resources offered by IPv6. As a result, any organization relying on the IT ecosystem enabled by the Internet Protocol—especially those organizations with public-facing content—is at great risk. In the absence of an IPv6 adoption initiative, an organization’s business continuity, business agility and competitive advantage are all endangered. Find out how to mitigate this scenario by downloading this white paper

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By Cisco Systems

How Today’s Government, Education, and Healthcare Organizations Are Benefitting from Cloud Computing Environments

Cloud computing is a disruptive technology model that is changing the way public sector organizations consume information and communications technology (ICT), and how they deploy and deliver services to stakeholders. A trusted network infrastructure is the foundation for any successful cloud implementation. This paper briefly reviews the status of cloud computing in government, education, and healthcare organizations. It also helps make the business case for a cloud implementation by summarizing the chief advantages and business drivers. Case study snapshots describe how public sector organizations have successfully implemented cloud services models in various environments worldwide.

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The edge network has to be more intelligent to support Bring Your Own Device or BYOD as well as existing wired desktops. But many SecOps groups would rather deny mobile access than allow it due to security threats, thanks to lack of visibility or device, user and location information mobile devices offer upon network access. To mitigate this concern, Extreme Networks launched its Intelligent Mobile Edge Network initiative including Ridgeline 3.1 to provide SecOps context-aware identity information and application visibility for mobile and fixed endpoints entering the network. In addition a new line of edge switches called the Summit x440 works closely with WiFi equipment to increase 802.11n performance and scalability. Huy Nguyen, Sr. Director of Product management at Extreme, joins me as we discuss the fundamental changes in edge networking thanks to BYOD and Extreme’s approach to securing mobile devices so corporations can gain the productivity gains of user device freedom.

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By Arista Networks

Advanced Event Management (AEM) is a powerful and flexible set of tools to automate tasks, customize the behavior of the system and associated operation of the switching infrastructure. Leveraging an open operating system, AEM allows operators to fully utilize the intelligence within EOS to respond to real-time events, automate routine tasks, and take local automated action based on changing network conditions. Simplifying the overall operations, AEM provides the tools to customize alerts and actions. This white paper describes Arista’s approach to Advanced Event Management.

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By Deloitte

Enterprises face increasingly complex choices in their network vendor strategies. IT leaders must introduce new technology for critical business functions, while managing IT costs and balancing operational risks.This report summarizes the findings from a detailed customer survey conducted by Deloitte to examine the operational, financial, and risk factors associated with the use of single vendor and multivendor approaches in different types of enterprise networks. By providing a framework for understanding the overall value drivers associated with these networking strategies, this report is intended to help IT decision makers evaluate the potential impact of different approaches.

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By Siemens Enterprise Communications, Inc.

Until recently, technologies such as unified communications (UC) might have seemed strictly the domain of big business. Now, though, UC goes straight to the heart of many of the SMB challenges you face.

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By Arista Networks

Software Defined Cloud Networking (SDCN) is a term often used when a controller external to the forwarding logic and the actual switch itself programs the network devices to alter or enhance the flow of traffic. SDCN can be achieved via standard APIs that several hardware and software architectures intend to support. This white paper describes Arista’s approach to Software Defined Cloud Networking

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Virtualizing a physical network into multiple logical networks each with unique attributes has grown in popularity. This network design is popular in healthcare, education, travel and other industries. Network virtualization was available only to the largest of enterprises and service providers, thanks to its cost and complexity of MPLS and VRF-Lite. But a new approach called Easy Virtual Network from Cisco changes all of that by reducing cost and eliminating configuration and management complexity opening network virtualization to a much larger segment of the enterprise market. In this Lippis Report podcast, I talk with Sehjung Hah about Cisco’s Easy Virtual Network.

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Siemens Enterprise Communications, Inc.

There’s a paradigm shift coming. And it’s going to have a huge impact on your business communications. It will challenge longstanding conventions of total cost of ownership, of deployment models, and of just how, where and when we engage with colleagues, customers and stakeholders. It’s going to significantly alter the communications status quo. And failure to respond will put your competitive advantage at risk. It’s the collision of five megatrends that will forever change our working practices, our relationships with communication devices, and our ability to work productively, efficiently and creatively. It’s as significant as the advent of the internet, and it’s going to usher in a new era of cloud communications. And it’s happening right now.
Is your business prepared for the Communications Tipping Point?

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By the Lippis Report

During the Fall 2011 edition of the Open Industry Network Performance & Power Test for Cloud Networks Evaluating 10/40 GbE Switches, Extreme Networks submitted its X8 Data Center Switch. We tested this switch populated with 192-40GbE ports, the highest density in the industry. We found the lowest latency and power consumption to date in the industry.

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By Extreme Networks

High Performance Computing Clusters (HPCC) are no longer exclusive to the scientific community. “Big Data Analytics” are big business. Financial services, retail and manufacturing all require real-time analysis for real-time business decisions. This white paper discusses the cluster interconnect, its importance to HPCC and a lowest latency, higher performing solution from Extreme Networks®.

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By Cisco Systems

This paper introduces the new Layer 3 network virtualization solution Easy Virtual Network (EVN). It discusses the need for enterprise network virtualization and compares EVN with the traditional solutions. In-depth architectural information as well as the new provisioning syntax is included to get users fully familiarized with EVN at first look. Click here for a short video on EVN

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The term “fabric” has nearly as many definitions and permutations as “cloud,” so in this Lippis Report podcast Vikram Mehta, Vice President IBM System Networking joins me to discuss the top 10 attributes that a data center network fabric should possess. With the back half of 2012 kicking-off aggressive data center fabric deployments listening to this podcast is a must to help you with your planning.

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Prashant Gandhi, Cisco Systems

In this Lippis Report podcast I talk with Prashant, Sr. Director of Server Access Virtualization Product Marketing at Cisco Systems about the new challenges of managing applications and layer 4-7 services in modern data center environments that consist of multiple hypervisors, a wide variety of workloads types and mobile/dynamic virtual machines.

