The promise of software-defined networking has caught the eye of military planners. The Defense Information Systems Agency, for example, has been evaluating SDN’s potential to enhance network performance and reliability, along with the military’s urgently-needed capability to rapidly deploy new networks and applications.
Learn more about moving to a virtual network in our free whitepaper, “Embracing software-defined network.” Download it here.
Putting an SDN in place, though, is a complex task, and an SDN requires a different set of management techniques in order to get the maximum benefit. In the real world, though, what usually happens is that an organization migrates some networks to a virtual environment while other core elements remain wedded to their physical infrastructure.
Lacking a single view of these disconnected systems, directors typically will run two sets of management tools. That will get the job done, but it is far from optimal.
The Defense Intelligence Agency pushes organizations to move quickly to virtualization, under DIA’s Enhanced Solutions for Information Technology Enterprise (E-SITE) contract program, DIA notes that current architectures are made up of disparate client server legacy equipment, alongside virtual and cloud environments. The Army likewise urges that IT should “conform and operate in a standard, enterprise, cloud-enabled environment.”
