In 1984, John Gage and Bill Joy of Sun Microsystems were credited with saying, "The network is the computer", one of the most memorable slogans of the information age. This concept, based on the tenet of making computing resources available to all users irrespective of location, as long as they are connected to the network, forms the basis of the Internet as we know it, and foretold the advent of cloud computing.
The dream of many systems engineers at the time was an ‘always on’ computing service, accessible from a single terminal anywhere in the world, with usage patterns shifting in line with the business hours of each time zone.
It must be remembered that in the mid-1980s, despite the advent of the PC, most enterprise systems were based on mainframe or mini computer architectures with a host computer dedicated to an application and bespoke user terminals hardwired into it. It was not uncommon for users to have three terminals on their desks – perhaps one for inventory control, one for billing and another for office automation tasks, such as word processing and spreadsheets.
The advent of the TCP/IP protocol stack led to the decline of proprietary architecture in favour of an open, IP-based platform allowing access to all services from a single terminal, the PC. The capability of TCP/IP to operate over LANs and WANs meant users no longer had to be geographically co-located with their computing resources, in effect creating a kind of virtual computer. The development of high-speed network technologies, such as long-reach Ethernet and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), enabled the bandwidth of the network to come closer to matching the computer’s internal ‘bus’ speed, meaning that storage devices and processing power no longer had to remain in close proximity.
Computing technology has also advanced considerably over the years, with the development of data warehouses and storage area networks allowing databases to be located outside the computer ‘box’. This led to the concept of virtualisation as we know it today, where processors can be clustered for efficiency and resilience and data can be served and secured according to the requirements of enterprise applications.
And what about the network itself? No longer does the network begin at the network interface card (NIC) of a computer, but at a virtual NIC within a cluster of processors in a blade server. This network virtualisation reduces the number of physical adaptors required, and so enhances the simplicity and resilience of the system. Similarly, combining multiple network switches into a single virtual node can reduce complexity and aid network management.
Virtualisation allows enterprise users to consolidate data centre assets and simplify ICT infrastructure in line with their business requirements, bringing significant opex savings for a typical ICT operation in areas such as power consumption, chilling requirements, rack space and operator headcount. These benefits don’t just make financial sense – they also help to reduce the enterprise’s carbon footprint.
So, with virtual processing, virtual storage, virtual applications and virtual networks, the ‘network is the computer’ slogan is truer today than ever before.
Analysys Mason consultants have helped numerous end-user clients with the design and implementation of networks and in the consolidation of data centres, enabling them to leverage the full efficiency benefits of virtualisation.