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By Extreme Networks

Colleges and universities have made large investments in wiring dormitories and residence halls. However, today’s students are using mobile devices with no wired Ethernet connector. Today’s laptops, tablets and smartphones rely on 802.11n Wi-Fi. Campus administrators require a simple and effective way to deliver wireless service quickly; leveraging existing wired investment to keep cost down. It is also beneficial to maintain a wired connection in the rooms, delivering both wired and wireless service. Extreme Networks Altitude 4511 uniquely enables administrators to meet student demands while achieving business goals, with a cost-effective solution that is a snap to install and can scale as needs grow.

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By CFO World

With CAPEX accounting for only 20% of the cost of a network, it is important to look beyond initial expenditures and consider TCO and the business value a network can provide. A third-party TCO comparison of a Cisco network versus other vendors illustrates that Cisco can deliver a 13% better TCO even before business benefits, such as network uptime and employee productivity are considered. Further, the Cisco Borderless Network Architecture acts as a platform for service delivery, allowing your IT organization to say “yes” to business and revenue-enhancing opportunities.

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Modern corporate networks are under increasing pressure to support a wider variety of applications thanks to mobile and cloud computing, desktop virtualization plus video traffic having skyrocketed. Not only are bandwidth rates increasing from 1 to 10 to 40 GbE, but most importantly network services are needed to manage and support a different application portfolio mix and network access methods. Network services such as firewalls, WLANs, network diagnostics and monitoring plus application performance acceleration are needed to deliver a consistently excellent user experience. Cisco recently announced an upgrade to its popular Catalyst 6k with the availability of the Supervisor 2T that included re-vamped high performance service modules to deliver these network services. Goyal, product line manager at Cisco Systems joins me to discuss which network services need to be available in modern networks.

Download “A Comprehensive Testing of Cisco Systems Catalyst 6500 Sup2T” report here.

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Renato Recio, IBM Fellow & System Networking CTO

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By Extreme Networks

Today’s mobile users require consistent Wi-Fi with high throughput, but traditional ceiling-mounted access points can make it challenging to extend 802.11n into facilities with many rooms, walls and other obstructions. The combination of the Altitude™ 4511 wallplate access point, fortified with Motorola radio technology and intelligent switches from Extreme Networks, makes it faster and easier to deploy and manage a converged wired and wireless network edge with security and high performance
that’s right where the mobile users are located for better access and service.

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By Infoblox

When asked to identify the No. 1 cause of network performance problems, IT organization typically point to denial-of-service attacks, computer viruses, fiber cuts, power outages and hardware failures-the events that receive the most publicity and media coverage. However, studies by research firms such as Gartner Group and Enterprise Management Associates indicate that over two-thirds of network issues are actually tied to seemingly simple everyday activity: the process of IT staff making network configuration changes. This whitepaper looks at the top 5 common network performance management mistakes and discusses how IT organization can mitigate them via automating network management and giving appropriate visibility to different levels of IT staff.

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By Tim Green, Network World

Chicago-based real-estate management company Equity Office ran all its voice and data traffic over a 40-branch office network via a MPLS WAN, costing some $400K per year. But when poor peak-time performance drew complaints from end users, it switched to technology that delivers more bandwidth at half the cost, delivering a 10-month ROI. The new WAN blended DSL, cable, fiber and Ethernet over copper in a single local network via WAN virtualization from Talari Networks,

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WAN bandwidth, or the lack thereof, is the single largest contributor to poor application performance in branch offices resulting in reduced productivity and the inability of IT to implement their entire strategy. This is especially acute as applications are increasingly centralized in data centers and video traffic starts to dominate flows all of which put more pressure on the WAN. A new approach to wide area networking takes advantage of virtualization concepts. WAN virtualization promises to reduce WAN cost and increase performance. If your WAN utilizes T1 MPLS links at $300/month or higher and ADSL between $10-$15/ month, then you can benefit significantly from WAN virtualization as it offers 3 to 4 times the bandwidth at lower cost and in the process eliminates WAN design constraints limiting IT business leaders. Keith Morris of Talari Networks joins me to discuss WAN Virtualization. I have first-hand knowledge of how good this solution works; if you fit the above profile, then listen up.

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IBM System Network looks into its clients’ needs and extracted their top 10 predictions. The data center network is experiencing a major transformation to support server virtualization and cloud computing, convergence of data storage, application-to-application traffic and new high-performance applications. To address these needs, the data center network will become smarter and faster in 2012. Here are 10 reasons why:

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By Jim Metzler, Ashton Metzler & Associates

This white paper proposes a new approach to architecting and designing data center networks for current dynamic and highly virtualized data centers.

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By CIO Magazine

Feature-rich, next-generation networks help drive innovation and value to midsize companies and position them for competitive advantage. Next-generation networks give midsize companies a competitive advantage. By removing many of the operational headaches of running a network, Cisco’s solutions free up departments to focus on driving business value and innovation. Feature-rich, strategic networks built for today and tomorrow remove the barriers to growth and give midsize businesses the agility they require to lead their markets. Find out how by downloading this executive white paper.

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Having a plan to transition to IPv6 has moved way up in the priority list of IT projects for IT leaders as 2011 was officially the year we ran out of IPv4 unallocated addresses and not having IPv6 could cut-off corporations and applications from accessing the internet. In addition employees en masse are “BYOD” or bring your own device meaning smartphone and tables to work increasing the number of devices on the network significantly. These devices and their applications are driving support of both IPv4 and IPv6 as many mobile devices are now set for IPv6 as the default. As dual stack IP v4/v6 is the best practice, the real challenge lies within the domain name service or DNS. Infloblox has developed a range of solutions to automate the transition to IPv6 by supporting both addressing schemes. Tom Coffeen, Chief IPv6 Evangelist at Infoblox talks about solutions to automate the transition to IPv6. It’s one of our best IPv6 discussions.

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The Inflobox plug-in module for VMware’s vCenter Orchestrator promises to bridge network and virtual IT team silos by enabling automated assignment of IP addresses to VMs. The Infloblox plug-in enables IP addresses to be automatically assigned to virtual machines in less than a minute and then constantly monitored and managed, which simplifies troubleshooting, accelerates time to value and offers greater flexibility for the virtual team. Steve Garrison, VP Marketing for Infoblox and I discuss the problems of networking in virtualized environments and how Infoblox’s vCenter plug-in solves them.

