It is telling that today’s largest and most innovative data centers rely on best-of-breed networking solutions rather than signing up for a monolithic infrastructure from a single vendor. These data centers need the ultimate in performance, flexibility and scale; and to achieve that they need the latest solutions. For these customers, it’s all about innovation: how much, how fast.

So what does it take to accelerate data center networking innovation? The history of computing offers some clues. Generally speaking, there have been three major evolutionary steps in computing: mainframe to client/server (bridged by minicomputers), and client/server to cloud (bridged by the Web). Each of these major transition steps has resulted in a greater degree of openness in the vendor community and more flexibility and options for customers. With the move to client/server architectures, computing and storage moved more toward open models (e.g. x86, ATA, SCSI), while networking systems (routers, switches) remained largely closed. Now, as we enter the cloud computing era, cracks in the closed world of networking are appearing and a move toward “open” is afoot.

From the mainframe days in which computing, network, and storage resources were all essentially proprietary, the industry has moved inexorably toward open, standards-based layers in the data center. As the mainframe was deconstructed, we witnessed significantly more vendor participation in the market as multiple vendors adhered to one of a handful of standards. For example, server and software vendors largely embraced the x86 architecture enabling standards-based developments in processors, systems and software. In the same way, storage vendors have coalesced around the standards of Fiber Channel, FCoE, and iSCSI.

Ultimately this translates into faster innovation cycles. Mainframe development cycles were measured in multiple years because all layers of the data center stack came from the same vendor; the monolithic architectures inched along. Now, with a whole ecosystem of standards-based products in development at various layers within the data center stack, the pace of change, or rate of innovation, is measured in months.

To foster rapid innovation, ultimately all layers of the data center stack – not only computing and storage but also networking, automation, and orchestration – should be open in order to deliver maximum customer choice, flexibility, and rapid access to technology innovation. In particular, it is critical that network architectures, automation mechanisms and ecosystems all be open to support the widely varied needs of data center operators.

Unfortunately, the network layer has been lagging behind in the equation. Each of the largest networking vendors has developed proprietary software, control plane, and interconnect technology that while intended to optimize performance in many cases causes lock-in scenarios that ultimately fetter customers and limit options or choice. By limiting choice, vendors cause customers to lose architectural freedom and control, which can then very easily lead to slower innovation cycles.

What’s needed is a more open approach to the basic building blocks of data center networking infrastructure, allowing customers a greater degree of architectural choice and faster access to technical innovation without sacrificing performance. We’re talking about top-of-rack elements, open fabric solutions, and standards-based control-plane software that can be mixed and matched as needed to achieve different performance or scaling properties. In this manner, data center managers can ride performance curves and feature velocity independently across the architecture (top-of-rack, fabric). This, in turn, means data center networking functionality can be adopted and deployed at a faster rate.

Equally important, and closely related, is network automation software, which as well should be open to maximize innovation. It shouldn’t be made available as the “icing on the cake” for going down a single-vendor path. Instead, it needs to be a bona fide layer in the data center stack that is open and standards-based. This allows network managers to invest in a common set of tools that will scale irrespective of underlying infrastructure investments – yet another dimension to increasing innovation cycles. With open networking architectures and open network automation, data center operators customers can scale up, scale down or scale out data center infrastructures of all types -- conventional, virtual or cloud -- with complete freedom and an eye to the future.

As IT has evolved, we’ve seen the movement toward more open systems and what it has done to the compute and storage industries. Each stage has resulted in great vendor participation, faster innovation cycles, and increasingly competitive offerings for customers. It’s time now for the networking industry to join the fun, and for customers to get the most out of their data center networking investments.

About the author: Jeff Baher heads up Dell (News - Alert) data center networking product marketing. Baher has nearly 20 years of marketing experience in the networking industry holding positions for Fortune 500, mid-size and startup companies. Prior experience includes Ericsson (News - Alert), where Baher was head of IP Network Marketing responsible for IP marketing strategy and execution. Baher also spent 10 years at Cisco Systems, where he held positions of increasing responsibility in technical marketing, product management, solutions marketing and outbound marketing. He played a principal role in developing Cisco’s (News - Alert) CRS-1/IOS-XR branding strategy and bringing a range of IP, Ethernet, and content networking products to enterprise and service provider markets. Baher holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University.