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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 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 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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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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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 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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Andre Kindness, Senior Analyst at Forrester Research, joins Zeus Kerravala, principal at ZK Research, and I for our annual predictions podcast. We discuss Cisco, IBM Network Systems, Huawei, Juniper, Extreme, Arista, Nicira, Big Switch, Verizon, AT&T, HP Networking, Citrix, F5, Riverbed, Brocade, Broadcom, Meru, Aerohive, Ruckus, Meraki, Infoblox, Palo Alto Networks, Polycom, Embrane, et al, and what 2012 will bring for them and you. Enjoy, Nick

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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 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 Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitchTM 6900-X40, Jean Luc Ronarch, Director Product Line Management Stackable Switches at Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise joined me to discuss the firm’s latest product investment. We talk cloud network architecture and what’s unique about the new OmniSwitchTM 6900-X40.

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

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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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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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Network virtualization, or the ability to divide a physical network into multiple logical networks with unique attributes, is a design that has grown in popularity as IT business leaders have sort ways to segment their network with different attributes for different user groups. This is popular in healthcare, education, travel and other industries. Network virtualization can be implemented either in IP, and/or MPLS. In addition connecting the Catalyst 6500 directly to service provider MPLS networks is another popular design; therefore we test throughput performance for both scenarios here.

For active-active data center operation, disaster planning and load balancing are best practices when connecting data centers via MPLS or VPLS. VPLS layer 2 connected data centers deliver LAN-like service over the campus and/or wide area network. Layer 2 connectivity is important as server-server communications expect layer 2 connectivity as most applications have been designed with this assumption. For connecting more than two data centers, VPLS offers mesh connectivity. Data centers connected via VPLS look and act as if they are on the same LAN. Therefore, we test that VPLS throughput performance rates are equally high performance in this scenario as MPLS.

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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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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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 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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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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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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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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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 Force10 Networks

Storage networks present major challenges for data center switches that must be resolved to ensure fast and error-free transport of storage traffic. Force10 S60 switches are purpose-built to handle storage traffic with line-rate performance in Gigabit Ethernet and 10-Gigabit Ethernet networks.

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By Extreme Networks

This white paper is targeted to enterprise and service provider IT managers who may be evaluating the ability of iSCSI SANs to satisfy the performance requirements of their most demanding storage applications. Storage application performance is dependent on more than just the performance of the storage array. The full data path and the integration with the other layers of the data center architecture must be taken into consideration. Optimizing the full data path from the server, through the network to the storage can contribute to significant improvements in performance and service levels.

This white paper and the accompanying configuration guide details the work of Intel, Extreme Networks® and NetApp to demonstrate the impact on iSCSI performance in real-world environments, using Extreme Networks CLEAR-Flow technology to help you achieve optimal iSCSI performance.

The output of the collaborative testing is presented in two separate documents:

• White Paper: provides an overview of the latest advancements around iSCSI SAN capabilities and performance, including real world, end-to-end performance results with CLEAR-Flow.

• Configuration Guide: provides a sample reference architecture with step-by-step configuration details for all the components and describes the end-to-end solution performance across a number of configurations.

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By Nick Lippis, the Lippis Report

IT business leaders are being confronted with a choice: either embrace users’ freedom or liberty to choose a mobile endpoint and applications that they deem appropriate to support their work, or dictate a limited number of supported mobile endpoints and applications in which employees must choose? At the center of this decision are security concerns and control as the number of mobile endpoints connecting into enterprise networks skyrocket. A larger secondary effect is that employees are downloading low cost (99 cents to $4.99) mobile applications, which is changing the mix of corporate application portfolios without IT visibility but user request for support. At the same time, video communications is expanding throughout the enterprise and the endpoints it supports. IT business leaders can avoid this difficult choice and offer users freedom to choose the mobile endpoint and applications of their liking, and still maintain security and control by deploying a Borderless Network. In this industry white paper, we review market dynamics shaping mobile computing plus video communications and how a Borderless Network offers user choice, IT management control and in the process, a more productive and agile workforce.