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By Zeus Kerravala, Senior Vice President and Distinguished Research Fellow

The enterprise data center has undergone several major transformations since the introduction of computing as a corporate resource. The computing platform has evolved from main frame computing, to client server, to Internet-based computing, and now we sit on the precipice of the next major data center transition—the evolution to a fully virtualized data center. Each transition saw the cost of computing driven down and the importance of the network elevated. Each phase allowed organizations to increase the efficiency of their data center operations and improve asset utilization, ultimately leading to a better experience for end-users. This white paper provides a perspective on the rise of network value as it acts as the backplane for the virtualized data center and provides design recommendations.

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By IBM

The cloud model isn’t about transforming IT. It’s about reinventing the way organizations do business. Organizations in every industry, regardless of size or geography, are embracing cloud computing as a way to reduce the complexity and costs associated with traditional IT approaches. Organizations that approach cloud in a tactical fashion risk adding complexity and inefficiency (not to mention security exposure) due to fragmentation, redundancy and operating silos. Conversely, organizations that embrace cloud strategically—from a business as well as IT perspective—can capture new business value through innovation, flexibility, speed, integrity and security—while reducing cost and complexity.

To deliver the cloud’s full business value, cloud-enabled data centers require speed, flexibility, cost-effective operation and scalability. This paper discusses the technical and business requirements of cloud computing, focusing on the networking layer of the cloud.

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By Cisco Systems

A new enterprise architecture for delivering policy-based services has become available. This document discusses the need for a policy-based architecture in today’s enterprise networks and presents “Policy-Governed Network” architecture as a pragmatic business solution. Building identity and context awareness into the network is critical to implementing an effective infrastructure.
Major topics include:

● What policies are and who implements them
● Changing network dynamics and problematic new technologies
● Important challenges to implementers
● Characteristics of a Policy-Governed Network architecture
● Policy-implementation platform: the Cisco® Identity Services Engine
● Scenarios showing how policies can address specific network issues
● How to begin transitioning to a Policy-Governed Network

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While the Lippis Report test were being conducted of the Extreme Networks BlackDiamond® X8 Core and Summit® X670V ToR data center fabric switches at Ixia’s iSimCity, Darius Goodall, Product and Technical Marketing of Extreme joined me to discuss the firm’s latest product investment. We talk cloud network architecture and what’s unique about the new X8 and X670V.

Download “Fall 2011 Open Industry Network Performance And Power Test Report” here.

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Access Control List or ACL are important tools in the configuration and customization of network attributes, especially with the Catalyst 6500. In the Catalyst 6500 upgrade with Sup2T, the TCAM has been both increased and its architecture improved. For ACL, a major concern was the lack of visibility of TCAM overflows when new ACL scripts were submitted, disrupting network operation. Therefore, Cisco developed the ACL Dry Run and ACL Atomic Commit to mitigate this scenario. To verify ACL improvements, we use ACL Dry-Run to assure that the TCAM would not overflow, and then implement the changes safely with ACL Atomic-commit; assuring no network interruption. It’s a great short video that verifies how useful these new tools are in ACL management.

Download “A Comprehensive Testing of Cisco Systems Catalyst 6500 Sup2T” report here.

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During the week of October 31, 2011, the Lippis Report tested Cisco System’s new Catalyst 6500 with Supervisor 2T or Sup2T for performance, upgradability, control and scalability at Ixia’s modern iSimCity laboratory in Santa Clara CA. By all counts, Cisco’s upgrade of the Catalyst 6500 via its new Sup2T, is its most ambitious and thoughtful yet for the venerable platform. The Sup2T is a major upgrade to the most widely-deployed switching platform in campus and data center networking. It’s the new Catalyst 6500’s network services that deliver most of the value, which is partially found in the Sup2T’s Policy Feature Card or PFC that increases NetFlow monitoring and a new TCAM design offering improved Access Control (ACL), Quality of Service design options, encryption security and many other features. This Lippis Report test verifies many of Cisco’s performance and upgradability claims. While it’s impossible to test all of the Catalyst 6500’s new 200-plus features with the Sup2T, we rather focus on a select few that will have the widest impact on IT business leaders’ product acquisition decision process.

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MACsec encryption has become increasing popular and important to campus network design, but previous switch performance degraded when encrypted traffic was passing through it. Here we show that the catalyst 6500 does not suffer a performance degrade while MACsec traffic is passing through it. We tested the Catalyst 6500 via the cPacket Networks cTap 10G passive probe to verify traffic flows were either MACsec encrypted or unencrypted. We found that there is no material difference in throughput performance, other than 802.1ae encryption key overhead, thanks to 16 additional bytes per packet. The cPacket passive probe also measured line rate throughput performance. This is a great short video that verifies how the old encryption performance penalty is now gone.

Download “A Comprehensive Testing of Cisco Systems Catalyst 6500 Sup2T” report here.

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For IPv4 and IPv6, dual stack implementations are most popular where desktops and mobile devices run both IPv4 and IPv6, therefore, the network infrastructure needs to support both equally at high performance. IPv6 performance has not been on par with IPv4 until now. To demonstrate how the Catalyst 6500 upgrade with Sup2T has improved IPv6 performance, we measure IPv4 and IPv6 unicast and bidirectional traffic performance via RFC 2544. IP Multicast traffic has been on the rise, thanks to the increased use of video services within the enterprise. Therefore, we test IP Multicast performance via RFC 3918 on the new Catalyst 6500 Sup2T to stresses its packet replication ASIC built into the 6908-10G line cards. We find that the new Catalyst 6500 delivers equal Ipv4 and Ipv6 performance; a 2x increase from the Sup720 for IP unicast, bidirectional and multicast forwarding.

Download “A Comprehensive Testing of Cisco Systems Catalyst 6500 Sup2T” report here.

