CAIRO, Egypt, 5th
May, 2015: We are entering the
era of the “third platform”, which also has distinct hallmarks in
terms of innovation: Cloud, Mobility, Social, and Big Data are all a
part of it. Gartner calls these elements the “Nexus of Forces”
and advocates the need for enterprises to become digital businesses
in order to survive this next wave of disruption.
In
the last three years, cloud spending has increased to $65 billion
worldwide. We’ve gone from connecting places and people to
connecting things: billions and, eventually trillions, of things. The
one thing about these things is that they love to generate and
consume data. The challenge is that all of the data takes a lot of
work to manage - it has to be stored, moved and analysed before it
becomes truly valuable information.
The
speed of innovation of cloud service providers such as Amazon and
Google, in combination with the low cost of delivery, is creating a
relevance gap for IT departments and traditional service providers.
Every day, users go around these entities to buy IT services and
applications directly from the cloud. User expectations for
self-service, immediate delivery, and a faster pace of innovation are
rising by the day. But, for many companies in Egypt, the IT
department struggles to keep pace. The network architecture is
outdated, because it was never designed to meet these needs, and 70
percent of the IT budget is spent on maintaining the old
infrastructure.
These
legacy IP networks, referred to as “old IP,” have served
incredibly well for the last 20 years. The resiliency of these
networks is a testimony to IP’s elegance. Nobody is suggesting that
we toss it out, but staying the course is not an option. A dramatic
change is needed. Yarob Sakhnini, regional director, MEMA at Brocade
says that the good news is that an advanced but evolutionary
networking architecture is here—the New IP and gives his insights
below.
THE NEW IP
What is the
New IP? It’s the old IP networks reimagined for a modern world and
designed to meet the needs of Cloud, Mobile, Social, and Big Data.
The New IP is a new way to architect an IP network, and it includes
both hardware and software, to provide profound business and
technology benefits.
The old IP is
based on closed systems in which innovation cycles are constrained by
custom hardware, while the provisioning of network resources is a
complex and labour-intensive task. Interoperation is limited, vendors
are at the centre of the ecosystem, costs are high, and innovation is
slow.
In contrast,
the New IP is based on open source and open standards that extend
beyond proprietary adherence to industry standards. The New IP gives
IT the choice to use COTS-based or workload-specific commodity
hardware. Provisioning network resources is automated and can be done
in a self-service model. Open APIs are the key to interoperability,
the customer is at the centre of the ecosystem, CapEx and OpEx costs
are reduced, and innovation happens at the speed of business.
There
are four essential attributes to the New IP:
Open
with a purpose
- The New IP allows components and services to be assembled from a broad community of innovators in order to solve challenges in new ways
- The New IP lets you combine vendors using open APIs and adjust your strategy and rate of innovation by giving you the freedom to choose and the flexibility to change
Innovation-centric
and software-enabled
- Today’s industries demand innovation to power their growth. The New IP provides a platform for fast innovation
- Software allows programmatic control over complex tasks, freeing IT to focus on strategic challenges to enable business growth and fast pivots as strategies and offerings shift with market forces
Ecosystem
driven (with users at the centre)
- The New IP goes beyond single-vendor limitations to allow businesses to keep pace with innovation by tapping into and building upon a vast pool of resources
- With the New IP, innovations and solutions can come from anywhere. For example, best-in-class security from a preferred security vendor can be built into the network instead of “bolted on”—requiring network traffic be routed to the security appliance for inspection. The ecosystem-centric approach of the New IP makes this possible in a way the vendor-centric model of the last 20 years does not
On
your terms
- Taking evolutionary steps with the New IP, you can start transforming your infrastructure, your IT organization, and your business to achieve revolutionary results
- With the New IP, enterprises can start deploying applications as much as 90 percent faster and cut operational expenses by as much as 50 percent
- CapEx can be reduced and agility improved by replacing hardware-based appliances with virtualized network functions that run on commodity servers, or that are provided directly from the cloud as an edge service
- You don’t have to take a rip-and-replace approach. You can think big and start small, while you move rapidly toward a more agile network architecture
There
are some surprising implications for enterprises that choose to build
networks on these new IP attributes:
The
datacentre is everywhere... and anywhere
- The New IP allows you to host and manage your workloads from any source (private cloud, public cloud, or hybrid cloud) based on business goals and corporate policies. This approach improves efficiency, scalability, and agility and makes the IT organization a better provider of services to its internal customers, vendors, and partners
You’re
able to move faster and be more efficient than your competition
- Your business needs to move and innovate faster and run leaner than ever before. The New IP helps accelerate innovation, reduces operational overhead, and gives you the control you need to stay ahead of your competition
Your
users are at the centre of the New IP ecosystem
- Every one of your users and every one of their applications can have their own network with the services, quality, and security specific to their needs. There is no network edge, in the traditional sense of the word, in the New IP - the network can modify itself based on the device and location. The edge happens where the user interfaces with the network, applications and services. The result is the highest-quality, most cost-effective user experience possible. In short, the New IP is a modern network, built on your terms.
Gartner
predicts that over the next 20 years, every business, regardless of
industry, will become a digital business1.
The implications of this shift to the underlying network
infrastructure, and the teams that provide and support them, are
profound.
If
enterprises in Egypt are to stay ahead of the curve and survive the
next wave of disruption, it is imperative that they make investments
in the New IP.
1
Digital
Business: Implications for CPOs and Supply Management Leaders