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By Force10 Networks

Bare Metal Provisioning (BMP) or jumpstarting is a function that allows for virtually hands-off provisioning of many devices. When you hear about BMP today, it is primarily in reference to the automated provisioning of server infrastructure. As demand increases for larger and larger networks to support server infrastructure growth, however, we must adapt this technology to the provisioning of network devices themselves to keep up. Force10’s BMP function automates switch configuration to significantly improve data center build productivity. In this guide, we will see how to use BMP to automate configuration of Force10 switches.

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Camp Dress McKee (CDM) is a consulting, engineering, construction and operations firm delivering exceptional service to public and private clients worldwide. CDM’s traditional areas of expertise include water and the environment. In this podcast, I talk with Peter Palmisano, CIO of CDM, about how CDM is using HD videoconferencing to speed business processes and reduce operational cost.

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Camp Dress McKee or CDM is a consulting, engineering, construction and operations firm delivering exceptional service to public and private clients worldwide. CDM’s traditional areas of expertise include water and the environment. In this podcast, I talk with Peter Palmisano, CIO, CDM, about how CDM is using HD videoconferencing to speed business processes and reduce operational cost.

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By BLADE Network Technologies, an IBM Company

Private clouds describe an architecture in which servers and networks in the data center can rapidly respond to changing demands, by quickly scaling compute capacity and connecting that server capacity where it is needed. The technology underlying this fluidity is server virtualization, which by now has been established as a reliable and essential core technology for most data centers. Five critical networking technologies are needed to build a private cloud network:

• Up to 1.28Tbps of line-rate, loss-less bandwidth
• Single-wire networks for data and storage with DCB support
• Support for thousands of virtual ports
• Virtual machine awareness
• Extremely low power requirements

This white paper details a cloud network architecture that incorporates these five success factors.

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Arista Networks’ Latency Analyzer (LANZ) represents a revolution in
integrated network performance monitoring. For the first time, administrators
and applications gain near real-time visibility into congestion conditions as
experienced by the network itself. Rather than simply waiting for congestion to occur, LANZ provides granular
notification of impending congestion events detected at the network layer
directly to the application layer. This enables close integration with
applications and administrative workflows.

Find out how by downloading this white paper

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By Jon Oltsik, Principal Analyst at the Enterprise Strategy Group

Say “identity management” and what usually comes to mind is LDAP directories, strong authentication and Single Sign-On (SSO) systems. These technologies are used for access to Windows networks, e-mail and other internal applications. Generally, network identity is associated with IP and MAC addresses, VLAN tags and subnets. It also plays a role in security in areas like device authentication, VPNs and IPSEC. ESG believes that the historical differences and separation between application- and network-layer identity no longer make sense. This white paper describes why and proposes a new model for identity-aware networking.

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By Clabby Analytics

Other reseach and analysis firms seem to see IBM’s acquisition of BLADE Network Technologies (BLADE) as a competitive response to
Hewlett-Packard’s acquisition of 3Com and Cisco’s entry into the blade server business, but there’s much more to this deal than competitive dynamics. Clabby Analytics believes that data center virtualization is accelerating, and the demand for more I/O per server is on the rise. Additionally, networks are converging around a single Ethernet wiring plant. These industry changes are the true driving factors in this deal.

In this Research Report, Clabby Analytics examines what the acquisition of BLADE could mean to IBM and its customers. We take a closer look at the DCB convergence that is taking place in the networking marketplace; we examine why virtualization logic at the network level makes sense; and we discuss what this acquisition may mean from a competitive positioning perspective. Finally, we conclude that now is an ideal time for IBM to re-enter the networking business.

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As IT operations become more complex, it steals productivity. Unchecked complexity slows down new applications from being deployed or virtualized, elongates troubleshooting, stresses operational staff, creates compliance vulnerabilities and shrinks IT operational budgets. All IT departments seek to manage this complexity inflation before it impacts business processes. One of the largest drivers of complexity inflation is the growing rate of “IP addresses and network change management requirements.” The fact is that IT business leaders must deploy dynamic IT solutions to enable their businesses to support flexible business processes to address market dynamics. Without automated tools to facilities change management, complexity inflation simply eats up IT operations. In this Lippis Report podcast, I talk with Steve Garrison, Vice President, Marketing for Infoblox, about solutions to tame complexity inflation with automated IP address management and network change management.

