Routing and switching

Network Access Control, switch vendor ConSentry goes out of business

ConSentry Networks has gone out of business, according to Network World. ConSentry was a network access control (NAC) vendor who approached the market by selling NAC and other security and control technology embedded in Ethernet LAN switches, I’ve talked to a few of ConSentry’s customers over the years, who have seemed happy with the company’s switches and NAC products, but in the end I suppose there just weren’t enough customers to sustain ConSentry in this economy.

Network World’s Tim Greene cites an interview with Mario Nemirovsky, the founder and chief scientist at ConSentry, who says that the company closed its offices yesterday and that employees were cleaning out their desks.

ConSentry’s website makes no mention of the company’s failure as of this afternoon… but who knows how long the website will remain active.

Just last month ConSentry was making a modest PR push with its concept of “LAN sprawl,” increased network complexity in enterprises that it claimed was driving the need for smarter network switches. While some enterprises are seeing the need for smarter edge switches, many other enterprises are content with dumb edge switches. In the end, I suppose there just wasn’t enough room in the market for another smart switch vendor.

Juniper and IBM reaffirm alliance in wake of Brocade deal

On the heels of today’s huge news that IBM has signed an OEM agreement with Brocade to sell IBM-branded Brocade (formerly Foundry) switches and routers, Juniper and IBM are reaffirming their ongoing alliance.

I received a press release this morning from Juniper specifically detailing the joint work Juniper and IBM are doing in cloud computing, such as Juniper collaboration with IBM to develop a single data center fabric for cloud computing with its Juniper’s Stratus Project.

Juniper also pointed out that the Brocade OEM agreement is only part of IBM’s larger Dynamic Infrastructure announcement today that highlights a new series of products and services from IBM aimed at helping enterprises build next generation data centers and move into cloud computing. Juniper is a critical participant in IBM’s strategy, Juniper points out..

In the Juniper announcement, IBM vice president for enterprise initiatives Jim Comfort said:

Juniper is an important supplier of networking products. IBM is already a reseller of Juniper’s Ethernet switches and routers and we continue to look for opportunities to expand this relationship to provide increasing choice for our customers and the flexibility to support their dynamic infrastructure needs.

10 Gigabit and 40 Gigabit Ethernet market passes $10 billion mark.

The pipes are getting bigger and bigger. This afternoon Infonetics Research published a new report claiming that the market for 10 Gigabit and 40 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) grew by 47% in 2008 to $10.8 billion. These numbers include optical transport technology and shipments to both enterprises and service providers. Most of those port shipments were 10 GbE, the firm said, but 40 GbE port shipments nearly tripled in 2008.

Matthias Machowinski, Infonetics’ directing analyst for Ethernet voice and data, said that 10 GbE port shipments in particular are driving overall growth in the Ethernet market. Enterprises are pushing to bring 1 GbE connections to desktops, which requires 10 GbE uplinks to the network edge. Because of this trend, 10 GbE port shipments grew by 78% last year, compared to overall Ethernet market growth of 2%.

The first pre-standard 100 GbE port shipments are expected to begin in late 2009. I’m already starting to hear from a few vendors about how they’re going to position themselves for that.

HP’s $1 billion data center deal with Aviva includes Cisco

Although Cisco and HP no longer have a cozy data center relationship, HP’s new $1 billion data center outsourcing deal with European insurance giant Aviva includes Cisco products.

The ten-year deal was struck between Aviva and EDS, HP’s IT outsourcing business. According to HP’s announcement of the deal, EDS will take over and modernize Aviva’s two UK-based data centers. Both HP and Cisco “will provide select tools, technologies and resources to EDS in support of Aviva,” the announcement stated.

As I’ve mentioned before, HP and Cisco useed to have a friendly relationship when it came to selling into enterprise data centers. HP sales reps often received incentives to sell Cisco networking gear along with HP servers, storage and software. But the data center landscape has changed in recent years. Cisco is increasingly moving in on HP’s territory with its Data Center 3.0 campaign and its rumored entry into the blade server market. Meanwhile, HP has renewed its focus on its networking division, ProCurve. It has launched its own purpose-built data center switches. Clearly these two companies will be battling for data center domination rather than cooperating with each other.

