Get real

The concept of 'vendor neutrality' initially within the parameters of the corporate network and now within confines of the data centre has, over the past two years, been refined to the point where, today, it is a clearly defined business model.

It goes significantly further than 'network independence' and 'telco-agnosticism' and similar terms - which refer in more general terms to network infrastructures and Internet Protocol transit services.

Vendor neutrality avoids conflicts of interest between all parties who might be called on to add value to the data centre in the immediate future, or in years to come. These include service providers, consultants, storage providers, disaster recovery specialists and many others.

Vendor neutrality is centred on the idea of creating an 'open platform' on which any number of independent suppliers can build and add value to the data centre and the organisation or organisations it serves. It is achieved by carefully selecting and deploying only open standards for protocols and new technology enhancements.

Ultimate vendor neutrality goals will be reached when current moves to establish virtualisation standards reach fruition. Up to now, the lack of standards has often prevented customers from selecting a cloud vendor without the need for significant upfront investments in proprietary formats and infrastructure.

Nevertheless, once the emerging standards and best practices being pioneered by bodies such as the Cloud Security Alliance are ratified, the open and unrestricted interconnection and exchange between any and all existing operating systems, middleware and Web applications will be assured.

There are two key benefits of vendor neutrality in the data centre: flexibility and freedom of choice.

John Hope-Bailie is technical director of Demand Data.

There are two key benefits of vendor neutrality in the data centre: flexibility and freedom of choice, or, more succinctly, avoiding vendor 'lock-in'.

Essentially, vendor neutrality allows the customer to connect to any Internet service provider and route traffic between any network service providers (NSPs) via public peering. The NSPs could include local and international carriers, application service providers and other content providers.

In this context, vendor neutrality is particularly important for companies supplying outsourced data centres, particularly new-generation cloud-based facilities. These data centres are able to distance themselves from any supplier side ties linked to their clients.

Many industry watchers believe the industry is entering the era of massive cloud-based data centres run by third-party organisations - including immense, virtualised global structures operated by the likes of Microsoft and Google - capable of optimising costs and maximising service availability for their customers on a huge scale.

Already, the idea has gained traction in SA (as it has in other deregulated markets), which has seen the launch of its first two third-party, vendor-neutral data centres. There are more to follow.

It's a concept that has found rapid acceptance in the telecommunications sector, where the idea of an impartial environment - a neutral ground - where rival companies can interconnect their networks without the political baggage associated with their own or other proprietary data centres, has been welcomed.

These local vendor-neutral data centres - pioneered by Teraco and almost certain to be replicated by other organisations - are poised to surpass the traditional outsourced data centre facilities in SA which have, up to now, been provided by Internet service providers, bundled with their own services - or by IT outsourcing companies which have imposed their own systems integration or hosted application services on clients.

In the telco space, Telkom has also been quick to endorse the concept, on the back of vendor neutrality's acceptance and growth around the world.

Some of the biggest advantages of vendor-neutral data centres will come in the area of network security, where the latest firewalls and intrusion detection systems can be deployed without delay and without concern for their compatibility with proprietary systems.

For data centre managers, the advantages of vendor neutrality will be found in the benefits of being able to use bargaining tactics to reduce costs, while being able to switch vendors quickly and easily. This flexibility will also protect the data centre against the supply and support problems associated with the demise or merger of a key vendor - not an infrequent occurrence in today's economic climate.

Thanks to the concept of vendor neutrality, the outlook for the outsourced data centre is bright. How long before outsourced vendor-neutral disaster recovery sites gain momentum?