1. Why “big, flat and dumb” isn’t enough
James Urquhart
CNET | The Wisdom of Clouds
Market Strategist, Cloud Computing, Cisco Systems, Inc.

2. James Urquhart
@jamesurquhart
CNET | The Wisdom of Clouds

3. In 20 years of
distributed
systems
practice, what
have I
learned?

5. We need to simplify
operations from the
point of view of the
application.

6. Application
a. A type of job or problem
that lends itself to
processing or solution by
computer: Inventory control
is a common business
application.
b. A program used for a
particular use (as opposed to
a system)

7. Cloud is an
application centric
operations model.

8. Why?

9. Prior to cloud, we
were server centric…

10. Pre-
Cloud

11. VM VM VM
OS OS OS
Pre-
Cloud

12. VM VM VM
OS OS OS
App App App App App App App App App
Pre-
Cloud

13. With the adoption of
cloud, we are now
application centric…

14. Cloud
Application
Config Code Data Policy

15. Cloud
Application
Config Code Data Policy
Service(s)
Other Services

16. Cloud
Application
Config Code Data Policy
Service(s)
Infrastructure
Other Services

17. Any cloud service or
enabling technology
must look at solutions
from an application
perspective.

18. So, what is
the network’s
role in cloud
computing?

19. Application
developers
want one thing
from the
network…
…invisibility.

20. The temptation is…

21. Big

22. Flat

23. Dumb

24. Put a little nicer…

25. Unified

26. Simplified

27. Pushed
to the
Edge

28. One topology
to rule them
all…

29. …and in the
darkness bind
them.

30. The problem is that the
actual requirements for
cloud infrastructure
don’t stop at the
application.

31. Take security…

32. Each solution will almost
certainly be only part of
the system(s) that is/are
being secured.

33. Security will
be distributed
throughout
the “cloud
stack”

34. Security will
be distributed
throughout
the network
stack

35. Security will be
distributed
across
geographical
and topological
boundaries

36. Security must
become
multi-tenant

37. Security must
scale.

38. Security must
scale.
* Chris Hoff (aka @beaker) will tell
you that this is impossible today.

39. Security must
meet a wide
variety of
application
needs.

40. Same goes for
Application
Management

41. Same goes for
Performance
Management

42. Same goes for
QoS

43. Same goes for
Load
Distribution

44. Same goes for
Etc.

45. Same goes for
Etc., Etc.

46. Same goes for
Etc., Etc., Etc.

47. So how will the
network adapt?

48. Five ways:

49. 1. Data center
network
architectures
will simplify.

50. 2. The network
will adapt to
new dominant
payloads and
traffic
patterns.

51. 3. Core networks will become agile
and dynamic.
Enterprise
Network
Cloud Service
Provider
Network Service
Provider
Cloud Network Boundary
Cloud OS
Cloud OS
App
OS
App
OS
App
OS
App
OS
App
OS
App
OS
App
OS
App
OS
App
OS
App
OS
App
OS
App
OS
Network Transport Virtualization (VPN)
Network Services (Security, Performance, Monitoring)
Application
Security Services
Application
Security Services
Virtual Data
Center
Virtual Data
Center

52. 4. The network
will introduce
new
abstractions to
simplify
configuration
and operation.
Private
Cloud
Public
Cloud
Firewall
Load
Balancer
Management
Network Container

53. 5. The network and its capabilities
will become services to be
consumed by cloud services.
Routers, switches, services (physical and virtual), etc.
Network service catalog(s) and fulfillment
API(s)
IaaS PaaS SaaS

54. Thanks!

55. Why “big, flat and dumb” isn’t enough
James Urquhart
@jamesurquhart
jurquhar@cisco.com