Network disaggregation: What it is, what it can do for your data center

[Brian Dao]

Network disaggregation: What it is, what it can do for your data center

By Ahmad Zamer, Sr. Global Product Marketing Manager, HP Networking

 

These days I find that I?m talking with more and more IT leaders who are curious about the value of network disaggregation and want to know more about how it could fit into their data center strategy. There are some misperceptions out there in the market, though, so let me give a bit of background on this huge shift that?s under way in today?s web-scale data centers.

 

Most of us are familiar with the traditional integrated model, in which a single vendor sells and supports the switch hardware, the operating system, the management and the tools that go on top of it. Since each layer largely relies on the layer below it, you can?t switch out a piece with one from another vendor.

 

Disaggregation flips this model on its side, so that each layer can be switched out without impacting the others. The benefit is that you can purchase the pieces for each layer ? including, importantly, the operating system ? from different vendors.

 

Source: Network disaggregation: What it is, what it can do for your data center