Although HP is trying to compete head-to-head with Cisco in data center networking, deals like Aviva are still going to happen. It’s unclear how much HP’s EDS division will push ProCurve gear over Cisco gear if it affects the EDS’s ability to win a big data center outsourcing deal like this. ProCurve is certainly making a name for itself, but it still lacks the high-performance 10 gigabit Ethernet switching pedigree that other companies such as Cisco, Foundry, Extreme and Force10 have.

Cisco and HP: Data center frenemies now poised for all-out war

What would the data center vendor market look like today if Carly Fiorina hadn’t been ousted as CEO of HP back in 2005? Under her leadership, HP maintained a cozy detente with Cisco. The two mega-companies happily engaged data center customers together.  Cisco sold them switches and routers. HP sold them servers, storage and management software. And HP’s networking division, ProCurve, was consigned to operate in a relative backwater, carving out a solid niche with a pipeline into the SMB networking market.

Current HP CEO Mark Hurd has changed things up. First he named Marius Haas, a rising star at HP who had spent the previous four years overseeing the absorption of HP acquisitions, as ProCurve’s new senior vice president and general manager. Then Hurd and Haas snapped up the well-regarded wireless LAN vendor Colubris, giving ProCurve instant WLAN cred. Before the Colubris deal, ProCurve’s WLAN strategy was built upon an OEM partnership with Motorola.

Word soon came down from above. The incentives that HP had long offered to sales representatives who sold Cisco gear along with HP servers and storage were off the table. ProCurve products were the new priority.

Then last month ProCurve announced its first purpose-built data center switches. ProCurve executives made it clear while briefing reporters and analysts about these new switches that the incentives HP sales reps had for selling Cisco products were long gone. HP would be bringing the full might of its data center presence to bear on its ProCurve strategy. Enterprises could now expect HP sales engineers to offer packages of HP servers, storage, switches, software and services. Quite a proposition.

Of course, none of this has been happening in a vacuum. Cisco hasn’t been sitting still. For a couple years now, Cisco has made it clear that it intends to conquer all things data center as well. It has invested more than $1 billion in rolling out its new Nexus switch line. It has unleashed a barrage of new data center management software and services, labeled Data Center 3.0. And rumors continue to buzz about “California,” Cisco’s much anticipated entry into the blade server market.

So what happens next? It’s safe to say this battle will result in some acquisitions as each company tries to add some weapons to its arsenal.  Allan Leinwand at GigaOM recently suggested a whole bunch of acquisition targets for HP.  For instance, he suggested that HP snap up Arista Networks, Blade Network Technologies, or Force10 Networks in order to beef up its 10/100 gigabit Ethernet portfolio. For storage optimization, he suggested someone like DataDomain.  He said HP should expand into WAN optimization and application delivery, by picking up someone like Blue Coat Systems or Zeus Technology. He also suggested HP target one of the emerging cloud computing specialists.

Meanwhile, Ashlee Vance at the New York Times blogged that Cisco is hoarding cash, leading many to speculate that a flurry of acquisitions is on the horizon.  Vance says that Cisco CEO John Chambers is looking to strike next in the consumer electronics market with the $30 billion in cash it has on hand right now. But enterprise vendors are also rumored targets. Given Cisco’s strong investment in expanding its data center footprint, I think it will spend some of that money on vendors who will help it make war on HP. The EMC rumors just won’t go away, for instance. Last year I heard some whispers that Cisco might make a smaller deal for network management software vendor SolarWinds, but I haven’t heard much about such a deal lately. I’ve seen speculation that Cisco might also target VMware, which it already owns a small stake in. That would be a huge deal, but why would EMC sell it? VMware is a big performer for it. Cisco might buy EMC just so it can have VMware, but the price would be steep.

