Network Optimization in the Cloud Era Necessary 80% of Newly Installed Wireless Networks Obsolete by 2015, says Gartner

Kuala Lumpur, November 29, 2013 - According to leading technology research company, Gartner, by 2015, 80 percent of newly installed wireless networks will be obsolete because of lack of proper planning, and could impact the implementation of enterprise mobility.

With the use of multiple devices at the workplace to access cloud services, web-based applications and real-time applications, the number of network connections per employee increases, thus straining the network at its capacity.

Therefore, enterprise IT needs a flexible, scalable and application-aware network to maintain the performance of the datacenter network as the end-user expects seamless connectivity between Wireless Local Area Network (WLANs) and mobile cellular networks.

Mark Micallef, Area Vice President of Citrix ASEAN, shares his insights on key considerations for businesses seeking to optimize their network’s performance.

Leverage the application
The application delivery controller (ADC) has become a strategic control point in many datacenters as the result of its ability to guarantee application availability, performance and security, and server infrastructure offload, while reducing datacenter total cost of ownership (TCO).

Often, the capacity of the ADC is pushed to its limit when an application operates at multiple gigabits/sec or when the user population for a critical application is doubled or tripled. This should be avoided and enterprises should utilize a software-based architecture that fully leverages multiple applications – physical or virtual. This way, even as the ADC expands to meet future growth, there is a single, consistent policy management view for the entire cluster so that all aspects of ADC administration remain constant.

Explore and maximize possibilities
A recent collaboration between Citrix and Cisco allows the Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC) to become the control and automation framework with Citrix NetScaler® providing several of the application services.

Citrix NetScaler® is the industry’s most advanced cloud networking platform. It has been positioned in the Gartner’s Leaders Quadrant for Application Delivery Controllers Magic Quadrant for seven consecutive years for its ability to solve complex application deployment challenges.

APIC enables a policy-driven service insertion solution that automates the routing network traffic to the right services, based on application policies. The automated addition, removal, and reordering of services allow applications to change quickly, without the need to rewire, reconfigure or relocate resources and services.

Citrix NetScaler works in the APIC environment in an integrated manner, providing Layer 4-7 services, such as load balancing, application acceleration, optimization and application security. This application-centric approach is a key enabler of a truly agile, flexible and resourceful data center.

The integration between Citrix NetScaler and Cisco APIC unifies both the management and flow of data through hardware and software in the datacenter, providing the following game changer benefits:

1. A central point of control – one place in the network to control all functions that the network delivers so that application teams can focus on application policies, and the network can manage their provisioning and deployment.
2. Scalable and Elastic – by decoupling service nodes from service policy, elastic scale, with both physical and virtual ADC appliances, is enabled.
3. Investment Protection – the integration is designed to be fully compatible with existing NetScaler deployments and deployment models.
4. Open – committed to standardizing important innovations, Cisco and Citrix are driving the definition of the Network Service Header (NSH) protocol that supports the fluid movement of both service functions and application workloads within the fabric.

Looking ahead
Today, the complexity and inflexibility of massive IT infrastructures are slowing business down. IT professionals typically work in separate, inefficient siloes because current technology does not support a shared architectural model. In addition, there is no way to gain a single view of all the technology components that impact application performance.

CIOs are striving to break down these siloes and unify all components of IT, such as networking, storage, applications and security, to manage them as a single, dynamic entity without compromise.

This is where ACI can help. Coupling innovations in software, hardware and systems with a dynamic, application-aware network policy model, built around open APIs, will help to reduce application deployment from months to minutes.

This unified, integrated approach represents the next evolution in ADC technology, fundamentally changing and uniquely enabling a tight integration with the Cisco network infrastructure that is unmatched by any other ADC on the market.