Network virtualization & Overlay technology takes root, seriously

Yet another inspection in how software defined radio network will find the future, and what’s network virtualization and the network overlay technology have to do with coming big data scenario. The fight is continuing with the current virtualization solution proviers – VM and IBM head to head.

Network overlay technologies will be largely supported by SDN, and we’ve already seen big strides in the creation of VXLAN and NVGRE protocols which enable these technologies. Now we are seeing the emergence of a host of applications and components that will support VXLAN and NVGREnetworks so that network virtualization can take root.

This summer, a slew of vendors unveiled VXLAN gateways that bridge physical and virtual networksso engineers can extend physical network services, such as load balancing and firewalling, into the virtual network. Many of these same vendors have said they’ll soon release technology to support rival protocol NVGRE.

Also this summer, IBM announced its launch of network virtualization technology with its ownnetwork overlay protocol. This means Big Blue will take on VMware and Microsoft head-to-head in the network virtualization battleground.

Meanwhile, VMware announced enhanced features in its vSphere and vCloud networking, which offer greater management of the network inside the virtual stack. The enhancements will also expandnetwork services and management inside VXLAN networks.

Also this month, Broadcom launched a new Ethernet switch chip that promises the kind of scale and speed necessary to support both physical and virtual network traffic simultaneously, and distributed core switching for the data center.

While network overlays aren’t the only road to network virtualization, as services and components develop around overlay protocols, we get steps closer to seeing network virtualization in practice as opposed to in theory.

This amazing analysis of network virtualization and overlay technologies have been written by Rivka Gewirtz Little, Executive Editor for SearchNetworking.com.