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by Cisco Systems

Cisco® Borderless Networks is a next-generation architecture that helps IT evolve its infrastructure to deliver seamless, secure and reliable access in a world with many new and shifting borders. The Cisco Integrated Services Routers Generation 2 (ISR G2) constitute a critical component of the Cisco Borderless Network Architecture and deliver performance requirements for the next generation of WAN and network services, enabling the cost-effective delivery of high-definition collaboration at the branch office, and providing a secure transition to the next generation of cloud and virtualized network services. This white paper discusses the concept of integrated services as they apply to the branch-office router, and how they help to enable the borderless branch office for small- to medium-sized business, large enterprises and service providers offering managed services.

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By Voltaire

The Data Center Bridging Group of the IEEE worked to enhance Ethernet to support class isolation, low latency, I/O and switch virtualization, lossless traffic flows, congestion control, multi-path L2 routing, and L2 discovery and capability exchange. These new technologies are referred to as Converged Enhanced Ethernet (CEE) or Data Center Ethernet (DCE). Voltaire’s CEE switches and software offer performance requirements thanks to its scalable Ethernet fabric that lowers overall fabric costs, lowers power consumption, has greater efficiencies, and simplifies management.

This document describes the challenges inherent in traditional Ethernet solutions and how Voltaire’s scale-out Ethernet architecture effectively addresses those challenges.

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Businesses are refining their strategies for harnessing and leveraging IT in the year ahead and beyond. Based on countless interactions with CIOs, industry analysts, vendor executives and other thought leaders over the course of the past year, here are predictions for the top trends that will impact IT in 2011.

Check out these 2011 IT predictions by downloading this position paper here

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This white paper describes some of the benefits and challenges in migrating to the cloud and the importance of deploying a cloud-ready network architecture. It is based on IDC’s ongoing conversations with and surveys of CIOs and network administrators, as well as interviews with executives from Cisco’s internal IT organization, which has deployed Cisco Borderless Networks for its own use.

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By Cisco Systems

This two-page guide provides information on dual stack IPv4 and IPv6 implementations and its impact from client to network infrastructure.

Learn about dual stacking IPv4 and IPv6 by downloading this guide.

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By Cisco Systems

Key Highlights

• 79% of clicks on “Here You Have” email occurred within the first three hours of the worm’s spread.
• During 3Q10, 7% of all Web malware encounters resulted from Google referrers, followed by Yahoo at 2%, Bing/MSN at 1% and Sina at 0.1%.
• Exploits targeted Sun Java increased from 5% of all Web malware encounters in July 2010 to 7% in September 2010.
• The Rustock Botnet was the highest occurring ROS event in 3Q10, at 21% of events handled during the report period.
• Peak Rustock activity occurred in late August 2010, declining in September 2010.

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By Forrester Research

Read the commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting: Total Economic Impact of Cisco’s Borderless Networks.

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By LifeSize, a division of Logitech

In today’s economic environment, organizations are tightening budgets and streamlining wherever possible. Despite financial constraints, IT executives must continually seek out innovative, cost-effective technologies to improve business-critical communications, collaboration and productivity. One such solution is high definition multipoint video conferencing. As an alternative to expensive and time-consuming travel and audio conferencing, HD video conferencing has gained widespread usage. In delivering video technology to a broad user base, IT management takes the lead in strategically building infrastructure, capacity and access for an entire organization—a monumental task that requires a smart, creative approach.

Find out how by downloading this paper

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By Cisco Systems

Over the next few years Wi-Fi networks will transition to 802.11n technology. During this time, many networks will support a mix of 802.11a/g and 802.11n clients. Because they operate at lower data rates, the older clients can reduce the capacity of the entire network. ClientLink technology can help solve problems related to adoption of 802.11n in mixed-client networks by making sure that 802.11a/g clients operate at the best possible rates, especially when they are near cell boundaries.

Find out how by downloading this white paper

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By Avaya

For those who have not reviewed or seen the Avaya Flare experience, this on-demand video provides you with a view of its easy to use video conferencing environment. It’s short so press start and get ready to be wowed.

