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Big Data Needs Cloud Networking

Over the past three years computing architectures have bifurcated, resulting in markedly different network architectures for legacy enterprise and next generation cloud network data centers. Arista has been a leader in championing cloud networks that respond to two key trends.

The first driver has been server virtualization, which literally rewrote the rules on server architecture, driving increased utilization of multi-core processors and increased memory density to facilitate the hosting of the largest number of virtual machines possible on a per server basis. Technologies like virtual machine mobility (enabled by Arista’s VM Tracer and partnership with industry leader VMware) have also driven the need for 10 Gigabit Ethernet on servers, as the default settings for vMotion can sustain multiple gigabits of throughput on a per VM basis.

The second important driver is “Big Data” – resulting from the requirements of Web 2.0 environments, large scale databases, Hadoop clusters, business intelligence analytics and compute intensive applications. Big Data is comprised of datasets that grow so large that they become cumbersome to work with using traditional database management tools. Difficulties in these environments include data capture, storage, search, sharing, analytics, and visualizing. With large numbers of parallel transactions, massive memory demands, and high concurrent transactional volume, Big Data and data analytics have given birth to the need for cloud network architectures designed for low-latency IO, high memory throughput, and power-efficient compute operations.

By Jayshree Ullal on Apr 3, 2011 10:29:37 PM