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One of the most impressive network design options available on the Catalyst 6500 is the use of VSS. Connecting two Catalyst 6500s equipped with Sup2Ts creates a virtual switch, adding each switch’s performance while operating as a single switch thus eliminating spanning tree in favor for active-active links. We configure two Catalyst 6500s via VSS. We measure throughput performance to verify that VSS throughput rates are equally high performance as the MPLS and VPLS scenarios. Check out the two-Catalyst 6500 configurations we deployed for this test.

Download “A Comprehensive Testing of Cisco Systems Catalyst 6500 Sup2T” report here.

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During the Lippis Report test of the Cisco Systems Catalyst 6500 at Ixia’s iSimCity we perform an upgrade from Supervisor Engine 720 to 2T. What IT business leaders are looking for are incremental network upgrades with minimal disruption. Therefore, we swap out Sup720 for Sup2T and bring up existing service modules and line cards. Remember that line cards represent the largest investment in switching equipment, so we’ll demonstrate that older line cards interoperate at high performance when the new Sup2T replaces the Sup720. We find that the upgrade process is easy and smooth with compatibility of line cards, configuration code, service modules, transceivers and chassis.

Download “A Comprehensive Testing of Cisco Systems Catalyst 6500 Sup2T” report here.

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IT business leaders are seeking data center fabrics that scale to support increasing density of physical and virtual servers at cloud spec. In October of this year, Cisco delivered a monster data center fabric announcement aimed at increasing scale, security and new data center services. A few highlights are the second-generation Nexus 7000 capabilities, a new Nexus 7009 platform, plus FabricPath capabilities on the Nexus 5500 and expanded Nexus 1GbE and 40GbE form factors of the Nexus 3000. Shashi Kiran, Director of Market Management for Data Center/Virtualization and Enterprise Switching at Cisco Systems joins me to talk about what IT business leaders will gain from this new announcement from a business outcome and data center fabric design perspective.

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You can’t manage what you can’t measure. Cisco’s next generation NetFlow provides deep application visibility, detailed measurement plus increased control and security for IT departments that are struggling to get ahead of an Enterprise application portfolio that is undergoing a massive transition thanks to mobile and cloud computing. Samuel Pasquier, product manager for Cisco Systems, and Adam Powers, chief technology officer for Lancope discuss best practices for securing and gaining visibility to applications that are flowing over enterprise networks with the next generation of NetFlow.

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Andre Kindness, Senior Analyst at Forrester Research and Zeus Kerravala, principal at ZK Research join me to discuss the shift-taking place in data center networking. Data Center networking is at an inflection point thanks to industry transitions driving new economics, technologies and IT delivery via mobile and cloud computing. These market transitions happen only once every decade or so and we detail its dynamics in this industry analyst round table. We discuss virtualization, merchant silicon, software defined networking, the rise of best of breed products, what network designs are working and which aren’t. We end with how IT business leaders can navigate an industry is transition.

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By Avaya

This White Paper discusses the benefits and applicability of the IEEE 802.1aq Shortest Path Bridging (SPB) protocol, which is augmented with sophisticated Layer 3 routing capabilities. The use of SPB and the value to solve virtualization of today’s network connectivity in the enterprise campus as well as the data center are covered.

This document is intended for technically savvy network managers as well as network architects who are faced with:
• Reducing time to service requirements
• Less tolerance for network down time
• Network Virtualization requirements for Layer 2 (VLAN-extensions) and Layer 3 (VRF-extensions)
• Server Virtualization needs in data center deployments requiring a large set of Layer 2 connections (VLANs)
• Traffic separation requirements in campus deployments for security purposes as well as robustness considerations (i.e., contractors for maintenance reasons needing access to their equipment or guest access needs)
• Multi-tenant applications such as airports, governments or any other network with multiple discrete (legal) entities that require traffic separation

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Just as 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) is going through widespread
deployment in the data center, the discussion has now shifted to even
higher speed interconnects—namely 40 GbE and 100 GbE
By IBM

In July 2006, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Higher Speed Study Group was formed to look into the next evolutionary step after 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE). In the past, Ethernet speeds would increase by a factor of 10. However, the next generation jump from 10 GbE to 100 GbE has proven to be a technological challenge. Some within the IEEE group felt that 100 GbE made sense for communication service providers and other backbone network providers, but not as a next step for servers—it was simply more speed and expense than would be needed for the near future. While the IEEE initially planned to standardize only on 100 GbE as the next step after 10 GbE, server vendors initiated a push in early 2007 to include 40 GbE in the standard, with the rationale that the effort used to develop 40 GbE would be used for the development of 100 GbE.

In July 2007, the IEEE 802.3ba study group was named, and it is the first standard to include two different Ethernet speeds—the 40 Gbps rate for local server applications, and the 100 Gbps rate for internet backbone—to serve both market needs. In June 2010, the official 802.3ba standard was ratified, opening the field to higher performance in server systems and components, data centers, network storage and systems, high-performance computing (HPC) clusters, data centers, carriers, and the like. This paper provides perspective on the placement and use of 40 and 100GbE.

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by Cisco Systems

It can be easy to forget how much depends on the enterprise network—until you have to tell the VP of sales that he can’t use his iPhone on the corporate network because the appropriate security controls aren’t in place. Or you must tell the CIO that expanding the virtualization initiative to include business-critical applications will severely tax bandwidth. The truth is, nearly everything in modern businesses is dependent on the enterprise network, and every decision you make is based on whether the network can handle it. This paper takes a look at a common pitfall in IT circles that can have a serious impact on the IT decision maker’s ability to say “yes” to new business initiatives. It also offers recommendations for IT organizations that wish to act as business enablers.

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Simplified and optimized service orchestration maximizes the return from a virtualized computing environment
By Avaya

This white paper discusses Avaya’s approach to Data center Networking from a fabric perspective. Virtualization within the data center is now taken for granted, with some declaring that ‘Cloud Computing’ will be the choice of most enterprises and that applications and information will become commodities. Experience has proved one thing; the data center of the future cannot be built on the technology of the past. General-purpose products, outmoded techniques, and legacy designs cannot be re-packaged as ‘data center-ready’. Ethernet is readily available, cost-effective, extensible, and – as the 40/100 Gigabit developments prove – scalable. Find out Avaya’s approach to data center networking fabric by downloading this white paper.

