What s the Next Big Agenda Item for the CIO? by Carol Genis

The technological advancements over the past 20 years have been remarkable. We've seen the birth of social networking and the death of wires. Computers can connect to the Internet, but so can cars, refrigerators, watches and glasses. Just think about what you used to carry around in your pockets; now you just need a smart phone.

Yet for all of these advancements, enterprise networks have basically remained the same. Mobile, social and cloud computing have dramatically increased network traffic and pushed the limits of traditional network architectures. These legacy networks require equipment to be provisioned, administered and managed, resulting in manual processes and increased equipment costs. For CIOs, the next big agenda item is network modernization.

So it's no surprise that new research from the Dell'Oro Group states that the Software Defined Networking (SDN) Market is forecasted to grow more than 65 percent in 2014. According to another study by Plexxi and Lightspeed Venture Partners, the SDN market is predicted to surpass $35 billion in the next five years.

SDN is a relatively new approach where the networking function is decoupled from the physical infrastructure and directly programmable via a software application called a controller. With SDN, a network administrator can direct network traffic from a centralized control console without having to touch individual switches. As described by the Open Networking Foundation: The result is an extremely dynamic, manageable, cost-effective, and adaptable architecture that gives administrators unprecedented programmability, automation, and control.

In an increasingly mobile world, today's IT environment needs to be dynamic. Whether you run an internal deployment or data center colocation, your network needs to keep pace. Iron Mountain Data Centers helps our colocation customers stay ahead of the curve with our Total Network Services offering. When you colocate with Iron Mountain, you not only get access to a broad portfolio of carrier-neutral telecommunications services but also the latest network technologies, such as SDN. With Iron Mountain Data Centers, you get more than just colocation but a partner with SDN expertise to help your IT organization meet the next big agenda item.

LINK:	http://blogs.ironmountain.com/2014/service-lines/data-centers/whats-th...
	See more stories from ironmountain

Most recent headlines