Once the dust settles over the acquisition blitz, what happens next? I just read a great blog post by Christopher Hoff (hat tip to IDC’s Abner Germanow) which offers a great overview on where all of this is going. For instance, Cisco isn’t really getting into the server business, he says.  Instead, the so-called blade server Cisco is rumored to be working on is a natural outgrowth of the convergence of computing, where storage, servers and switches are becoming more tightly integrated into one infrastructure that supports virtualization and cloud computing.  He writes:

My point is that what Cisco is building is the natural by-product of converged technologies with an approach that deserves attention.  It *is* unified computing.  It’s a solution that includes integrated capabilities that otherwise customers would be responsible for piecing together themselves…and that’s one of the biggest problems we have with disruptive innovation today: integration.

I imagine HP plans to travel down this road as well. Indeed, this should be a very interesting year.

Networking skills are in demand

If you’re looking for a new job and you have networking skills, you are in luck. Even in this weak economy CIOs are looking for you.

Seventy percent of CIOs in a new survey listed network administration as a technical skill most in demand in their IT departments. This stat comes from IT staffing firm Robert Half Technology, which just published its quarterly survey of the hiring plans for 1,400 CIOs from companies with more than 100 employees. The firm asked CIOs to list the technical skills most in demand within their companies. They were allowed to give multiple responses. At 70% network administration was the top skill in demand, followed by Windows administration and desktop support (both at 69%). Wireless network management skills (47%) and telecommunications support (44%) are also in demand.

CIOs also identified which job areas areexperiencing the most growth in their IT departments. Networking placed second at 14%, behind help desk and end user support (18%). Robert Half said in its press release that networking had been the biggest growth area in IT departments for the past year, but had slipped to second this quarter. Still, second isn’t so bad.

This should come as good news to networking pros since new IT jobs are scarce overall. The survey found that just 11% of CIOs are adding new staff this quarter, a two-year low, down from a high of 17% in the third quarter of last year. Three percent of CIOs plan to cut staff. So while server administrators and Web developers are scrounging for new jobs, networking pros shouldn’t have too much trouble.

Brocade grabs Foundry Networks, challenges Cisco in the data center

There’s one vendor out there who is poised to challenge Cisco Systems’ dominance in the data center networking market. No, it’s not Juniper with its new line of EX switches. ProCurve Networking by HP is strong, but it doesn’t have the high-end core switches that Cisco can now boast with its Nexus family of switches.

No, the real challenger to Cisco might just be a storage networking vendor: Brocade.

Brocade announced Monday night that it has reached an agreement to buy Foundry Networks for $3 billion. The new company formed by this merger will feature Brocade’s industry leading storage networking technology and Foundry’s line of high-end service provider and enterprise class data center network switching technologies.

Brocade had already signaled its intention to challenge Cisco in the data center when it unveiled its new DCX Backbone switch last January. This chassis-based switch supports 8 Gbps Fibre Channel and emerging converged Ethernet technology. Also known as data center Ethernet, converged Ethernet holds the potential to carry all forms of data center traffic on one fabric. Instead of having separate networks for storage and for servers, companies can have one unified fabric and one set of network devices to provide connectivity in their data centers. Several standards must be ratified before this technology becomes widely available to the market, but Brocade isn’t the only vendor to invest in it early. Cisco’s new Nexus switches also support converged Ethernet. Both Cisco and Brocade have signaled that this technology is the future of data center networking.

But Brocade’s expertise and breadth of offerings in Ethernet technology doesn’t extend very far beyond it’s DCX product. That’s where Foundry comes in. Established in 1996, Foundry has a reputation for building high-density core data center switches favored by very large enterprises, service providers and Internet-class companies. Foundry lists companies such as AT&T, Google, Yahoo, Apple, Discover, Citigroup, Wachovia, AOL, Ticketmaster, MorganStanley and the U.S. Internal Revenue Service as its customers.

With the Ethernet switching expertise of Foundry, Brocade now appears ready to stake out a solid number two position in the data center networking market. A lot will depend on how well Brocade absorbs Foundry. That will take some time. Cisco isn’t exactly shaking in its boots today, but it will have to stay on its toes.

Are Cisco knockoffs a modern Trojan Horse?

So it’s not exactly breaking at this point, but scary nonetheless: The FBI’s Operation Cisco Raider has led to a number criminal cases involving counterfeit Cisco products bought by military agencies and contractors, according to the New York Times.

