There was a recent blog on cisco.com by Eric Voit that discussed Software Defined Networking (SDN) with a focus on device proliferation in the data center and how this is impacting device configuration and management. While I actually do agree that network management and reducing OpEx could be a huge driver for SDN in the short term, my focus here is on the broader topic Voit discusses – software based network integration. This thing that we are calling “software based network integration” is going to be the foundation of next generation applications and next generation networks. So, how will we integrate networks into an already functioning IT ecosystem in the future? We’ll need some form of APIs and/or SDKs.
While we’ve seen this type of integration in IT with general application development over the years, this is brand new in the world of network engineering. Some are fearful for this, and it’s still interesting to see how many hits the blog post, “The Future of the Networking and the Network Engineer” gets and what search terms are being used to even find it.
Taken from Voit’s post, he states, “Subsets of Cisco’s customers and partners are just beginning to cultivate the skills necessary for integrating based on such software boundaries. To get the full benefits…, customers and partners will find they need to extend their systems integration expertise beyond boxes and protocols into unfamiliar areas. At times it will be an uncomfortable transition.”
Notice how he states, customers and partners will find they need to expand their integration expertise into new territories. That is the key to the future, despite the “uncomfortable transition.”
Let’s not fear this transition, but let’s embrace it because without it we cannot unlock the true value of the network. We will need IT leaders to enable and encourage this change. We will need to further break the barriers of traditional silo'd tecnical teams, because ultimately it will mean potential personnel changes on the network teams. This will be similar, but yet much different to the same changes seen across voice, video, and storage teams over the years, simply because application development folks have usually been under a completely different reporting chain than IT infrastructure.
Who will be the first network manager, director, etc. or even someone in a technical sales role to a hire a person that has less of a route/switch background, but more of a network protocols and software development background? How else will we communicate what really needs to be done on a low level technical level to integrate the network with a customer’s CRM or other customer-specific non-off the shelf applications? It shouldn’t be that big of a deal considering companies are usually already spending big bucks on software and application development.
As a network engineer, if you ask to go to a C or JAVA class, what kind of response do you think you’ll get? How innovative is the company you work for and how much do they want to invest in the future of themselves, future of technology, and most important, the future of you?
Jason
@jedelman8
www.jedelman.com
Taken from Voit’s post, he states, “Subsets of Cisco’s customers and partners are just beginning to cultivate the skills necessary for integrating based on such software boundaries. To get the full benefits…, customers and partners will find they need to extend their systems integration expertise beyond boxes and protocols into unfamiliar areas. At times it will be an uncomfortable transition.”
Notice how he states, customers and partners will find they need to expand their integration expertise into new territories. That is the key to the future, despite the “uncomfortable transition.”
Let’s not fear this transition, but let’s embrace it because without it we cannot unlock the true value of the network. We will need IT leaders to enable and encourage this change. We will need to further break the barriers of traditional silo'd tecnical teams, because ultimately it will mean potential personnel changes on the network teams. This will be similar, but yet much different to the same changes seen across voice, video, and storage teams over the years, simply because application development folks have usually been under a completely different reporting chain than IT infrastructure.
Who will be the first network manager, director, etc. or even someone in a technical sales role to a hire a person that has less of a route/switch background, but more of a network protocols and software development background? How else will we communicate what really needs to be done on a low level technical level to integrate the network with a customer’s CRM or other customer-specific non-off the shelf applications? It shouldn’t be that big of a deal considering companies are usually already spending big bucks on software and application development.
As a network engineer, if you ask to go to a C or JAVA class, what kind of response do you think you’ll get? How innovative is the company you work for and how much do they want to invest in the future of themselves, future of technology, and most important, the future of you?
Jason
@jedelman8
www.jedelman.com
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