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A third-party business consulting firm analyzed the total cost of ownership (TCO) of Cisco enterprise customer networks, and contrasted that TCO to “good enough” networks from other networking vendors. Key findings:
1) TCO is a better metric than CapEx to assess network cost because it considers the full impact on IT spend, including CapEx, services, labor, bandwidth and energy.
2) The Cisco Borderless Network Architecture can deliver up to 13% better TCO than a “good enough” network, offering compelling value for the strategic Cisco investment.
3) Even if architectural benefits are discounted in the analysis, Cisco is, at most, a 7% TCO premium over other vendors due to IT labor savings and extended product lifecycles from Cisco solutions.
4) The single biggest benefit of Cisco’s architectural approach is labor savings. Labor constitutes 50% of TCO and Cisco delivers 5% to 10% labor savings driven by unified wired and wireless and embedded security.
5) A quality network delivers business benefits beyond TCO, including improved network uptime, higher user productivity and a lower threat of security breaches.

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Power over Ethernet or PoE has evolved from delivering 7 Watts/port to support IP phones to now 60 Watts/port to power a wide range of devices that span WLAN access points, surveillance video cameras, video conferencing end points, IP turrets for financial trading, and now, thin client desktop devices to support virtualized desktops. The current high PoE standard is IEEE 802.3at that details 30 Watts/port, so Cisco’s Universal PoE or UPOE solution at 60W is a pre-standard offering. The key point about UPOE is that it provides a new range of design options in both power distribution, but more importantly, how virtualized desktops and other electronics are powered. Pradeep Parmar, Senior Marketing Manager, Borderless Networks, at Cisco Systems, joins me to talk about the fundamental change PoE is taking, thanks to Cisco’s UPOE solution.

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The problems of network configuration changes required when virtualization operations managers need to move a VM between subnets are well documented. There are virtual networking options to solve this problem such as building very large flat networks, tunneling between subnets, and now a standard approach called VXLAN. VXLAN is a special encapsulation mechanism that runs between virtual switches and enables VMs to be deployed and moved on or between any server within the network. VXLAN requires no changes to the underlying IP addressing architecture and should require no major changes to installed infrastructure in the data center. Ken Duda Founder and Vice President, Software Engineering at Arista Networks joins me to discuss VXLAN, the first major protocol of virtual networking.

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By Arista Networks

VMWARE VXLAN is a new network technology developed by VMware that enables stateful VM mobility across traditional L3 routed boundaries. This enables more freedom and flexibility in matching workloads to computing power. By enabling a larger, and essentially flatter network while building on top of proven models for stable scaling of networks such as routing and equal-cost multipath forwarding, VXLAN enables any workload to be provisioned on any virtualized host, anywhere in the network that is IP reachable. No longer do routed topology decisions restrict workload mobility.

If you are a VMware and network administrator who is building virtualized networks with more than 250 VMs or want to stretch a virtual machine farm across two data centers or two or more routed domains with full workload portability, then you need to read this white paper.

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By Extreme Networks

Several technology inflection points are coming together that are fundamentally changing the way networks are architected, deployed and operated, both in the public and private cloud. From performance, to scale, to virtualization support and automation to simplified orchestration, the requirements are rapidly changing and driving new approaches to building data center networks. This white paper does an excellent job at articulating cloud-scale network architecture via an open fabric that accounts for all major industry trends.

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By IBM

Data centers are undergoing monumental paradigm shifts. As demand for greater processing continues to outstrip available floor space, rack space, power and air-conditioning, the market has turned to virtualization to use the resources available efficiently. Most networking switches are not aware of VMs. This creates security and availability issues for both server and network administrators as they try to exploit the value of virtualization and manage this new environment. IBM® System Networking offers VMready®, switches. Find out how these switches solve the most difficult VM mobility and visibility problems.

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By Cisco Systems

Enterprise workspace is quickly evolving with new networked devices to improve communication, collaboration, security and productivity. Power over Ethernet (PoE), a way to deliver electrical power over LAN cabling to networked devices, has been widely deployed over the years to provide power to various endpoints. Cisco® Catalyst® 4500E, a market leader of PoE technology, continues to innovate to deliver Universal PoE (UPOE) technology with up to 60 watt power to enable even broader endpoint support, with additional benefits of higher availability, lower OpEx and faster deployment.

This paper provides an overview of the Cisco UPOE technology. It describes how Cisco has evolved PoE technology to UPOE, the use case examples of UPOE to simplify enterprise deployment, and UPOE architecture and operations.

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By IBM

Use of Ethernet as a switching fabric provides servers with a single connection and can greatly reduce the amount of equipment required in the data center. Companies with storage networks are switching from Fiber Channel to Ethernet-based storage solutions that use 10GbE. This trend is accelerating now with lossless DCB or Data Center Bridging Ethernet products such as IBM BNT RackSwitch G8124. With the adoption of the new DCB Ethernet protocols, Ethernet switching fabric can offer the technical features and the economic value necessary to become the switching fabric of choice for data center networking, storage and clustering. Find out how by downloading this white paper.

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By Cisco Systems

Hundreds of Cisco customers have debated the trade-off of prioritizing the lowest price for a point product or service in their network over a strategic plan for how they architect their network infrastructure. Through interactions with many customers, Cisco has analyzed various network designs and implementations. Our findings show that although there is a place for building a low-cost tactical network, the ongoing operations, upgrades and lack of preparedness to meet new business challenges prove to be hindrances to organizations in the long run. Rather than just considering capital cost, organizations are well served to look at total cost of ownership, including operations and return on investment plus business capabilities enabled by a strategic network, as they build out their networks to address business needs today and tomorrow. Forrester Consulting Group provides an excellent analysis in this paper too.