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By Cisco Systems

This is a first, while this paper is not “white,” it’s a very cool one- page view of Cisco’s borderless network routers. You have to check this out:

Download Cisco’s Enterprise Routing Portfolio here

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Move a Virtual Machine (VM) from one physical server to another, and network port profile, VLANs, security settings, etc., have to be reconfigured. Many networking companies haven’t taken the critical step of giving complete visibility and control of the VM lifecycle from an infrastructure perspective. But with XNV, Extreme Networks is bringing this functionality and visibility to network administrators, tracking VMs and applying policy as they move throughout the network. Shehzad Merchant, Senior Director for Strategy at Extreme Networks, joins me for a discussion about Extreme’s approach to network automation and visibility of virtualized infrastructure through its XNV software module.

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IT business leaders are faced with a great economic shift, while at the same time are afforded the opportunity of a shift in IT delivery models. Business leaders must balance maintaining their current infrastructure, while exploring these IT delivery innovations. Most importantly, IT business leaders need to use their IT budget, approximately 4% of corporate spend, to significantly enhance and reduce the other 96% of corporate spend. But it’s not just an economic calculus that is diving post great recession IT spending. IT leaders need to engineer their delivery to be flexible to support current business growth, ongoing change, and long-term business goals. Robert Taylor, VP of HP Enterprise Services joins me to discuss what he has learned from HP’s global 2000 customers as they emerge from the economic downturn and prepare for a new business cycle with IT.

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Move a Virtual Machine (VM) from one physical server to another, and network port profiles, VLANs, security settings, etc., have to be manually reconfigured, adding cost, delay, security issues and rigidity to what should be an adaptive infrastructure. BLADE Network Technologies’ data center 1/10 and 40 Gigabit Ethernet blade and top-of-rack switches incorporate what its calls VMready with Virtual Vision that enables data centers to deploy VM-aware networks that automate network change management as VMs come online and move between physical servers within or across data centers. Vikram Mehta, CEO of BLADE Network Technologies (BLADE), joins me to talk about BLADE’s data center network virtualization strategy, plus the company’s pending acquisition by IBM. It’s a great talk, and we hit lots of industry nerves in this thought-provoking podcast.

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Ronnie Kenneth, CEO, and Asaf Somekh, VP Marketing of Voltaire, a leader in data center networking, are my guests as we dive into Ethernet data center fabric design options. Data Center vendors are discussed too, and you have to hear what they had to say about Cisco. Enjoy, Nick

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By Siemens Enterprise Communications

In the U.S., a Pacific Northwest state is saving almost $2 million per year by deploying IP Least Cost Routing. A New York-based insurance company has shifted 70,000 calls per week onto its new internal SIP network, saving about 13,000 hours per month of voice traffic which previously had gone to a PSTN carrier. Meanwhile, in Europe, a large manufacturing company is saving 35% of its inter-site communication costs by moving to SIP Trunking.

SIP Trunking is a well-proven technology, with many carriers offering the service, both domestically and internationally. Typical savings from using SIP Trunking can range from 25% to 50%.

Find out how to use SIP and save by downloading this paper

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By Cisco Systems

National security, environmental and resource supply issues will encourage governments to implement green initiatives and incentives. There will be business ramifications as a result of policies implemented by local, state and federal governments around the world. As traditional energy supplies decrease and newer, but more costly, renewable supplies are brought online, organizations will be forced to look for more efficient ways to deploy their data networks to meet stricter government regulations and prevent overall negative effects.

Cisco has recognized this impending effect on the IT community for some time, and has been building products and developing new technologies to assist organizations in this transition. This white paper describes the energy sustainability characteristics of the Cisco® Catalyst® 6500 Series Switch. The Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switch offers the latest technologies to enable organizations to meet the green requirements of today while providing a flexible architecture to address the necessities of tomorrow. This paper covers Energy savings, Operational efficiency and Innovative business practices.

Find out how by downloading this white paper

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Avaya has developed a unique approach to branch office networking with the introduction of its Advanced Gateway 2330. Previous to Avaya’s acquisition of Nortel’s Enterprise Solutions business, its branch office solution was focused on communications, but now it has computer-networking capabilities that is manifesting into a powerful branch office portfolio offering. I talk with Michael Fitzgerald, Portfolio Leader of the Unified Branch at Avaya, about Avaya’s investment in branch office networking with particular focus on network designs its approach affords.

