Friday, December 11, 2009

Network automation to reach tipping point in 2010 based on five major tech trends

MENLO PARK, USA: Five major technology trends are dramatically increasing demands on IP network infrastructures, and each will push network automation closer to the tipping point of widespread adoption in 2010, according to Intelliden, a leading provider of Intelligent Network Automation solutions that enable organizations to control, manage and scale their networks.

Continued trends toward cloud computing and infrastructure as a service, video-sharing and conferencing, wireless Long-Term Evolution (LTE), managed services, and smart grids depend on the highest levels of network reliability, agility and intelligence.

"Networks continue to grow in complexity and size to sustain these major industry trends and emerging technologies, and today there is a greater need for network automation than ever before," said Glen Tindal, CTO and co-founder of Intelliden.

"A single configuration error on a device has the potential to black out service to thousands of customers. Network automation can no longer be an after-thought. It needs to be an integral part of network overhauls and new build-outs."

Cloud computing necessitates intelligent, agile, self-managing networks
To provide increasingly prevalent cloud-based applications and services, network infrastructures must become highly integrated, fully-automated and secure. The concept of “infrastructure as a service” requires dynamic provisioning of heterogeneous network resources. These networks must become more reliable, adaptive and self-managing to support today's demanding data centers, not to mention the super data centers of the future.

Video and online games lead to bigger, faster network devices
Network traffic will reach record highs with the growing popularity of video-sharing from mobile phones and social media Web sites, the latest Internet gaming craze, high-definition videos on YouTube and free streaming movies.

The video trend is driving up the requirements for network bandwidth and quality of service and resulting in adoption of bigger and faster network devices. Similarly, investment in new video conferencing technologies that reduce travel costs is creating more video traffic and bigger headaches for enterprise network organizations ill-prepared to meet the new stresses.

Demand increase on wireless services drive LTE innovation
Sky-rocketing demand for broadband wireless data services to transmit high-bandwidth multimedia and Web applications will continue to drive the adoption of Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless broadband technology and the need for higher capacity closer to the network edge. Network pipes will need to continuously grow to keep pace with faster and more powerful mobile devices.

As LTE becomes a reality, networks will need to be more self-organizing, self-optimizing, intelligent and consistent in their delivery to cope with the new complexities that are pushing deployment of Ethernet backhaul and intelligence to the network edge.

Managed services gain traction
Investment in managed services continued in 2009 with enterprises embracing cloud computing and infrastructure-as-a-service to meet demands and avoid build outs to their own infrastructures. Managed service providers will continue to offer value-added network services such as enhanced security, unified communications, monitoring and assurance.

Expect wider adoption in the developed countries that are growing comfortable with the idea of network outsourcing and momentum in developing countries.

Plugging into the smart grid with automation
The movement toward smarter, greener cities is picking up steam with renewed focus by major IT and network equipment providers on a smart energy grid to help utility companies and their customers efficiently manage power supplies and energy consumption. This will set in motion network innovations for optimizing energy loads and securing the grids.

IP network infrastructures capable of supporting a ubiquitous smart grid can only be managed through automation.

2010: Year of network automation
The year 2010 seems destined to be the Year of Network Automation. Each one of these technology trends demands new investments in network infrastructure to ensure service-on-demand capabilities and a competitive edge.

Progressive network managers will tackle the question of how to manage their infrastructure with more self-managing and self-optimizing capabilities before it’s too late. Today's manual methods for managing networks will not suffice and state-of-the-art network management solutions will be critical to providing uninterrupted network availability, performance and a high quality of service.

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