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By Ken Won, Force10 Networks

Most IT organizations have implemented server, storage and/
or network virtualization to some degree, but to fully realize
the benefits of virtualization, IT organizations need to consider
adopting all three in an integrated manner. Server virtualization for
x86 servers has been around for about a decade, and is relatively
mature. Storage virtualization is not quite as mature, but numerous
storage virtualization products are available today. And while
network virtualization in the form of VLANs and VPN has been
around for many years, new types of network virtualization are just
now being introduced to the industry. In this white paper, we’ll
take a look at virtualized servers, storage, and networking, and see
how automated network switching helps unify these environments
into a cohesive whole.

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By Nicholas John Lippis III

IT business leaders are demanding a unified policy-driven
management strategy for network access and security, mobile
endpoints including iPads, tablets and smartphones. A holistic
network approach is the unification of these management assets
to simplify operations and shift control to IT leaders. A holistic
network approach from Cisco Systems is to streamline NetOps
through the automated orchestration of policy, management and
infrastructure. In this model, network administrators will not have
to access multiple different management systems to collect data,
correlate it manually and then attempt to identify problem location.
One management system, Cisco Prime NCS with integrated
links to ISE delivers this service to NetOps drastically improving
network visibility and reducing troubleshooting time through a
client- or user-focused approach to managing corporate networks
in the age of mobile and cloud computing.

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By IBM

This white paper provides a summary of how IBM® Tivoli®
Storage Productivity Center supports the IBM System Storage®
SAN Volume Controller. This information is intended to describe
the management capabilities of Tivoli Storage Productivity Center
in a virtualized storage configuration.

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By Frost & Sullivan

The world is becoming increasingly mobile, and businesses are feeling the impact of managing PCs, smart phones, desk phones and tablets. Equally important are the effects of consumer mobility trends on businesses’ IT agendas. Learn how to keep costs in check, boost user productivity, deliver a consistent experience, and maintain a single, manageable corporate identity for all end-users.

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By (IDC) 

The consumerization of IT is helping to drive a shift towards collaborative applications convergence. Employees want to plug their consumer technology experiences into their daily work lives. Particularly, IDC believes the industry is on a trend to combine key technologies, such as email, instant messaging (IM), team workspaces, video, voice, Web conferencing and social features into a single “superset” user environment. This Technology Spotlight discusses collaborative applications and explores the role that Avaya plays in this increasingly important market.

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By Cisco Systems

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) Version 2.0 has been released, providing clarification and reinforcing the need for merchants and other organizations to identify all system components, people and processes to be included in a PCI DSS assessment. Simply achieving device and system compliance is not enough to protect your retail business and your customers. Cisco® PCI Solution for Retail 2.0 helps you:

• Address current PCI compliance requirements
• Protect customer data in your data center, stores, Internet edge, contact center and between partners, such as payment processors
• Simplify compliance
• Offer guidance on security best practices

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Avaya has expanded its cloud networking product portfolio with the Virtual Services Platform or VSP 7000, a 10GbE Top of Rack (ToR) Switch and its new Virtualization Provisioning Service or VPS management software.
The VSP 7000 boasts a multi-Terabit Fabric capable of horizontally stacking many 7000s, offering a new approach to server connections. The VPS virtualization management application provides visibility and automated control of virtualized infrastructure. VPS is designed to provide NetOps and SysOps shared visibility of physical, logical and now virtual IT assets. Dan DeBacker, Director of Data Solutions Architecture at Avaya, discusses the new VSP 7000 plus VPS and the new data center design options they afford.

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In Cisco’s Data Center Fabric, it has delivered a set of features and innovations that solve some of the most difficult networking challenges found in virtualized infrastructure. IP address and VM mobility plus adapter and VM Fabric EXtenders (FEX) offer increased support for virtualized data center infrastructure, offering designers flexibility to move virtualized assets independent of location. These innovations are proposed by Cisco that promises virtualization aware networking, lower cost and increased performance. Omar Sultan, Senior Manager, Data Center Architecture at Cisco Systems, and I discuss Cisco’s new data center virtualization tools.

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Two years after Cisco launched its Unified Computing System it has 5,400 customers, holds the #3 market share ranking for x86 blade servers WW, behind only HP and IBM, according to IDG and recently broke numerous world computing performance benchmark records. While UCS has leaped frog competitors with performance plus memory and I/O capacity the most important aspect of UCS is the business value it drives. I explore this topic with Todd Brannon, Senior Manager for UCS marketing at Cisco Systems about the vision and strategy of Cisco’s Fabric Compute and the value its customers are gaining from its use. Todd brings great customer examples to this podcast, which is a must for any IT leader evaluating a data center fabric.

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Cisco’s Nexus Operating System that runs on the Nexus switches and evolved from Cisco’s MDS SAN-OS is a fundamental building block of its Data Center Fabric. Berna Devrim, Senior Manager of Data Center and Virtualization Marketing at Cisco Systems, discusses the next generation of Nexus OS designed to address the biggest data center issues. These issues are virtualization scale and mobility, cloud spec scale, LAN and SAN convergence plus operational efficiency. This is one of the best audio podcast we’ve produced, so sit back listen, learn and enjoy.

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In November of 2010 Avaya launched its Virtual Enterprise Network Architecture or VENA, which describes its computer networking investment strategy and technology direction. VENA was designed for virtualized data center infrastructure but has been expanded to include campus and branch office networking. Dan DeBacker, Director of Data Solutions Architecture at Avaya discusses the unique attributes VENA possesses to meet today’s enterprise networking needs and the business outcomes its customers are gaining by its deployment.

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By Infoblox

Organizations of all sizes are transitioning to virtualization technology at a dramatically increasing rate. Conducted between September and December 2010, Gartner’s annual survey of 2,014 CIOs collectively responsible for $160 billion in IT spending in 50 countries across 38 industries found that “Currently, 3% of CIOs have the majority of IT running in the cloud or on SaaS technologies, but over the next four years CIOs expect this number to increase to 43%.” The motivation for adopting the new technology is enticing: increased flexibility, decreased workload for internal IT departments, faster access to on-the-fly infrastructure needs, increased worker productivity, and significant capex cost reductions. Despite this worldwide trend across all industries, most organizations will fail in the conversion process to these new technologies, thanks to complexity. This white paper explains how network automation calms complexity allowing IT business leaders to reap the rewards of dense virtualization deployment.