Enjoy, Nick

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Our industry is ramping up to build private and public cloud infrastructure, but IT architects do not have comparative 10Gigabit Ethernet Switch performance information to assist them in purchase decisions and product differentiation. New data center Ethernet fabric network design requires low latency, high performance under north-south plus east-west flows, low power consumption and minimum number of network tiers. During past industry cycles open industry tests contributed to growing the network market by shortening sales cycles due to the elimination of IT departments conducting internal performance test. In addition, performance question obstacles were eliminated during the sales cycle thanks to reliable industry data being available, speeding up market adoption. This was true in the LAN plus bridge/router industry battles as well as every major Ethernet switch evolution. There is no broad industry comparative 10GE modular switch performance test available.

Lippis Enterprises has developed a series of open industry performance tests and teamed with Ixia for their execution. The goal of the test is to provide the industry with comparative performance test data across all 10Gigabit Ethernet switch providers. While the main test is focused on modular switching products, fixed configuration switches are welcome too. The final test report will profile each supplier and segment products based upon modular or fixed configuration.

Download the prospectus now and sign up while there’s still room

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By Sagemcom

This paper focuses on FAX within Microsoft environments, specifically Exchange UM—a key application within the larger sphere of UC. We clarify how faxing is implemented in environments where Microsoft infrastructure solutions including Exchange, UM and OCS are involved. Although Microsoft OCS provides users with a rich set of UC functions such as presence, chat, e-mail, voice mail and other capabilities, the sending and receiving of faxes using T.38 is currently not supported. This document provides guidelines to circumvent this known limitation.

Find out how by downloading this paper.

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By Siemens Enterprise Communications

This white paper examines the requirements for and use of Intelligent Branches and Gateways for Enterprise, Service Provider and Cloud Applications. It explains how modern communications products can provide scalable and feature-rich communications. The paper also shows how Intelligent Branch Solutions save significant bandwidth to the Branch and explores some of the new features required for next-generation Intelligent Branch solutions.

Find out how by downloading this white paper

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With energy efficiency and sustainability mandates being issued by government officials and corporation boards, IT vendors have focused engineering resources to deliver products with increased feature sets that consume less energy. But one company in particular has taken its core competency and found a way to not only make its own business more energy efficient but everything it touches too. That company is Cisco Systems. Laura Finkelstein, Senior Director of Switching Marketing at Cisco Systems, is my guest as we discuss Cisco’s Borderless Green service and the value it delivers to both IT business and government leaders.

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Before HP purchased 3Com it would seldom engage in discussion about the future of networking. It was product focused. But now in an exclusive interview with Mr. Saar Gillai, Vice President of Advanced Technology Group & CTO of HP Networking, HP opens up and talks freely about industry trends it’s watching and most importantly influencing. These trends are guiding HP investment in networking with hopes of market share gain, thought leadership and increased industry influence. It’s a fascinating interview into the mind of HP Networking.

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By Nicholas John Lippis III

Network access has evolved rapidly as IT business leaders have embraced new network technology. Access methods such as wired, Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs), and mobile plus Virtual Private Network (VPN) methods have flourished over the past business cycle. In addition, a plethora of new endpoint devices have emerged using multiple access methods. But all of these network access approaches have evolved at different rates resulting in siloed networks that do not interact with each other, thus increasing IT operational cost and decreasing application portability and flexibility with user experience suffering. In this paper, we offer a new unified approach to network access that is based upon a thoughtful five-phase method to enable IT business leaders to simplify management, increase user experience and decrease operational cost.

Find out how to eliminate network silos by downloading this white paper:

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By Nicholas John Lippis III

Information flow precedes cash flow, and in the Global economy, networks and applications deliver intrinsic value to both. The huge investment in corporate application portfolios has never been optimized in a holistic manner, rather each application or suite of applications is optimized via specialized management tools. In today’s corporate world, IT business leaders are faced with increasing application performance demands for both legacy and new cloud-based applications to deliver excellent user experience while contributing to corporate agility. In this paper, we offer a new holistic network service approach to application performance optimization called Application Velocity.

