Enterprise networking architectures undergoing major shift
The traditional hub and spoke network model is losing popularity.
By Donna DonnowitzNovember 28, 2011
The traditional hub and spoke enterprise networking model is becoming less relevant as new technologies emerge that require more flexible setups. As a result, a growing number of businesses are adapting their network processes and architectures to support more efficient, flexible and autonomous operations, BusinessCloudNews recently reported.
In a guest post for the news source, industry expert Thierry Grenot explained that the hub and spoke network architecture originated almost a decade ago, and has served the industry well. As more businesses found their servers and other IT systems spread over multiple branch offices in inefficient setups, more organizations consolidated their data center infrastructures into a single, centralized facility. This created the network hub.
Once the central data center was established, many businesses would use WAN optimization and other similar systems to create spokes between the hub and branch offices. This allowed for free communication between servers and end users. It also created a much more manageable and efficient IT setup. The problem is, the report said, that the virtualization technologies that have made the core hubs possible have led to cloud computing and other emerging technologies, which require an even more flexible setup.
According to the news source, cloud computing and unified communications are leading to more autonomous network systems. In a unified communications deployment, businesses connect all of their offices around the world, possibly even partner offices, in a common network that handles voice, video and data traffic. Cloud computing creates a similar setup, as the network is expanded away from the central hub to a variety of global data centers operated by cloud service vendors.
The report explained this shift toward the cloud and UC deployments has created a spoke-to-spoke network setup, where the individual hub becomes less important, and the infrastructure focuses on connecting one network's spoke to that of a vendor or distant branch office.
Moving away from the hub and spoke architectural model is not the only major change currently taking place in the networking sector. A growing number of businesses are also shifting how they operate infrastructure within the data center itself. Many experts agree the data center network industry is slowly moving toward a flatter Ethernet infrastructure. In such setups, more equipment and bandwidth is devoted to support traffic between servers to support virtualization and cloud computing initiatives.
Perle’s wide range of 1 to 48 port Perle Console Servers provide data center managers and network administrators with secure remote management of any device with a serial console port. Plus, they are the only truly fault tolerant Console Servers on the market with the advanced security functionality needed to easily perform secure remote data center management and out-of-band management of IT assets from anywhere in the world.
In a guest post for the news source, industry expert Thierry Grenot explained that the hub and spoke network architecture originated almost a decade ago, and has served the industry well. As more businesses found their servers and other IT systems spread over multiple branch offices in inefficient setups, more organizations consolidated their data center infrastructures into a single, centralized facility. This created the network hub.
Once the central data center was established, many businesses would use WAN optimization and other similar systems to create spokes between the hub and branch offices. This allowed for free communication between servers and end users. It also created a much more manageable and efficient IT setup. The problem is, the report said, that the virtualization technologies that have made the core hubs possible have led to cloud computing and other emerging technologies, which require an even more flexible setup.
According to the news source, cloud computing and unified communications are leading to more autonomous network systems. In a unified communications deployment, businesses connect all of their offices around the world, possibly even partner offices, in a common network that handles voice, video and data traffic. Cloud computing creates a similar setup, as the network is expanded away from the central hub to a variety of global data centers operated by cloud service vendors.
The report explained this shift toward the cloud and UC deployments has created a spoke-to-spoke network setup, where the individual hub becomes less important, and the infrastructure focuses on connecting one network's spoke to that of a vendor or distant branch office.
Moving away from the hub and spoke architectural model is not the only major change currently taking place in the networking sector. A growing number of businesses are also shifting how they operate infrastructure within the data center itself. Many experts agree the data center network industry is slowly moving toward a flatter Ethernet infrastructure. In such setups, more equipment and bandwidth is devoted to support traffic between servers to support virtualization and cloud computing initiatives.
Perle’s wide range of 1 to 48 port Perle Console Servers provide data center managers and network administrators with secure remote management of any device with a serial console port. Plus, they are the only truly fault tolerant Console Servers on the market with the advanced security functionality needed to easily perform secure remote data center management and out-of-band management of IT assets from anywhere in the world.
