HP Outlines Open Approach to Network Virtualization

What Business Leaders Need to Know About Virtualization

While the VMworld 2013 conference was clearly a celebration of all things VMware, IT organizations usually live in heterogeneous environments with multiple types of both physical and virtual networks.

During the conference, HP announced its intention to support the new VMware NSX network virtualization platform within the HP Virtual Application Networks SDN Controller. As part of HP’s commitment to open computing, Kash Shaikh, senior director of product and technical marketing for HP Networking, says that in addition to VMware NSX, HP will soon support multiple flavors of virtual machines and networks.

While virtual networks represent a significant advance in terms of reducing network complexity, organization will need a management layer that sits above the network that can be applied to multiple physical and virtual networks.

Shaikh says support for emerging standards, such as OpenFlow, is a core element for providing the interoperability that will prove critical in the enterprise.

The ongoing debate within the networking community, of course, has been about trying to find a balance between the merits of openness and the practical desire to have one common approach to managing enterprise networks on an end-to-end basis. Network virtualization doesn’t put an end to that debate; it simply moves up the stack a few levels higher.