Find out how to increase application performance by downloading this white paper:

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By Arista Networks

VM Tracer offers the tightest integration between virtual machines and network infrastructure. Visibility in to virtualized infrastructure is key for management and operations of mobile and virtual environments.

Find out how by downloading this white paper.

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I interview Marius Haas, Senior Vice President and World Wide General Manager of the HP Networking Business. I asked him

• How HP will compete in the highly competitive networking market,
• What is its salient value proposition,
• Why is HP so focused on networking now, and
• Why should IT business leaders consider HP Networking.
His responses had a ring of market truth to them. As such, any IT business leader worth his/her salt needs to listen to this podcast.

Enjoy, Nick

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By Infonetics

In this white paper, Matthias Machowinski of Infonectics Research describes how network borders came to be. He then describes Borderless Networking and its associated attributes plus benefits. A checklist to aid in the implementation of a borderless network is then provided.

Download this white paper now and learn how to get started with borderless networking.

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By HP Networking

The fundamental nature of data center computing is rapidly changing. The traditional model of separately provisioned and maintained server, storage, and network resources are constraining data center agility and pushing budget envelopes to the limit. IT organizations recognize that these static pools of isolated resources are being underutilized, a problem that can be exacerbated when dedicated infrastructure or computer systems are used to support different classes of data center workloads. One response has been for IT organizations to adopt virtualization and blade technologies, which enable a more flexible and highly utilized infrastructure. These new, more scalable technologies can be dynamically provisioned to meet continuously evolving business requirements. At the same time, these technologies apply new pressures to the multiple networks in the data center, further worsening spend issues. And it increases the burden on the IT teams that support them.

Learn how to avoid these data center problems with HP FlexFabric by downloading this white paper:

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I interview Vikram Mehta, President and CEO of BLADE Network Technologies or BLADE. BLADE has been offering top-of-rack and blade switches since 2006, boast nearly 9 million ports installed and are now the number 2 provider of 10GbE switches. With all this success, I ask Vikram what BLADE is being asked to offer from IT Business leaders as they build out their data center Ethernet fabric. You don’t want to miss his responses. Listen now.

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Servers, storage and networks form the anchors of today’s IT infrastructure. Companies around the world are constantly seeking to enhance this infrastructure. With 10GbE connectivity the new infrastructure requirements are distinctive and differ in many ways from the needs of traditional enterprise IT needs. The new environments often require unique compute density, power density and ultra low latency. Such hyper-scale computing environments – where deployments are measured by up to millions of servers, storage and networking equipment – are changing the way they approach IT to drive growth and decrease operational expenses.

Watch the video now here

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This vidcast is a short video presentation on two and three tier network fabrics for high end data centers. Cisco’s FabricPath Switching System and F-Series module for the Nexus 7000 are reviewed along with a case study

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Massively scalable data centers have unique requirements such as low latency, high performance, non-stop operation, simplicity of design, workload mobility and storage transport support. To address these requirements Cisco launched FabricPath, which is a scalable multi-link and multipath technology allowing 2 to 48 Nexus 7000s to be configured in a large, non-blocking Ethernet switch fabric. This fabric, called a FabricPath Switching System or FSS, eliminates oversubscription and creates a two-tier fabric. In addition to FabricPath, Cisco launched its’ F-Series 10GbE module for the Nexus 7000, which offers 32 ports of auto-sensing 1/10GbE targeted at server access, aggregation and FCoE implementations solutions. Craig Griffin, Senior Director of Product Management for Cisco’s Nexus 7000 discusses new Ethernet innovations for the age of massively scalable data centers.

A white paper on the topic is available here:

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By HP

The traditional three-tier model of access, aggregation, and core switching has turned into an operational nightmare. With a variety of technologies, protocols, and management at each tier, the complexity of a legacy network can create significant management challenges for IT managers. Older-generation switches may be closed, rigid, and monolithic, incapable of the agility so vital to today’s business operations. With FlexFabric as the blueprint for an efficient, highly integrated and secure data center network, HP converged infrastructure solutions streamline the design of next-generation data centers to ensure the superior resiliency, performance, and agility that enterprise networks now require.

