This year, according to Gartner, 80 percent of network traffic is going between servers, as opposed to outbound traffic to external sources on the Internet.  This increase in intra-network traffic means that even the most modern cloud-based data centers are creating unnecessary obstacles to mission critical activities like the ability to serve serving multitenant environments that help agencies capitalize on scalability and agility, and important insight into network KPIs.

The reason that data center networks are creating roadblocks to optimal performance is because traditional networks are structured as hierarchies, walled off from other networks, and optimized for north-south traffic.  All in all traditional networks present an inflexible environment that is unable to accommodate the rapid growth in data volumes crossing most agency networks on a daily basis.

So, how do you stop the network from getting in the way of delivering mission critical services?  One solution is to explore the possibilities of Ethernet Fabric architecture.  Ethernet Fabric architecture stands in radical contrast to traditional network architecture, moving from a hierarchical structure to topology freedom, from north-south only routing to east-west traffic optimization, load balancing, and most importantly, facilitating server virtualization.

Want to learn more about radically improving network performance and optimizing data center performance?  Check out this recent webinar from Brocade in which Senior Systems Engineer, Greg, Castellucci takes a deep dive into the possibilities for optimized network performance via Ethernet Fabrics.