网络的“智能胖边”和“智能瘦边”

看看ESG研究，你会发现许多同时出现的趋势。企业正在整合数据中心，将其塞满虚拟服务器，并在其中托管越来越2020欧洲杯预赛多的web应用程序。这意味着大量的流量进出数据中心。2020欧洲杯预赛是的，这个流量需要交换和路由，但这实际上是最简单的任务。更困难的是在网络上处理这些流量，以确保安全、加速、应用程序联网等。这种处理通常发生在网络边缘，但是其他层也迁移到数据中心网络本身，以便对特定的应用程序服务进行网络分割。2020欧洲杯预赛可以这样想:有一个“智能胖”的网络边缘，可以满足多个“智能瘦”的网络段。智能胖网络边缘将大量网络设备功能聚合到物理设备、设备集群或虚拟控制平面中。这是思科(Cisco)、Crossbeam Systems和瞻博网络(Juniper Networks)等供应商的安全领域，也是A10 Networks、Citrix (Netscaler)和F5 Networks等公司的领域。随着时间的推移，这些公司将继续向他们的系统添加功能(例如XML处理、应用程序认证/授权、业务逻辑等)，以进行更多的包和内容处理。 It wouldn't surprise me at all if security vendors added application delivery features and the app delivery crowd added more security. Once the smart-fat network edge treats all traffic, packets and content will be processed further within the data center (i.e. smart-thin network edge). This will most likely be done using virtual appliances like the Citrix VPX. Why? Virtual appliances can be provisioned on the fly with canned policies or customized for specific workloads. They can also follow applications that migrate around internal data centers or move to public clouds. A few other thoughts here: 1. I'm sure we'll see new startups focused on smart-thin virtual appliances but I don't expect them to succeed. Existing vendors will simply deliver virtual appliance form factors and dominate this business. 2. Legacy vendors have the best opportunity here as many users will want common command-and-control for the smart-fat edge and the smart-thin edge. Nevertheless, this further network segmentation does provide an opportunity for aggressive vendors to usurp customer accounts and marketshare. 3. Smart-fat edge systems are delivered as physical devices today but this isn't necessarily true for the future. I can see virtual appliances with horizontal scalability running on Dell, HP, or IBM blade servers in the future. The smart-fat, smart-thin architecture is already playing out in cloud computing and wireless carrier networks today and I expect it to become mainstream in the enterprise segment over the next 24 months. The technology is ready today but many users have no idea how to implement this type of architecture or capitalize on its benefits. Vendors who can guide users along with knowledge transfer, best practices, and reference architectures are most likely to reap the financial rewards.