Not content with open sourcing the server and storage hardware inside data centers, Facebook’s Open Compute Project has teamed up with others to build an open source top of rack switch. Here’s why it matters. Read more »
With all the excitement around software-defined networking, most people forget that OpenFlow, which helped jump start that conversation, is more than just virtualization. It’s the creation of a common hardware platform that will commoditize the router. Read more »
Companies spent roughly $1.6 billion buying networking startups in 2012 with one deal being responsible for the lion’s share of that total. Yet, even if VMware hadn’t purchased Nicira for $1.26 billion, networking deals and software-defined networking deals in particular, were red hot in 2012. Read more »
The growth of public and private cloud services places new demands on the IT organization, particularly when it comes to the scale, agility and management of the data center. SDNs are a response to those demands, providing opportunities for IT managers to improve their network operations. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Discussions about the cloud now involve more than just the IT department. New developments in hardware architectures, more-energy-efficient data centers, regulatory concerns and simplifying analytics are all discussions currently circling through the industry. Here’s what to consider when thinking about your business in the cloud. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Solarflare, the former maker of 10 gigabit Ethernet silicon, has transitioned from making chips to making network adapter cards to speed up the networking capabilities of servers. Now it wants to take that further by doing real-time processing as data comes in from the network. Read more »
Inexpensive rented data center capacity and cheap but powerful open-source toolsets have completely changed the game for tech entrepreneurs, says Silicon Valley legend Andy Bechtolsheim. In short, you would have to be nuts to build, rather than rent, a data center. Read more »
The world of networking is changing, thanks to shifting traffic patterns, more widely distributed webscale systems and the economic need for the networking world to catch up to where the computing and server world is today. This trend toward networking virtualization has huge implications for vendors such as Cisco, Juniper, Arista, Dell and Intel, but it also could become the foundation for an entire new ecosystem of startups and value creation, much like what the creation of the hypervisor did for computing. In this research note we look at what network virtualization is, why we’re moving toward it, what OpenFlow is and what the opportunities are for companies, both large and small, beyond that technology. Additional companies mentioned in this report include Facebook, SeaMicro and Zynga. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
On Wednesday Dell said it would buy networking-gear-maker company Force10 Networks. The move was expected since Dell’s rivals in the server space have tied up their networking equipment buys after Cisco launched servers that combined computing and networking in one box. Read more »
Intel has purchased an Ethernet silicon company in a move that mimics the industry trend toward viewing the data center as the computer as computing becomes more distributed. Intel said on Tuesday it would buy Fulcrum Microsystems, a venture-backed company that’s 11 years old. Read more »
Networking is about to change. It is inevitable that an open-source hardware architecture for the large chassis switch gets released, likely driven by a consortium of large customers. When combined with the external software control enabled by OpenFlow, this will really shake things up. Read more »
Uploading video to the web can be a painfully long process even with a high-speed connection. I spoke with Shane Russell of Microsoft’s VidLab, who shared with me how his team delivers content to the Zune Marketplace and the Xbox LIVE service while slashing network latency. Read more »
Two markets stand out above all else when looking at the first quarter of 2011: infrastructure as a service (IaaS) — the epitome of cloud computing — and big data. Amazon Web Services continues to lead the IaaS space in terms of customers and innovation, while Rackspace, buoyed by momentum around OpenStack, will be its primary competitor for mainstream customers. In the big data space, there are so many players and terms floating about it’s difficult for outsiders to get a handle on who’s who and what’s what, though such activity validates the technologies. Other developments this quarter included HP’s impending presence in the cloud computing and big data spaces and the realization that Intel won’t be left to die if low-power servers based on x86 processors catch on like the buzz late last year suggests they will. Additional companies mentioned in this report include VMware, Microsoft, Cloudera, SeaMicro and Facebook. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Mobile-app-analytics startup Flurry is upgrading its data center network with Arista Networks 10 GigE switches, a move designed to improve network performance as Flurry continues to add both terabytes and nodes to its big data system. Is the network the hardware superstar in big data environments? Read more »
When BitTorrent co-founder Bram Cohen was introduced at NewTeeVee’s Video Rights Roundtable this morning, interviewer Schlomo Rabinowitz asked the crowd, “How many people in the audience hate this man?” — and a few people actually raised their hands. Despite being largely vilified in the media industry […] Read more »
