Data Center Network
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Rate of Virtualization of the Data Center Network Introducing New Challenges
By Today’s enterprises are starting to recognize the potential in virtualization and cloud-based data center environments. While this trend gains momentum, one expert is wondering if the rate will cause problems.
According to this Network World (News - Alert) report, the Enterprise Strategy Group’s (News - Alert) (ESG) recent survey found that enterprise organizations that are currently consolidating (about 63 percent) are eliminating from 25 to 50 percent of their data centers. Much of the consolidation will be into multi-tenant facilities.
Likewise, just less than half of the organizations are extending their applications or spreading virtual servers to data centers in various geographical locations. And just about all of the enterprises are using virtual servers in their data center network.
Data centers are moving with the changes, increasingly embracing current trends. According to the research done by ESG, however, the rate at which they are evolving is causing some problems, not the least of which is security.
With a influx of companies going to cloud-based services, power companies adopting the use of smart meters that capture tons of data, and consumers relying more and more on cloud-based services, the need for large data centers is becoming the norm. In the process, security issues keep cropping up.
The problem is that most of the equipment used in the data center network isn’t designed for the massive scale. Enterprise Strategy Group, an IT analyst and business strategy firm, refers to this as “data center networking discontinuity.”
This discontinuity affects Layer 2 switching, such as access and aggregation, but also affects technical controls, procedures and network security. Some of the largest obstacles due to discontinuity reported by people in the industry today are network security, network performance and network management.
The sheer size of the data centers being utilized today requires both physical and virtual security assurances. Firewalls might not be the most efficient means of bolstering security, demanding instead a hybrid approach of physical and virtual solutions with a command-and-control, centralized distribution enforcement approach.
The trouble with firewalls is that application traffic in the data center network runs into network performance and latency issues. Routing traffic through a physical firewall creates a more complex architecture that isn’t suitable for many data center network environments.
The various security policies and enforcement procedures followed by many data centers make security zoning for virtual servers a challenge. Simply put, virtual servers and traditional security zones are not easily compatible because the traditional security zones are founded on physical and logical separation.
Data center network changes are expected to affect every aspect of the traditional data center. Some in the IT field may be slow to adopt these changes, as they might be somewhat difficult to understand. However, security vendors are busy creating products that will help in the transition as security professionals bone-up on their supporting skill sets.
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Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMCnet and has also written for eastbiz.com. To read more of Susan’s articles, please visit her columnist page.
Edited by Tammy Wolf
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