Larry Peterson, Princeton
Cloud to the Network Edge, scalable and elastic. Shouldn’t we do that in the network? Bringing the the scalable and elastic into the network itself. If you take the cloud to the edge of the network you scale the bandwidth of the network. Taking commodity processors out of the data center and embedding them in the network. What applications drive this? Content Distribution Networks, delivering streaming data. Network Function Virtualization – taking functions out of boxes and put them in VMs – firewalls, IDS, etc. Software Defined Network – separate the data plane from the control plane, and move the control plane out into the cloud.
First Principles:
Cloud – demonstrates best pratices in scaling a function
SDN – treats control plane as a programmable function
NFV – treats the data plane as a programmable function
The key is to scale functions, whether databases, object stores, SDN controllers, proxies, firewalls, etc – “Network Services”
A service exports a logically centralized interface to network-wide functionality, while having many points of implementation distributed across the network. eg, SDN Controller distinct from Packet Switch, Access Control Service distinct from Firewalls, CDN Service distinct from Caches.
Future of Programming – building a service is Software and Operating Spec, implemented in a network of VMs mapped onto Cloud physical infrastructure. Opertionalizing software is the hard part, not writing the software. Services can be composed of composite services.
Syndicate Storage Service – Caches and Request Routers (CDN) in the network; Persistent stores in S3, Box, GenBank, etc. If you can harness both sides of that you wouldn’t have to build separate proxies for distribution. Using a Metadata service built in Google App Engine. Applying the idea of unix pipes to the network.
Mike Hluchyj, CTO Carrier Products, Akamai – Network Functions Virtualization – Network Operator Perspective
NFV – Today you build networks by putting purpose built boxes into racks and connecting them. The better way to do it is to virtualize those functions. Now in the rack you se off-the-shelf servers and switches and the network functions exist in software.
Why? Save money/make money; reduce equipment costs and power consumption exploiting economies of scale; reduce time-to-market by minimizing deployment cycle; greater flexibility to scale up or down or evolve services; openness to virtual appliance market and pure software entrants; opportunities to trial and deploy new innovative services at lower risk.
Fields of NFV Application: Switching elements; Mobile network nodes; home routers and set-top boxes; tunneling gateway elements; traffic anlaysis; service assurance; NGN signaling; converged and network-wide functions; application-level optimization; security functions
NFV Enablers: Leverage technologies developed for cloud computing; cloud -based orchestration; open APIs (e.g. OpenFlow)
ESTI NFV Industry Specification Group has been formed, with over 150 network operators participating.
Looking Forward: jInitial focus of operator NFV deployments will benefit their own network infrastructure and services; looking forward , operators plan to offer VMs at the network edge to third-party service providers in an IaaS model;
Glenn Dasmalchi – Juniper Networks – Enterprise IT Transformation
The network is crucially important to what enterprises want to build. Enabling distributed use case, ie Hybrid Cloud. Not everyone will run to the public cloud, as it’s not always appropriate. A private dynamic dynamic information framework controlled on premise, coupled with the ability to reach out to the external services.
For an effective cloud infrastructure to deliver value, the network is critical. It’s not just a single technology. A lot of attention within data centers being paid to “Fabrics”, and in transport layers to new technologies like NFV, PCE. End systems and servers also need to participate in the architecture.
Role of the network – key enabler of non-functional requirements: Cost, Agility, Performance, Reliability, Scalability, Extensibility, Supportability, Interoperability, Visibility, Security.
A lot of what we see happening in the network today is about making the network an agile platform. The value going forward is in the network providing the underpinnings for cloud computing.
Oren Sreebny 