The old wall is crumbling

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More than two decades ago the Berlin Wall crumbled because there was pressure from the people on both sides. So also, the Old Network is crumbling from pressure on both sides. On the one side you have users, and on the other side you have applications.

Let’s start with the users. Ask yourself if the following shifts are happening in your company, or in companies around you.

• Stationary worker => Mobile worker
• Hard wired => Wireless
• Here’s your phone & laptop => Bring your own device (BYOD)

Next, let’s look at the applications. Ask yourself if the following shifts are happening in your company, or in companies around you.

• IT or SP approved apps => App explosion
• Physical assets => Virtual assets
• Cloud … what? => Cloud hype turning to reality

Users and applications are separated a physical distance that varies anywhere from ten miles to ten-thousand miles, and that physical distance is bridged by the network. If users and apps are shifting as dramatically as described above, then it stands to reason that the network must shift dramatically too.

The fact that the Old Network is crumbling should not be a surprise: the first bricks had started coming loose four years ago. In January of 2009, I recall visiting a customer in Pennsylvania, USA. I had flown five hours from California to get there, and was waiting in the lobby, when the customer came out and apologized that he had to cancel the meeting at the last minute owing to a network emergency.

“You see,” he said, “Barack Obama is swearing in as the new president right now, and hundreds of employees have opened a window on their PC to watch the streaming video of his inaugural speech. Half our network has crashed, and the other half is unstable.”

And as he rushed back in, he looked back and yelled: “Hey, it was a good network when we built it, but there was no way we could have foreseen Obama!”

The network, as it is currently architected, simply cannot withstand these kinds of pressures. At Juniper, we have studied the problem closely, and believe that the only way out is innovative new architectures.

The Old Network must change, yielding place to the New Network.