Managing Virtualized Networks

Tech Guide VIRTUALIZATION CLOUD DEVELOPMENT APPLICATION NETWORKING ARCHITECTURE STORAGE CENTER MANAGEMENT DATA INTELLIGENCE/APPLICATIONSBUSINESS RECOVERY/COMPLIANCE DISASTER SECURITY Managing Virtualized Networks This technical guide examines what the ideal on-premises network management system would look like and examines managed network monitoring and management services as options. 1 2 3 4 EDITOR’S NOTE FIVE STEPS TO NETWORK GAINING VIRTUAL INTEGRATE AND TRAFFIC ANALYSIS NETWORK MANAGE VIRTUAL IN A VIRTUALIZED OVERLAY VISIBILITY NETWORKS ENVIRONMENT To change slug and # txt. On your page, in this order, deselect slug first, then move just outside of blue box to EDITOR’S NOTE deselect the #. This will keep the slug text 1 in front of the number All pages: text begins on this baseline OPENER 3 lines is max title length. Finding the Right Management Style title. Then use hard return to push last line of title to sit on and Monitoring Tools this baseline. OPENER The days of being able to touch the network edge are over. It no longer lives 1st text baseline begins here. in a box at the top of the rack. Instead, it’s inside the server, and as enterprises have embraced server virtualization, the network edge has extended Home into the hypervisor. For a while, network managers were happy to let this go. The early embedded virtual switches lacked a lot of functionality and vir- Editor’s Note tualized environments were fairly static. You could hand the server teams a bunch of IP addresses and VLANs to play with and forget about it. Integration and With virtual infrastructure becoming dynamic, network managers can’t be Management idle anymore. Virtual machines are mobile. Clouds are rolling in. Those static environments are ancient history. Network managers have a choice to make. Traffic Analysis They can continue to abdicate the virtualized edge to systems and virtualization teams, or they can reassert control and do what they do best. Virtual Network The virtual network can’t remain invisible to the network manager. IT Overlay departments need management and monitoring technologies that help them respond to changes in the virtual network. As virtual and cloud infrastruc- tures become more dynamic, IT also needs to adopt new network technologies like virtual overlay networks and software-defined networking that make network infrastructure more dynamic and automated. This technical guide on managing virtual networks offers you a roadmap to reclaim control over the virtualized edge of your data center network. This guide addresses how to integrate the management of virtual and physical networks, both through technology and organizational change. Shamus McGillicuddy Director of news and features, TechTarget’s Networking Media Group 2 MANAGING VIRTUALIZED NETWORKS To change slug and # txt. On your page, in this order, deselect slug first, then move INTEGRATION just outside of blue box to AND deselect the #. MANAGEMENT This will keep the slug text 2 in front of the number All pages: text begins on this baseline OPENER 3 lines is max title length. Five Steps to Integrate and Style title. Then use hard return to push last line of title to sit on Manage Virtual Networks this baseline. OPENER Nearly 60% of organizations have noted a slow-down in their virtualiza- 1st text baseline begins here. tion initiatives, according to a new Nemertes Research study. The complexity of systems—specifically the complexity of network configurations—are Home often cited as a key barrier to the continued adoption of virtualization. The ability for enterprises to virtualize their network configurations and to fully Editor’s Note define these configurations in software is the key to boosting virtualization adoption again. As you organization’s network virtualization effort goes for- Integration and ward, here are some tips that should help you maximize to tie those efforts Management into server and storage virtualization. Traffic Analysis Tip 1: Evaluate your organizational structure and optimize your network policies and procedures Virtual Network Advancements in storage, server and network virtualization have allowed en- Overlay terprises to do things in the data center that simply weren’t possible on a physical network. Yet the separation in many organizations between IT and network teams hasn’t enabled them to reap the full rewards of these new capabilities. Many network teams view virtualization as the responsibility of the server team and are not in a hurry to embrace virtualized switches or virtual network appliances. Many are still happy to have traffic come out of the virtual infrastructure, route it through physical network components, and then go back into virtual space. IT organizations should make sure that the roles, responsibilities, policies and procedures of these teams are clarified and revised to embrace virtualization’s capabilities. It’s only a matter of time before virtualization takes hold in networking the way it has with servers and storage, so resistance is futile. 