The FINANCIAL — IBM on March 26 announced two Network Innovation Centers, where clients can explore Software Defined Networking, virtualization and analytics-driven automation technologies and services for their data and communications networks.
The explosive growth of data driven by online transactions, mobile apps, social media and the Internet of Things is already compelling many clients to move their computing and storage systems to a cloud model for greater resiliency, more agility, higher performance and lower costs. These same data-intensive conditions are putting pressure on networking systems, requiring the integration of cloud technologies and solutions to provide those same benefits in hybrid IT network environments.
“Effectively applying cloud technologies to the network could allow a company to reduce its overall network capacity while increasing utilization by dynamically providing resources during the day in Beijing while it’s nighttime in New York, and vice versa,” said Pete Lorenzen, general manager, Networking Services, IBM Global Technology Services. “Or a telecom company could better manage periodic, localized spikes in smartphone usage caused by major sporting events or daily urban commutes, dynamically provisioning capacity when and where it’s needed.”
The two centers — located in Nice, France, and Dallas, Texas — will focus primarily on solutions for large enterprise networking systems and telecommunications operators, which require resilient, high-performing and continuously available networks. At these centers, clients can test and experience new network technologies from IBM and a variety of alliances, including Brocade, Cisco, Citrix, Juniper Networks, Riverbed, and VMware, evaluating how to integrate these solutions into their current IT environments.
These solutions can help dynamically manage network resources through software programs, automatically moving networking resources to where they’re required. This enables systems operators to better manage peaks and valleys in demand, use fewer networking resources operating at higher rates of efficiency and utilization, all with fewer disruptions in service and less direct management.
This degree of automation and orchestration between different IT systems and the network provides not just an operational advantage for service providers and enterprises, but includes lower costs and the ability to provide new services and deploy new applications much more quickly and efficiently, according to IBM.
Clients can access the capabilities of the two centers on site or remotely, and can bridge the capabilities of the two centers simultaneously to custom design solutions to meet the specific needs of the environments.
The IBM Network Innovation Centers are operated by IBM GTS Networking Services. IBM GTS Networking Services designs, builds and runs enterprise networking solutions that drive intelligent integration for business innovation.
