Simon Brown of Scalable and Trevor Dearing of Juniper Networks discuss the advances in server and storage technology.

Advances in server and storage technology promise significant advantages and cost benefits. But  are they delivering to their full potential? No, because the network is holding organisations back, according to Trevor Dearing, Head of Enterprise Marketing EMEA, Juniper Networks and Simon Brown, Managing Director, Scalable.

In the data centre, everything’s changing. Servers and storage have become virtualised. Cloud computing has arrived. Organisations now have the ability to deliver applications, software, platforms and infrastructure as services from a shared pool of resources. The potential benefits are enormous.

So what impact are all these changes having on organisation’s networks? “Huge,” says Trevor Dearing, Head of Enterprise Marketing EMEA, Juniper Networks. “As companies consolidate and virtualise their data centres, networks are becoming more and more complex and, more importantly, more and more costly. It’s got to the point where they are holding companies back from achieving the full benefits of cloud computing.”

Simon Brown, Managing Director, Scalable, a Juniper Elite partner, agrees. “Cloud computing is all about delivering compute power on demand,” he says. “That depends on being able to allocate, assign and scale resources dynamically, as they are needed. But, with traditional networks, you can incur a major performance penalty depending on where resources are located.”

“Place the application one hop away from its storage and the latency could be three microseconds. Move the application to the other side of the data centre and latency can increase five-fold because data has to pass through all three network layers. Consequently, organisations still have to plan where they place virtual machines and storage very carefully. Add to that the fact that even data from adjacent racks has to pass through two layers and you can see that maintaining high performance in a virtual environment is an issue.”

So what’s the answer? “Simplify the network,” says Dearing. “With our virtual chassis technology organisations can already reduce their network to two layers, improving performance significantly. With our QFabric technology they’ll be able to go even further.”

“QFabric technology will allow organisations to create a single logical switch that connects the entire data centre – up to 6,000 servers – eliminating tiers of multiple access, aggregation and core switches and reducing the number of devices needed, which also reduces the demand for space and power.”

Scalable is already putting Juniper’s technology into practice. “At Liverpool Women’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, we’ve designed and implemented a network using Juniper’s virtual chassis technology,” explains Brown. “The result is much higher performance and an estimated 10% reduction in operating costs, because we’ve been able to reduce the number of devices and simplify the network dramatically.”

But it’s not just the elimination of devices that has simplified network management at the Trust. “In traditional networks, administrators have typically had to cope with multiple operating systems, even with equipment from the same supplier,” says Brown. “That’s positively prehistoric and makes management extremely time consuming. With Juniper, administrators only have the one operating system to worry about - – Junos. It’s far more efficient and effective.”

But major transformation isn’t just confined to the data centre. On campus - the networks that connect employees to the data centre - radical changes are taking place too. “When we look at how people are accessing and using applications and data we see significant changes occurring in the next few years,” says Brown.

“Employees increasingly expect to be able to connect wirelessly, anytime, anywhere and through their own devices. What they are consuming is also changing, with a huge increase in the use of voice and video for applications like collaboration, conferencing and training. We expect to see step changes in the use of wireless and mobile connections to corporate systems.”

“The new working methods offer significant increases in productivity, efficiency and service delivery, but cause a major security headache for IT departments,” says Dearing. “The device-based security measures of the past are simply untenable.”

Brown agrees. “Security today has to follow the person not the device and ensure that policies are consistently applied wherever a person is, whatever device they choose to use,” he says. “At customers like Liverpool Women’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, we’re turning that vision into reality using best-of-breed solutions from Juniper Networks and other suppliers.”

“Midwives can now access real-time patient data remotely to provide high quality care in the community while reducing time spent updating records back at the hospital. The Trust estimates that staff productivity has increased two-fold through instant, secure remote access to critical applications.”

“Cloud computing has the potential to revolutionise how organisations deploy and consume applications, services and information,” concludes Dearing. “But, to really take advantage of it, companies must have the vision and understanding to not only put in place the new server and storage technologies, but also the new, intelligent networks that are needed to support them.”

Founded in 1997, Scalable has an enviable reputation as an IP networking and security specialist. We put the intelligence into IP networks; secure, converged, high performance IP networks that are optimised for you now and provide agility for your future. Partnering with Scalable has enabled organisations such as Conde Nast Publications, B&Q and Liverpool Women’s Hospital to drive increased profitability and competitive advantage. We take pride in our unequalled IP expertise, our deep understanding of emerging technologies and our strategic relationships with best-of-breed vendors. Delivering both data centre and campus solutions, we work with you consultatively to assess, design, implement, optimise and support your network, taking a cyclical approach of continuous improvement. For more information please contact us

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