Every year around December, we publish Enterprise Networking predictions. This year, we have five predictions that cut across multiple networking topics including:
- SD-WAN
- Two predictions regarding Data Center Networking; a) Cloud/IaaS providers offering their data center network stacks for on-prem use, and b) Fixed Form Factor switches as the data center core
- Ethernet for WAN access, and
- Application Delivery Controllers
The full research note is located here (Gartner paywall), but here’s a quick snippet from the report:
Strategic Planning Assumption: By the end of 2018, three of the top 10 ADC vendors will be cloud providers, up from only one today.
The ADC vendor landscape will be shaken up, and the top ADC vendors (measured by revenue) will no longer solely comprise infrastructure vendors such as F5, Citrix, Radware and A10 Networks. ADC offerings of prominent cloud providers like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google and IBM will increasingly gain traction and share in the market.
We anticipate that traditional ADC vendors will react to this trend primarily via (a) providing competitive lightweight (slimmed-down) versions of their current software; and/or (b) providing heterogeneous management and support for other vendors’ lighter-weight offerings (such as HAProxy).
Regards, Andrew
Predicts 2016: Enterprise Networks and Network Services
http://www.gartner.com/document/3173721
Summary: This year’s predicts are a call to action for all network planners to re-evaluate their existing approach to network design and network sourcing as opportunities emerge that can bring the network on par with the rest of enterprise IT.
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