February 21, 2017 Leave a Comment
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Networking

Make network virtualization a reality with Cisco DNA Virtualization

Last year Cisco laid out a blueprint for customers to build a digital ready network, Cisco Digital Network Architecture or DNA. Virtualization stood out as one of its key pillars and we announced Cisco Enterprise NFV,  a solution for virtualizing the branch, that enables our customers to deploy network services in minutes across their remote locations.  This year at CiscoLive Berlin (#CLEUR), we are announcing solutions that extend virtualization beyond the branch, across the entire enterprise network and to the cloud.

Introducing DNA Virtualization:

Wondering why anyone would want to virtualize their network? Well I’d like to introduce three customers who are using DNA Virtualization solutions to make their networks more flexible, faster and cost-effective.

Virtualization for the Branch

This retail bank is planning for their next generation branch that will deliver the best customer experience, and the IT team wants to make sure that the network is not a bottleneck to this new business initiative. The customer would like to consolidate all their physical network services in the branch onto a single virtualized platform. They selected the Cisco Enterprise NFV software solution and the new Enterprise Network Compute System (ENCS) 5400 Series hardware platform we are introducing a CiscoLive this week.

This specific customer has over 250 branches and before ENCS and ENFV, they had to travel to each branch every time a problem occurs just to install a sniffer.  Now the network engineer says he can simply spin up a new service, with a few clicks, from his office without having to leave his desk. Pretty cool.

ENCS is a robust, high-performance modular compute platform designed by Cisco specifically for hosting virtual network functions (VNF’s) in the branch.  For more details about Enterprise NFV and the new ENCS platform, please see the blog post from my colleague Matt Bolick here.  In addition to the ENCS, we are also announcing support for NGFWv, a virtual FirePower as we know security is top of mind for our customers. This adds to our existing portfolio of VNF’s, vASA (firewall), vISR (routing) with Umbrella Branch, vWAAS (WAN Optimization) and vWLC (wireless LAN controller).

Virtualization for Colocation Centers

 Digitization is challenging the network perimeter (DMZ). Employees are becoming more distributed, connecting remotely to get access to their email and other productivity apps. Ecommerce is changing how businesses engage with their customers and as supply chains evolve, business-to-business communications is growing. Much like the branch, the network perimeter is static and the digital era is demanding a more flexible and scalable network perimeter.

This particular customer is a financial institution is growing with more customers and business-to-business traffic.  The network perimeter needed flexibility and scalability as the user base grew and applications they need to access moved to the cloud.  They chose the Cisco Secure Agile Exchange solution to virtualize the network perimeter to dynamically connect users to applications.  For more scalability and better application experience, they are moving this virtualized network perimeter into Equinix colocation centers.

For more information on Secure Agile Exchange and the CSP 2100 virtualization platform, please visit this page.

Virtualization for the Public Cloud

This customer, like most of our other customers, are moving to the public cloud.  The public cloud allows them to scale in a pace that no other technology can.  Multiple business groups within the company have various accounts and deployments within this cloud provider throughout the world and in different regions.  They quickly figured out the need to connect these clouds together and Cisco’s cloud router CSR 1000V was the answer.

This week we are announcing a few enhancements to the CSR 1000V in the Amazon cloud.  In addition to scalable VPC deployments I just described, the  CSR 1000V can now scale up to 5 Gbps, you can purchase an annual license directly from Amazon and get Cisco support if and when you need it.  Read my colleague Cathy’s blog for more details on VPC deployments and how Adobe used CSR 1000V to help deliver rich digital experiences to their customers.

Meet us at Cisco Live Berlin (even if you’re not in Berlin)

If you are at Berlin this week and want to learn more about DNA Virtualization, check out these sessions and visit us at the World of Solutions to talk to the experts.  Even if you aren’t in Berlin, some of these sessions will be broadcasted live and will be available to view in a few weeks online.