Network virtualization (NV) in the data center promises to improve service agility, simplify network operations, and reduce capital expenditures. One of the biggest challenges for IT professionals is to quantify the return-on-investment required to justify the costs of network virtualization and the changes it requires in their data center network operations.
Defining NV in the Data Center
NV provides the ability to create logical, virtual networks that are decoupled from the underlying network hardware. NV creates a logical, software-based view of the hardware and software networking resources (switches, routers, etc.). The physical networking gear (the underlay) is responsible for the forwarding of packets, while the virtual network (software) provides an intelligent abstraction that makes it easy to deploy and manage Layers 4-7 network services, including network security and application delivery control.
The Benefits of NV in the Data Center
Modern data centers have increased significantly in scale and complexity as compute and storage resources become highly virtualized. The rise of the DevOps style of application deployment means that data center resources must be agile and respond rapidly to changing workload requirements. Data center network technologies have been challenged to keep up with these rapidly evolving application requirements.
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