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Let’s get flexible, it’s time to start limbering up your network


June 19, 2017


Ever thought about those engineering feats that we take for granted, hundreds of years old that still do their intended job, day in, day out.  Like some of those awesome bridges and railways from the great Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

He designed and built those during the age of the industrial revolution, yet in the age of the digital revolution we still use them, they are still performing their intended function.  Like Paddington station, built for the age of steam, still meeting our needs in the age of high speed trains and Crossrail.

What about your network hardware? Will it deliver you a strong foundation for tomorrow?

We’re all hearing about software-defined networking now.  It’s the future, and offers much more flexibility.  Think of the software like the trains.  You can’t run the trains without the right tracks.  And your network hardware is like those tracks.

Hardware traditionally is hardwired to do the things it needs to do.  So just updating the software is not enough.  Like having the wrong size tracks, so you have to rip them out before you can run the new faster train.  Not practical, and not scalable.

In part three of our New Frontiers series Michael Stevens takes a look to see inside the hardware. To find out the difference between hardwired chips and programmable chips, and why this is revolutionising networking.  Like an anti-aging treatment for your network.

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