Choice in networks is emerging, and everyone—from consumers to data centers—stands to benefit.
Creating choice is one of the fundamental drivers of innovation. Choice sparks debate, fosters competition and drives innovation. There’s always someone else in the market looking to offer us a choice from what is already here, and the decision people typically make is to go with the choice that makes life easier.
For example, consider the choices people make when it comes to their mobile device. In the beginning, the majority of us in business had only one choice to access work email and applications—Blackberry. Today, with devices like iPhones and Androids that utilize open APIs, we have more choices than ever. Furthermore, each person’s mobile device can be unique and personalized to their liking.
Yet much of the networking world is still bound by a lack of choice in the form of proprietary technology. The majority of today’s communications networks across the globe are made up of fully-integrated solutions that allow for very little latitude in deployment design. In a world that was previously incapable of being software-driven, fully-integrated solutions once upon a time made sense. There was no choice, and it was the easiest way.
Read more at Network World.
