Specifications

PC MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 16, 2003 www.pcmag.com
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nterprise networking encompasses a wide spectrum of
applications and components, from backbone infrastructure
to an end user’s desk. Today the question is often not how
to expand the infrastructure but how to harness its full potential,
making it efficient, productive, and able to eke out some
ROI. Yet
many companies are discovering that their existing architectures
can’t support new, more efficient applications.
“The data center remains a focal point for both development
efforts and concerns about bridging technology gaps,” says Pierre-
Paul Allard, president of Cisco Systems Canada.
Security and network resilience are always of prime concern.
These depend on firewalls and intrusion prevention system
technologies, which must be engineered for greater flexibility. Then
comes the need for more innovative, distributed storage solutions to
cope with the growing mountains of data.
Many companies still use network, database, and application
designs based on archaic centralized mainframe models. (Imagine
being required to log on to an application server to work on an Excel
spreadsheet.) True scalability—and productivity—requires a decen-
tralized model that distributes such resources across regional
networks and local devices.
Voice and videoconferencing solutions relying on Voice over
IP (VoIP) will finally arrive. Though VoIP simply allows voice
communications to be transmitted over a data network, IP telepho-
ny will tie into enterprise-grade applications such as CRM solutions
in a converged network.
IP video is destined to become mainstream as well. “Its use in the
banking and retail industries for surveillance has begun to grow,”
explains Cisco’s Allard. This technology will allow for a mix of video
and data capabilities; for example, it could record a possible bank
robbery while dialing 911, locking the safe, and feeding live video into
the police mobile command unit.
Key enablers for the new technologies include high-speed
(gigabit) IP networks with intelligent routers and efficient remote
access, as well as technologies like
MPLS (Multiprotocol Label
Switching).
MPLS provides a labeling function for IP traffic flowing
across a network. With it, administrators can control and shape traf-
fic and allow for end-to-end QoS (quality of service). This ensures,
for example, that VoIP traffic will be routed through the most
reliable and best-performing parts of a network to prevent latency.
Remote-access connectivity will be simplified by
SSL gateways,
which let remote-access users connect to specific applications like
e-mail or even back-end databases using nothing but their Web
browsers. Such gateways will augment IPsec-based
VPNs in some
instances and replace them in others. (For more on the subject, see
“Simpler, Safe Remote Access,” August 19, 2003.)
While this access method will relieve many small-business IT
administrators of the burden of maintaining IPsec
VPNs, adminis-
trators of large-scale networks might be confronted with managing
mountains of encrypted
HTTP traffic. Traffic accelerators and
shapers have already begun to come to the rescue, including
products from F5 Networks and NetScaler. These devices combine
application-level security, protection, and optimization, providing
both high performance and fail-over.—Oliver Kaven
Enterprise networks in the next five to ten years
will be upgraded to support higher bandwidths,
including 10-Gigabit Ethernet in the data center
and Gigabit Ethernet at the desktop, with better
traffic control via quality of service (QoS) and
other traffic-shaping mechanisms. Crucial to
this will be policy enforcement systems that
give administrators instantaneous control over
mission-critical resources.
“The move to Gigabit Ethernet technologies
will take place more slowly than the move from
Ethernet to Fast Ethernet,” says Michael Wolf, an
analyst with research firm In-Stat/MDR. “That’s
because the main driving force for Gigabit at the
desktop will be the low price of the devices
rather than a demand for higher bandwidth, as
was the earlier case.” While this is happening,
Wolf expects to see a proliferation of voice and
video applications such as video on demand,
office-to-office videoconferencing, surveillance,
and IP telephony to take advantage of the
increased bandwidth.
Chris Kozup, program director of infrastructure
strategies for the research firm Meta Group,
suggests that this will have another beneficial
effect, “This proliferation of IP devices connected
to the network will drive the implementation of
new IP standards such as IPv6,” he says, adding
that this in turn will provide for a far more robust
Internet than we know today.
Computer and device networking should
become a largely commoditized affair for the
end user. Closer feature integration will eliminate
the need to carry many different devices, and an
Ethernet jack or wireless hot spot will be as
common to our understanding of communica-
tions as the telephone jack and public phone
booth are today.
E
Enterp ris e
After years of anticipation, IP telephony and
Video over IP will finally make a big splash.
In a few years more
NETWORKING