Johannesburg, 27 Jan 2010
2010 will see the emergence of the unified network. In the same way as Ethernet and the Internet have driven the standardisation of computer communications protocols and made network connectivity ubiquitous over the past 30 years, 2010 will see network integration develop into an enterprise strategy.
“Organisations that have invested in simplifying their IT and applications infrastructure to deliver new integrated solutions quickly without adding to the ongoing budget will be well-positioned to take advantage of this movement,” says 3Com Africa regional sales director Derek Wiggill.
“These companies will have adopted standardised information management platforms. They will have invested in a scalable, standards-based networking infrastructure that delivers the best performance through an integrated approach to network management, energy efficiency and security, with the lowest total cost of ownership.”
Other trends predicted by 3Com in 2010 are:
* IT departments will begin to see modest budget increases
Gartner predicts a 3.3% increase in global IT spend. However, the market will not recover to 2008 revenue levels, and 2010 will be about balancing cost and growth. Total cost of ownership will become a key purchasing criterion.
* Green networking
Green IT saves money. Apart from costing less to implement, energy-efficient networking also provides management tools that enterprises can use to reduce ongoing energy consumption.
* Virtualisation - servers, desktops and now networks
“As organisations continue to maximise asset efficiency, quickly deploy new services and improve resiliency, we will see the next wave of virtualisation impact the network structure,” says Wiggill. “Many-to-one virtualisation of LAN infrastructure devices will dramatically improve availability while reducing costs through maximising component devices' performance contributions.
“Of course, the network is no stranger to virtualisation - VLAN and device stacking are well-understood examples - but the virtualisation of network services along with large core and data centre switches will begin to change the way enterprises design their networks.”
* Data centres accelerate demand for 40Gb and 100Gb Ethernet networking
As demand for faster access to data drives the move to 40Gb and 100Gb Ethernet, 3Com's data centre core switches like the H3C 12500 will come into play to provide next-generation capabilities. The standard for IEEE 802.3 Ethernet protocols with operating speeds of 40Gb/s and 100Gb/s is expected to be approved in June 2010.
* 11n high-speed WLAN becomes the de-facto choice for new wireless deployment
With the ratification of both IEEE 802.11n high-speed WLAN and the IEEE 802.3at POE+ standards needed to power these next-generation access points, the market will quickly adopt 802.11n.
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