Cisco ACI and VMware NSX: Will Those Two Kids Ever Get Along?

M. Fratto

• Cisco and VMware partner on many integration projects, but the lack of integration between Cisco ACI and VMware NSX has gone on too long.
• Bread crumbs of hints that collaboration between the two SDN units of each company may be a portent or wishful thinking.

Some might see CRN’s article Cisco CEO: We’re Talking With VMware About Closer Software-Defined Networking Relationship” where Cisco’s CEO, Chuck Robbins told the author “…I think our teams are talking about where there might be points that balance the competitive nature of the [Cisco – VMware] partnership, but also meet perhaps some of the emerging customer asks. So I think it that’s to be determined” as a positive assertion that the two companies are going to integrate the ACI and NSX. At last year’s VMworld in San Francisco, executives at VMware made a similar, albeit cryptic, statement as well. That these little bread crumbs are dropping may be a precursor to an announcement as early as this summer, but frankly, I’m not going to speculate on what the two companies could be planning.

Accessing the Digital Economy: It’s About Bandwidth and Applications

G. Barton

Summary Bullets:

• The economy is moving online and failure to respond is likely to lose enterprises business.
• SMEs are likely to be the least well prepared to take advantage of the digital economy, but the transition can be relatively straightforward.

Much attention has been given in the UK over the last six months to the provisioning (or lack thereof) of broadband services.  Much of the criticism that has been levelled at Openreach, and by association BT, has related to concerns about the perceived lack of progress in rolling out superfast and ultrafast broadband services.  The UK government has now also dropped its commitment to the provision of universal broadband access.  This in itself is something that businesses, especially those in rural areas, should seek to have their say on.

Google I/O 2016: Game of Brains – May the Smartest Algorithm Win!

B. Shimmin

Summary Bullets:

• Machine learning (ML) has historically driven value within analytics projects, helping companies to build better predictive data models through iterative learning.
• But, as showcased at Google I/O last week, an emerging set of experience-driven ML APIs points to enterprise use cases that both build upon and grow beyond the confines of big data.

Dear Google: What have you done with my favorite trade show? What has happened to Google I/O? Sure, the change in venue from Moscone West to the Shoreline Amphitheater was huge. But, that speaks to Google’s collegiate beginnings and stance on corporate responsibility. After all, the Shoreline venue was built to resemble the Grateful Dead’s Steal Your Face logo and rests atop a landfill. That makes sense. What I find jarring, however, is the company’s shift away from sexy reference hardware and new Android OS sweets toward more smoky, heady, cloudy ideas like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML).

Current Analysis Research Shows That IoT is Top Priority This Year Among Enterprise Development Initiatives

C. Dunlap

Summary Bullets:

• IoT represents the top cloud/mobile development initiative over the next 12 months among large global enterprises

• Other leading initiatives: mobilize on-premises apps; implement API services; develop/deploy B2C mobile apps; and implement MDM/MAM solutions

According to new Current Analysis research which polled almost 600 IT and developer professionals, mobile application development platform (MADP) implementations are well underway with over a third of companies (including 40 percent of enterprises) already having MADP implementations; and in fact, API initiatives, for adopting aggregation/management services, are already being launched among over one-quarter of those surveyed.

Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP) Begins to Enter the Scene in Software-defined Enterprise WANs

J. Stradling

Summary Bullets:

• Zero-touch provisioning (ZTP) enables the customer to implement WAN circuits without requiring any manual intervention

• SD-WAN products are increasingly available from global service providers and ‘automated zero-touch deployments’ will become standard features in WAN offerings during 2016-2017

• Market disruptors such as VeloCloud and Glue Networks tout zero-touch capabilities in their SD-WAN proposals

ZTP is not a brand new concept to the IT world; it is just late to the game with respect to data networks. Server provisioning moved to virtualized models, using zero-touch and automated processes, early on in the evolution of IT; and these capabilities are now extending into data networking. For the purpose of this blog, the principles of software-defined networking are the abstraction of three planes: management, control, and data, applied to a specific enterprise WAN. Virtual network functions (VNFs) are not the primary focus of this blog.

EMC World 2016: Mr. Tucci’s Mythical Ride into the Future

B. Shimmin

Summary Bullets:

• At EMC World, EMC’s current chairman of the board of directors, Joe Tucci, took a mythical ride atop a ‘hoverboard,’ drawing an interesting parallel between himself and his company’s interest in exploring new market opportunities after the Dell merger is finalized.
• Possible opportunities include IoT, telecom enablement, supercomputing, and public cloud hosting.

There’s nothing that screams ‘modernization’ more than the image of a well-respected industry executive moving around on the main stage of an annual user conference tenuously perched atop one of those kitschy – and often unexpectedly flammable – two-wheeled ‘hoverboards.’ But, that’s exactly what Joe Tucci, EMC’s current chairman of the board of directors, supposedly did during Monday’s keynote address at EMC World 2016 in Las Vegas. Thankfully everyone stayed safe and shared a bit of a laugh. As the keynote progressed, however, and as more information on Dell’s pending acquisition of EMC emerged, it became painfully clear to this analyst that this was likely the last user conference branded ‘EMC World,’ and perhaps it was also the end of EMC itself, at least as far as we’ve known it.

EMC World 2016: Is Dell EMC Your Next and Only IoT Vendor?

B. Shimmin

Summary Bullets:

• What will happen once the dust settles from the pending Dell and EMC merger? What market opportunities should Michael Dell pursue with a toolkit that spans Dell, EMC II, VMware, Pivotal, SecureWorks, Virtustream, and RSA?
• One possible idea put forth by EMC during its annual EMC World conference in Las Vegas concerned a nearly end-to-end IoT solution combining cloud, security, servers, storage, and analytics.

Seeing Michael Dell take the stage alongside Joe Tucci at EMC’s annual EMC World user conference in Las Vegas this week was unexpected but somehow appropriate, given the pending merger of Dell and EMC. Once completed, the merger will give rise to a single entity branded Dell Technologies, which will house and combine a shockingly broad swath of companies including not just Dell and EMC, but also VMware, Pivotal, SecureWorks, Virtustream, and RSA.