What’s so worrisome? Knockoff handbags and even iPhones aren’t a direct security threat, but fake Cisco routers might be, as the Times reports:

The potential threat, according to the F.B.I. agents who gave a briefing at the Office of Management and Budget on Jan. 11, includes the remote jamming of supposedly secure computer networks and gaining access to supposedly highly secure systems.

Cisco says we’re safe this time, and the counterfeiters’ motives are a little more pedestrian:

“We did not find any evidence of re-engineering in the manner that was described in the F.B.I. presentation,” said John Noh, a Cisco spokesman. He added that the company believed the counterfeiters were interested in copying high volume products to make a quick profit. “We know what these counterfeiters are about.”

Today, it might (hopefully) be about making a quick buck, but an Ars Technica article underlines some of the Pentagon fears about of so-called “Manchurian chips“:

There is no question that the technological infrastructure in the United States is under siege. We have seen a steady litany of attempted intrusions originating from abroad, most likely perpetrated by a mix of foreign governments and organized crime groups. An emerging concern is that the same agents behind those cyber-attacks could also have access to the chip fabrication facilities that make the components used in US military technology. Researchers say that virtually undetectable kill-switches and backdoors can be built into any of the countless integrated-circuit chips used in mission-critical military hardware systems.

So what can you do to make sure your own equipment is genuine? Not a whole lot, it appears. Amy browsed some forums for tips, but the best we could find was the old consumer adage: If a deal looks to good to be true, it probably is.

University of Florida PHD offers new energy-saving Ethernet idea

At Interop Las Vegas 2008, I talked with the Ethernet Alliance and their University White Paper Challenge Winner Francisco Blanquicet, a PHD student at University of South Florida. In this video he explains the topic of his winning white paper, “PAUSE Power Cycle: A new backwards compatible method to reduce energy of Ethernet switches.” (Sorry about the quality… I’m working on it.)

Open source networking hums along, quietly

Open source has been buzzing lately: Gartner identified it as one of the top 10 trends for 2008, and last week Microsoft announced it was publishing 30,000 pages of documentation for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista and launching an “Interoperability Initiative.” Google is pushing open applications and development of the new Android operating system, while Verizon claims to be opening its network.

In the networking industry, however, while open source adoption seems to be growing at a good clip, I don’t see much hoopla about it. So I’ll forgive you if you missed Shamus McGillicuddy’s article about the launch of ZipForge, a new website Alterpoint developed to support its ZipTie open source network configuration product. The ZipForge site provides a place where AlterPoint vendor partners can post interoperable ZipTie components that developers and users can download, review, and contribute to.

It would be great to see users take advantage of this repository to consolidate other networking-specific software tools, much like a true SourceForge (from which the new site partly takes its name) for networking pros. According to the article, networking has experienced less of an upsurge in open source because the technology itself is so reliant on hardware. While that may be true in a basic sense, software is becoming far more important and familiar. There are already several open source programs that networking folks use regularly, and that list is bound to expand.

Network engineers have long used open source software to run routers, VPNs and VLANs on run-of-the mill servers. Snort, OpenNMS, Nagios and Nessus are staples in networks big and small. And the popularity of Asterisk, the open source IP telephony platform, continues to grow in leaps and bounds.

Open source is definitely a part of the network, but I think that’s how most networking pros view it — as just a part of the network. They choose it because it works well, it interoperates, or it’s cheap, and they don’t get too caught up in the idealism and spreading the word about the benefits of open source. Also, most networking pros wear so many hats that they can’t spend a lot of time thinking about one system or product. They are even less likely to use that time evangelizing or flaming posts over at Slashdot.

I recall a network administrator I met a while back at a trade show. He had installed a few Vyatta routers, and he thought they were fantastic. But he was also in the throes of rolling out Avaya IP telephony to multiple locations and installing a new supply chain automation system. So while he was happy with his open source routers, they probably weren’t the first thing on his mind. The buzz about open source in the network is there, but sometimes you have to listen hard to hear it.