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by Force10 Networks

As data centers scale to support thousands of servers, IT managers are seeking better ways to network those servers while reducing costs and power consumption. Moreover, in large-scale data center cluster environments, inter-node communication bandwidth is increasingly becoming the main bottleneck. Compute nodes located across different physical switches may not have full bandwidth in a conventional hierarchical network design of interconnected switches. The solution is a distributed core architecture based on low-cost, high-capacity switches. This paper describes the use of Force10 Network’s® Z9000™ core switching system in a distributed core architecture to address these issues.

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By IBM

How are technology leaders helping their organizations adapt to the accelerating change and complexity that mark today’s competitive and
economic landscape? To find out, we spoke in person with 3,018 CIOs, spanning 71 countries and 18 industries. They shared how they are innovating with technology for organizational success. CIOs increasingly help their organizations cope with complexity by simplifying operations, business processes, products and services. To increase competitiveness, 83 percent of CIOs have visionary plans that include business intelligence and analytics, followed by mobility solutions (74 percent) and virtualization (68 percent). Since our 2009 Global CIO Study, cloud computing shot up in priority, selected by 45 percent more CIOs than before and leaping into a tie for fourth place with business process management (60 percent each). In this report, CIOs provide you insight in to both their challenges and opportunities from increasing complexity.

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By Cisco Systems

CareCore National, a health benefit management concern, increased business agility by being able to launch new lines of business in just two weeks, down from six months. This business benefits were gained, in large part through the insight and leadership of IT executives and their deployment of Cisco’s Data Center Fabric architecture. This white paper describes how the CareCore National achieved this transformation.

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By Cisco Systems

Avago Technologies is a manufacturer. Its IT business leaders accelerated batch processing by 30 to 40%, increased business flexibility and decreased operational cost by 40% while adding a third data center. This white paper describes how Avago Technologies achieved this transformation.

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By Cisco Systems

Consider how central and critical the capabilities that the network provides are to business goals. In all other areas of the company, business leaders look to strategic thinking and innovation to pull the company ahead of its competitors. Why should the network be any different? The allure of the tactical is always present in any business. A “good-enough-for-now” network may solve some of the problems of today, but does it set up businesses to solve the problems of tomorrow? When the network fails to adapt to the challenges of the future, the business follows the same path. Taking a strategic approach to the network is not just a good idea. It makes business sense. This white paper argues the strategic importance of the corporate network to achieving business objectives.

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Cisco has expanded it relationship with Fax over IP partner Sagemcom by integrating its XMediusFAX into Cisco’s Unity Connection and Cisco Unified Communication Manager (CUCM ) in its 8.0 update. Further, at Cisco Live in Las Vegas, the two announced interoperability testing with Cisco UCS Express (SRE-V). John Nikolopoulos, Marketing and Product Management Director at Sagemcom, discusses Sagemcom’s deepening relationship with Cisco and what it means to IT business leaders who manage branch office networks and communications.

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In the quest to build a data center network that is flat, fast and fault tolerant, the networking industry has served up a new two-tier architecture made up of Top-of-Rack or ToR server connecting switches and highly dense Core switches. Core switches connect ToR devices. The key question is how best to provide switch connectivity to deliver a lossless, high performance, low latency fabric that supports virtualization mobility. The answer is found in Multi-Chassis Link Aggregation Group or MC-LAG, Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links or TRILL and/or Shortest Path Bridging (SPB). Dhritiman Dasgupta, Director of Product Marketing for Fabric and Switching Technologies at Juniper Networks, discusses its QFabric approach and why TRILL’s hair pinning method to inter-VLAN routing is a poor approach. It’s a fascinating discussion that you have to listen to. You can also download a white paper on this topic here.

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Eric Murray, Senior Network Engineer at Kindred Healthcare, and Ashish Shah, Senior Product Manager, Data Center Switching Technology Group at Cisco Systems, discuss the value gain of data center convergence or a single Ethernet fabric to support IP datagram and storage traffic. In this podcast, Eric Murray shares his experience of deploying a converged data center while Ashish explains Cisco’s end-to-end Data Center LAN/SAN consolidation strategy. This is a fascinating discussion of data center network design with cost and benefit trade-offs. In short, Kindred Healthcare has saved many millions of dollars in capital spend plus operational cost, thanks to a reduction in the number of management points.

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Cisco is the only large vertical IT supplier with compute, storage and deep networking capabilities making its data center offering unique. It’s Unified Network Services or UNS, Unified Computing System or UCS, Unified Fabric and policy based management make up the Cisco Data Center Fabric. In this Lippis Report podcast I talk with Shashi Kiran; Director of Market Management for Data Center/Virtualization at Cisco Systems about the vision and strategy of Cisco’s Data Center Fabric and the value its customers are gaining from its use.

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IBM’s System Networking is focused upon creating an interconnect fabric/System Network within data centers upon which servers and storage rely upon to deliver IT applications. IBM recently formed IBM System Networking that includes BNT along with partnerships of Cisco Brocade, Juniper and Mellanox plus its management solutions of Tivoli. Vikram Mehta, Vice President IBM System Networking is my guest as we discuss IBM’s expanding role in System Networking.

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by Infoblox

By all accounts, 2011 is the year that we exhausted all available public IPv4 addresses. It was also the year that the clock started ticking on your adoption of IPv6. Like it or not, the transition to IPv6 will happen in your organization. How that transition should occur is a question we sought to answer as we spoke with engineers and IT professionals who have deployed IPv6 from across the globe. In those conversations and in our research, we discerned a rational action plan for deploying IPv6 and specific threats and challenges any practitioner will face when rolling out the new addressing scheme. In this white paper, we detail best practices for IPv6 deployment.

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by Force10 Networks

Cloud computing is an emerging computing model that promises a new era of flexibility and control in providing data center resources. In the cloud model, data center managers can mix and match computing, storage, and networking resources to provide an agile and highly flexible resource for customer applications. To realize the full potential, this paradigm requires open, standardized interfaces between data center layers of compute resources, the network, and storage elements. While the industry has moved toward open computing and storage layers over the past few years, networking has remained largely proprietary. Force10’s Open Cloud NetworkingSM framework is intended to unlock the network layer so data center operators can get the most out of their data center architectures and, in turn, get the most out of their cloud deployments.