3 MANAGING VIRTUALIZED NETWORKS To change slug and # txt. On your page, in this order, deselect slug first, then move INTEGRATION just outside of blue box to AND deselect the #. MANAGEMENT This will keep the slug text 2 in front of the number All pages: Tip 2: Consider your monitoring tools and your management framework text begins on this baseline Traditional monitoring tools and management frameworks have struggled OPENER to keep up with the adoption of server virtualization. Network virtualiza- 3 lines is max title length. Style title. Then use hard return tion will only add to these challenges. Now is an excellent time to re-evaluate to push last line of title to sit on this baseline. your monitoring tools and management framework. Using virtualization as a catalyst, consider how you can create an integrated “single pane of glass” view of servers and virtualized network infrastructure that can and will be sharing OPENER physical host resources with other workloads, moving from place to place, or 1st text baseline begins here. spread across internal data centers and public/private clouds. Home Tip 3: Embrace open standards whenever possible Cisco and VMware are clearly leading in the market share battle for data cen- Editor’s Note ter virtualization, virtual switching and programmable networks, and they will likely have significant market positions in SDNs. Both have vowed to Integration and support open standards like OpenFlow and OpenStack. Yet their current so- Management lutions and product roadmaps don’t necessarily enforce these standards. En- terprises would do well to consider whether any purchase decisions might Traffic Analysis lead them further down the path of being locked into a proprietary solution. Both of these vendors will be quick to point out all of the advanced features Virtual Network and capabilities their proprietary solutions can deliver. Don’t take the bait. Overlay Opt instead for an open standards approach that won’t limit your options. As a side benefit, embracing open standards should simplify the transition of applications to or from cloud environments. Tip 4: Start evaluating and planning for software-defined networking (SDN) Software-defined networking (SDN) is the next major trend in enterprise IT. The adoption of SDN will balloon over the next three years. SDN supports network virtualization, but organizations are struggling to assess the roles of SDN and other network virtualization techniques in their current network roadmaps. Your best approach is to try out both to see which solution or combination of solutions is best suited to your environment and would yield the greatest cost savings and increased agility. 4 MANAGING VIRTUALIZED NETWORKS To change slug and # txt. On your page, in this order, deselect slug first, then move INTEGRATION just outside of blue box to AND deselect the #. MANAGEMENT This will keep the slug text 2 in front of the number All pages: Enterprises that embrace network virtualization and use it to push their text begins on this baseline overall adoption of virtualization will see the greatest return on their invest- OPENER ment. To ensure success, however, IT may need to re-think both its tradi- 3 lines is max title length. Style title. Then use hard return tional organizational structure and enterprise system management tooling to push last line of title to sit on this baseline. capabilities. Organizations can further protect their virtualization invest- ments by embracing open standards whenever possible. Finally, determine now how software-defined networks can increase your agility and reduce de- OPENER ployment challenges and costs. —Henry Svendblad 1st text baseline begins here. Home Editor’s Note Integration and Management Traffic Analysis Virtual Network Overlay 5 MANAGING VIRTUALIZED NETWORKS To change slug and # txt. On your page, in this order, deselect slug first, then move just outside of blue box to TRAFFIC deselect the #. ANALYSIS This will keep the slug text 3 in front of the number All pages: text begins on this baseline OPENER 3 lines is max title length. Network Traffic Analysis Style title. Then use hard return to push last line of title to sit on in a Virtualized Environment this baseline. OPENER Over the years, network administrators have come up with tried-and- 1st text baseline begins here. true methods for analyzing and troubleshooting the physical network, using SNMP and NetFlow for data collection or protocol analyzers to look at Home raw network frames and packets. But what happens now that we’ve moved into the era of virtual networks? The good news is that existing network traf- Editor’s Note fic analysis strategies can be used in virtual networks with just a few small differences. Integration and Management VIRTUAL NETWORKS ARE NOT SO DIFFERENT Virtual networks work very much the same as physical networks. In many Traffic Analysis cases, only the names of network devices have changed.

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