Some Services are More Equal than Others

Remember when the iPhone launched? Remember the complaints about the device not maintaining calls well? Was it really the hardware? Or was it the service provider network, overwhelmed by not just the call volume but millions of hyper-customers experimenting with their new toy? Look – a video! Look a video and a call. Hey, I’m on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and streaming audio at the same time I’m making a call! How awesome is that?

Meanwhile, there’s an entire army of operators at a service provider’s NOC who are stalking through the data center with scissors because it’s the only way to stop the madness.

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What is Network-based Application Virtualization and Why Do You Need It?

With all the attention being paid these days to VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure) and application virtualization and server virtualization and <insert type> virtualization it’s easy to forget about network-based application virtualization. But it’s the one virtualization technique you shouldn’t forget because it is a foundational technology upon which myriad other solutions will be enabled.

WHAT IS NETWORK-BASED APPLICATION VIRTUALIZATION?

This term may not be familiar to you but that’s because since its inception oh, more than a decade ago, it’s always just been called “server virtualization”. After the turn of the century (I love saying that, by the way) it was always referred to as service virtualization in SOA and XML circles. With the rise of the likes of VMware and Citrix and Microsoft server virtualization solutions, it’s become impossible to just use the term “server virtualization” and “service virtualization” is just as ambiguous so it seems appropriate to give it a few more modifiers to make it clear that we’re talking about the network-based virtualization (aggregation) of applications.

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I, Cloud

Do we need Three Laws of Cloud? Not yet. Neither should we be overly concerned regarding reports of cloud leading to the elimination of IT.

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The CIO’s Problem: Cloud “Mess” or Cloud “Mash”

Loved those mainframe days – you only needed one, but then came along the AS400’s and soon you had ten – but wait, you needed client server and SOA, oh sh%# – now I have ten thousand servers and I need to consolidate server and datacenter operations!

Is Cloud Computing going to follow the same path?

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Applying Scalability Patterns to Infrastructure Architecture

Too often software design patterns are overlooked by network and application delivery network architects but these patterns are often equally applicable to addressing a broad range of architectural challenges in the application delivery tier of the data center.

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