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by Cisco Systems

Cloud computing is gaining customer attention at a fascinating pace. An Infonetics research report published in early 2011 noted a significant increase in customers’ interest in cloud computing between 2009 and 2010—most of respondents indicated interest in 2010, up from only 10% in 2009. Many studies have concluded that software as a service (SaaS) and infrastructure as a service (IaaS) are leading the way in adopting cloud computing. Meanwhile according to an April 2011 Forrester report, the third largest cloud category, platform as a service (PaaS) is predicted to surpass IaaS to become the second largest cloud category by 2014. But according to Forrester, security is one of the top barriers to cloud computing. This white paper details an approach to secure cloud computing to mitigate threats and increase its adoption.

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Force10 introduced a disruptive set of products to address the new cloud networking market driven by massive virtualization and cloud spec scale data centers. First its new Z9000 Distributed Core System promises to be 1/10th the footprint, at 1/5th the price and 1/20th the power consumption of other core switches. The Z9000 is 32x40GbE or 128x10GbE platform where multiple Z9000s are connected via an open distributed core supporting up to 24,000 10GbE server links. In addition, Force10 introduced a next generation ToR switch, the S7000 that supports 40x10GbE, 12×2/4/8G FC plus 4x40GbE combining networking, storage and Open Cloud Applications. Arpit Joshipura, Chief Marketing Officer at Force10 Networks, discusses Force10’s Open Cloud Networking products and strategy, and the new design options they afford to IT architects.

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Extreme Networks has added to its Extreme Open Fabric cloud networking portfolio by introducing a unique 10/40GbE ToR switch in its Summit X670; an ultra low latency switch thanks to a PHY-less design and cut-through switching. For the core, the new BlackDiamond X8 is a massive core switch built for virtualized infrastructure. It boasts 192x40GbE or 768 10GbE ports, 5 Watts/10GbE port power consumption, 128K VMs, high reliability and compact size being only one-third of a rack or 14.5 RUs. In this Lippis Report podcast, I talk with Shehzad Merchant, VP of Technology at Extreme Networks, about Extreme’s new cloud networking products and the architecture it now offers to IT architects and designers.

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IBM’s System Networking is focused upon creating an interconnect fabric/System Network within data centers upon which servers and storage rely upon to deliver IT applications. IBM recently formed IBM System Networking that includes BNT along with partnerships of Cisco, Brocade, Juniper and Mellanox plus its management solutions of Tivoli. Vikram Mehta, Vice President, IBM System Networking, is my guest as we discuss IBM’s expanding role in System Networking.

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By Evangelyze Communications, LLC

With a broad series of new Unified Communications (UC) and collaboration offerings by Avaya and Microsoft, IT organizations have been prompted to evaluate their UC strategy. Microsoft promises to lower the overall Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of a UC platform by leveraging an all-encompassing software powered communications environment integrated with its Microsoft Office™ suite through the release of Microsoft Lync, while Avaya introduces its newly released UC platform through Avaya Aura.

The purpose of this whitepaper is to clearly identify the comparisons between both provider’s UC offerings through a process of evaluating value that matter to IT organizations in selecting the right UC platform.

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By Robin Gareiss Nemertes Research

Although line shipments for IP telephony have outstripped TDM for some time, many organizations have not yet fully replaced their TDM phones. In fact, only 17% of companies have fully deployed the technology, and the bulk of those are small and midsize businesses. Larger organizations have rolled out the technology in a spotty manner where the TDM system is end-of-life, or other tactical reasons. IT organizations are evaluating the economics, plus desktop IP phones investment when people increasingly rely on mobile devices and soft clients.

Many others are re-evaluating the market as they solidify unified-communications plans and once again contemplate go-forward strategy for IPT. Will they use the same vendor(s)? Will they shift to a hosted- or managed-services model? And what is the true business case? Understanding the true costs is crucial to a successful business case—and a cost-effective implementation.

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By Juniper Networks

Juniper Networks has a long history of supporting industry standards that are mature and enable customers to effectively solve their networking problems. Therefore, before jumping on the Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links (TRILL) bandwagon, Juniper took a close look at how the protocol proposes to solve the fundamental issues plaguing the data center, specifically as they relate to connecting infrastructure designed for cloud computing. This white paper outlines the results of those reviews and presents Juniper’s conclusions about TRILL.

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In the world of High-Frequency Trading (HFT), opportunities exist only fleetingly and therefore trading solutions must run at the lowest latency to be competitive. Low-latency 10 Gigabit Ethernet has become the interconnect of choice for HFT solutions. IBM® and Mellanox® have demonstrated a solution that performs at high throughput rates and low latency to facilitate High-Frequency Trading solutions.

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This paper revisits the benefits of centralized 802.11n wireless LAN networks and describes the case for transforming the controller-based architecture to match market needs. Centralization of wireless LANs (WLANs) delivers networks that are easy to deploy, scale, and manage. A local-mode controller-based campus environment delivers increased device scalability and an interactive multimedia experience coupled with enhanced policy to manage the full range of mobile devices. A controller-based deployment using FlexConnect technology enables multisite, lean branches to manage the increased scale of deployments without additional increase in operational complexity.

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By Juniper Networks

Today’s data center networks are under tremendous pressure. Not only are they growing geometrically to keep pace with rapidly escalating business demands, support new application architectures and virtualized environments, and improve the overall user experience, they are expected to do so more efficiently and more cost-effectively than ever before.

The problem lies in the fact that, while everything else in the data center (applications, storage, servers) has evolved over time, the network architecture itself has not. Rather than evolve, the data center network has instead become extremely complex. This
complexity prevents the network from scaling properly, restricting available resources and limiting the ability to virtualize the data center. The Juniper Networks 3-2-1 Data Center Network Architecture delivers a strategy for simplifying the data center by flattening the existing multilayer tree structure to improve overall performance as well as the user experience.

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