Find out how by downloading this HP white paper:

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By Irwin Lazar Vice President, Communications Research, Nemertes Research

SIP, the Session Initiation Protocol, offers the potential to reduce telecom operational cost and complexity, take advantage of new hosted services, and integrate disparate applications via unified communications to improve collaboration. The introduction of SIP session management offers the potential to simplify communications system and policy management by fundamentally rethinking the way organizations deploy and integrate disparate communications applications.

But implementing SIP is not without challenges. IT architects must leverage solid ROI case studies to build tangible business cases to justify investment. They must also address training and interoperability concerns to ensure a successful deployment. Those organizations that meet these challenges stand to reap the benefits of SIP via delivery of new services and/or reduced operating costs.

Find out how to use SIP by downloading this white paper.

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By Arista Networks

Arista Networks views storage networking as a key horizontal technology in the data center and an important area of focus because of the architectural disruption that has started, but is far from finished. This white paper reviews all the major storage networking technologies and provides Arista’s view of a Unified Storage Strategy.

Find out what Arista thinks about Unified Storage Strategy by downloading this paper.

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Networking has become “rigid”. Yes, I know it’s almost absurd to attribute inflexibility or rigidity to networking, but we are in a compute innovation cycle that’s driving a fundamental change in networking, which screams out the need for more flexibility and configuration automation. The well understood problem is that when a virtualized machine is moved from one physical machine to another, the network, load balancers, firewalls/IPS, broadcast domains, etc., have to be reconfigured. There is no automation in place, meaning that the network is not flexible or agile enough to make the changes required. Networking companies such as Force10 Networks are driving an open approach to automation to enable network changes. I spoke with Steve Garrison, Vice President Marketing for Force10 Networks about their “Open Automation” approach to networking. Enjoy, Nick

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While the networking industry is full steam ahead with the transition from 1 to 10 Gb Ethernet in corporate uplinks plus virtualized and cloud spec data centers, the IEEE has been working on 40 and 100Gb Ethernet standards to be ratified soon. It’s anticipated that the 40GbE standard will be completed first and built with lower cost, long-range optical components than 100GbE. The question on the minds of most IT business leaders is when and where to deploy these ultra high-speed Ethernet technologies and at what cost? We answer these questions with Steve Garrison, Vice President, Marketing of Force10 Networks. We’ll dive into Force10’s 40 GbE leadership position and the new network design options it unleashes upon IT business leaders.

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By Arista Networks

Extensibility is a system design principle where the implementation of the operating system takes into consideration future growth. It is a systemic measure of the ability to extend the operating system and the level of effort required to implement the extension. Extensions can involve the addition of new functionality or the modification of existing functionality.

Find out how Arista’s Network Operating System EoS improves system uptime and delivers rapid service restoration in the event of failure by downloading this whitepaper.

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There is huge growth in video traffic on corporate networks thanks primarily to on-demand video clips and increasingly video collaboration, TelePresence, video surveillance and Digital Signage. But how do IT business leaders support the various forms of video on their corporate networks before a video tsunami wreaks havoc to network performance?  Also how do IT business leaders deliver a good video experience to a wide range of endpoints such as low bandwidth remote offices, mobile smartphones, WiFi connected laptops etc?  Tere’ Bracco, Senior Marketing Manager for Network Systems and Security at Cisco, joins me to discuss Cisco’s Medianet technologies that offer an approach to managing and delivering video services over corporate IP networks. 

Find out by listening to this podcast.

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WAN optimization products are central to delivering excellent application performance to employees in branch offices especially as applications continue to be centralized in data centers.  Another key attribute of WAN optimization is that these solutions reduce WAN bandwidth requirements thus spend.  At the heart of WAN optimization technology is cache architecture, or how device stores or caches data to minimize WAN transfers.  We dive into the two main cache architecture approaches; “per peer” and “universal” then ask the key question.  Does caching architectures and cache sizing affect WAN optimization performance or are there other more important aspects of WAN optimization that buyers should be concerned with as they undergo vendor selection”?  In this Lippis Report podcast, I talk with Baruch Deutsch, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Cisco Systems, to demystify WAN optimization. Enjoy, Nick

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By HP/3Com/H3C

The convergence of storage and Ethernet onto a common end-to-end network infrastructure is still early in the evaluation stage as the (DCB) standards for Fiber Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) are not completely finished. Instead of collapsing both storage and data onto a common backbone, many IT leaders plan to keep the two technologies on dedicated networks for years to come, converging networks where and only when it makes sense for their business.

