Networking is a relatively new concept in the field of IT infrastructures, which, for the present time, looks like an innovative breakthrough that will bring the network organization to a new level in terms of its reliability, and security. Thus, by integrating and aggregating several specialized networks into a single standard-based network organizations will be able to produce significant savings and gain enhanced operational efficiency.
Just as importantly, the
converged networking infrastructure is an overarching solution that provides a plethora of advantages to help revolutionize your IT structure, such as in the areas of costs, virtualization, and cloud services.
It’s for these reasons among others that innovative IT managers should consider converged networking as outlined below in this blog post.
1. Simplifies Network Infrastructure
This type of networking is the process of replacing several networks with a single integrated infrastructure; this is one of the most attractive features of this approach. This has made it a traditional approach where organizations conduct their business over completely different LANs, storage area networks (SANs), and telephony networks.
Combining these onto an Ethernet backbone which is supported by 10GbE switching reduces the number of cables required, monitoring and troubleshooting becomes easy and there is no need to translate between protocols. You’ll achieve greater operational simplicity while acknowledging that there is no longer any network that requires such complexity.
2. Lowers Capital Expenses
Separate special-purpose networks are very costly from the point of view of capital investments as it is described below. I have thought that perhaps it is cheaper to install redundant equipment for LANs, storage area networks SAN, voice networks, and much more but this is not true. With converged platforms, you can achieve a network convergence model leveraging on the 10GbE switching to converge everything in a single high bandwidth network.
This results in acquiring significantly less networking equipment than if you relied on traditional methods, thus significantly cutting down on CapEx expenditures. In the following section, the identified savings can be reinvested in other IT infrastructure innovations.
3. Reduces Operating Expenses
Apart from the cost savings in network equipment and cabling, converged networking also provides a novel approach to reduce ongoing operations costs, including power, cooling, and space.
Simply, means that when you have integrated several networks it is possible to remove the inactive switches, routers, adapters, and others and this will considerably reduce your power consumption and cooling requirements as well as space on the rack floor. Since data centers are always struggling to increase their storage capacity, anything that can help in energy and space optimization has a huge effect.
4. Enhances Overall System Reliability
Yet another area that converged networking pays off is an improvement in the overall dependability of the systems. The third is related to the fact that, when you eliminate interdependencies between different networks, you also eliminate a significant source of potential trouble.
Leveraging networks constructed on 10GbE also entails provision for coping with challenges such as hardware failure, and disrupted links among others. Converged architecture also consolidates resources for better backup and recovery, which helps further enhance strengths in business continuity. All in all, convergence provides a far more reliable network framework for you.
5. It Prepares Infrastructure For the Cloud
The convergence approach resembles the architecture of leading public clouds more than other approaches. It makes it easier to integrate a hybrid cloud where you can be able to easily connect your localized hardware and software with distant cloud services.
A converged backbone using 10GbE provides for the high capacity and low latency connectivity that workloads require for their migration from one environment to another. As the current generation of converged networks, they are software-defined ready and virtualization friendly, which are two characteristics of cloud computing.
6. Helps to Increase the Speed of New Services Development
The integration of converged platforms is tightly coupled which enhances the speed of introduction of new network services and applications. The integration of services across loosely coupled infrastructure is exceptionally difficult and normally time-consuming. Since a converged network integrates the connections onto a single SDCN-capable network infrastructure, the IT administrators and managers can deploy new services a lot quicker.
Next design the policies and service levels, then you can just create a new VLAN and simply connect users and resources. Such agility is critical for enabling new technologies and innovations.
7. Optimizes Application Performance
Converged infrastructure also eliminates inter-network dependence and acts as a mediator in translating the protocol paths, simplifying the network flow of traffic between the users, servers, and storage networks. This enables organizations to optimize the utilization of bandwidth-hungry, low-tolerance-to-latency applications such as VDI, VoIP, HPC, and database platforms. In other words, convergence removes previous network bottlenecks that have been a hindrance to the rate at which applications run.
8. Boosts Operational Efficiency
As these converged networking platforms consolidate the network resources into one software-defined architecture, managing them becomes relatively simple. It manages the whole system and does not need to coordinate
The policies, automation, or fixes on disjointed hardware IT teams get a single point of system visibility. In self-serve environments, IT staff are released from low-value tasks for more business-critical responsibilities as well as, and converged networks are also well-suited for self-provisioning. The cost-cutting effects propagate rapidly to all aspects of operation.
9. Supports Network Function Virtualization
The use of a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) server-based infrastructure is well suited to the hosting of Virtual network functions (VNFs) which were previously provided by dedicated appliance equipment such as load balancers, firewalls and Quality of Service (QoS).
Network function virtualization is a fundamental SDEP theory that enables these appliances to operate as virtual machines. This makes it more flexible while continuing the convergence of taking purpose-built hardware and saving even more CapEx and OpEx.
10. Reduces Risk, Smoothens Subsequent Growth
Lastly, the adoption of CN entails that there are minimal disruptions from the network, thereby minimizing business risk regarding the impact of network downtime on the end-users. Moreover, converged networking is designed to scale seamlessly which means extending the network to accommodate more users or applications or increasing the capacity is much simpler compared to the process of ‘fork-lift upgrade’ of several distinct networks.
Converged infrastructure provides investment protection, which enables the possibility of what goes in now can evolve to scale up in the future.
Conclusion
Right from infrastructure simplification to enhancing the efficiency of application usage and faster service delivery, converged networking brings a lot of IT advantages. Concerning the example of web-scale pioneers and integrating disparate networks into a single architecture, it is possible to achieve significant cost reduction while creating flexibility in business processes. For any organization planning to bring in changes to the network particularly within existing data center spaces, the converged platforms are a no-brainer. This is why the 10 persuasive reasons listed below will help you understand that high-performance convergence will revolutionize the IT environment.
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