One area that seems ripe for this type of targeted FCoE deployment is at the server to network edge. This type of (in-the-rack) solution decouples access layer server and storage I/O consolation from end-end full fabric convergence – allowing customers to gain many near term practical benefits of 10GE I/O consolidation, including; dramatically reduced cost and complexity, simplified cabling, reduced power consumption and a 10X boost in network performance. This solution allows customers to extend rather than replace Fibre Channel, preserving the investments that organizations have made in their storage infrastructure while laying the foundation for broader network convergence in the future.

To learn more, download this paper from HP/3Com.

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By Arista Networks

Can Ethernet compete with Infiniband in the low-latency trading and high performance computing markets? Administrators and IT professionals face a choice when deciding whether to invest in Infiniband or Ethernet for their low-latency networks. This paper addresses many of the characteristics of Infiniband that have made their way into Ethernet.

To learn more, download the Arista Networks whitepaper.

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By Cisco Systems
This white paper addresses the RF interference challenges that result from high usage of a shared spectrum. It explores the limitations of standard Wi-Fi chip design and how this affects the ability of an IT organization to gather critical, actionable data about the wireless spectrum for effective troubleshooting. Finally, it introduces Cisco® CleanAir technology and explains how by integrating RF intelligence into the network, users gain tremendous insight into actual usage of the wireless spectrum. This insight is critical to proactively managing Wi-Fi networks to support mission-critical and latency-sensitive applications needed in today’s hospitals, distributed enterprises, manufacturing sites, retail stores, and offices.

To learn more, download the Cisco whitepaper.

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There is huge growth in video traffic on corporate networks thanks primarily to on-demand video clips and increasingly video collaboration, TelePresence, video surveillance and Digital Signage. However, how do IT business leaders support the various forms of video on their corporate networks before a video tsunami wreaks havoc to network performance? Also, how do IT business leaders deliver a good video experience to a wide range of endpoints, such as, low bandwidth remote offices, mobile smartphones, WiFi connected laptops etc? Tere’ Bracco, Senior Marketing Manager for Network Systems and Security at Cisco joins me to discuss Cisco’s Medianet technologies that offer an approach to managing and delivering video services over corporate IP networks.

Find out by listening to this podcast.

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Our industry is in a compute innovation cycle thanks to virtualization and cloud computing and it’s changing fundamental networking requirements and design. These changes are beyond increased packet processing performance and ultra low latency. They extend to network design and product features that enable increased server virtualization scale, workload mobility and cloud computing. I discuss a new model for networking born out of data center virtualization and cloud computing with Doug Gourlay, Vice President Marketing at Arista Networks. This is Arista Networks’ first podcast; sure to be a classic.

Enjoy, Nick

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By Voltaire

This paper describes the challenges inherent in existing Ethernet solutions and how Voltaire’s new scale-out Ethernet architecture effectively addresses those challenges. Voltaire’s InfiniBand products and fabric management solutions have been addressing Data center architecture changes for years. Today, Voltaire delivers the fabric for the world’s largest supercomputers, the world’s fastest financial trading platforms, and the world’s most scalable database machines. Soon, Voltaire will extend its product offering to include Converged Enhanced Ethernet CEE switches and software, allowing end users with less demanding performance requirements to benefit from a far more scalable Ethernet fabric that also lowers overall fabric costs, lowers power consumption, has greater efficiencies, and simplifies management.

Find out how by downloading this white paper.

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Networks today require predictable performance and are much more aware of application flows than traditional networks with static addressing of devices. Enterprise networks in the past were designed for specific applications while new cloud designs in the data center can address a multitude of applications. This is clearly a radical departure from today’s oversubscribed networks in which delays and high transit latency are inherent.

To learn more, download the Arista Networks whitepaper.

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